MOULTRIE — Moultrie High’s storied 1928 football team — undefeated and South Georgia champions — is chock full of men who have become enshrined in the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.

First-year coach Dode Phillips is a member of the Hall of Fame. So is captain Huey Newton. Fullback Clyde “Piggie” Isom is in, so is big left end Josh Wilkes.

The team’s other end, Robert H. Tharpe Sr., will give the team its fifth Hall of Famer when he is inducted as part of the Class of 2007 at the annual banquet next Thursday at the Colquitt County High cafeteria.

Tharpe was not only an outstanding player for the Packers, he went on become the captain of Georgia Tech’s 1933 team and was an All-Southern selection at tackle.

In 1966, he was elected to Georgia Tech’s Athletic Hall of Fame, joining his older brother Mack, who had been elected in 1961.

Tharpe also founded Tharpe and Brooks Mortgage Bankers in 1947 with his son-in-law J.L. Brooks.

The company grew to become the largest of its kind in the Southeast before being sold in 1969 to First National Bank.

Tharpe served as president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America in 1960-1961 and was named by Gov. Lester Maddox as the chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority in the 1970s. Gov. Jimmy Carter reappointed him and he served as the chairman for a decade.

On Tharpe’s death on April 17, 1997, at age 84, former Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., his former Georgia Tech classmate, said, “He had a splendid business record, a wonderful family and he was a good citizen for Atlanta in every way.”

Robert Tharpe was born in 1913 and was the younger brother of Mercer McCall “Mack” Tharpe, one of the Moultrie’s earliest outstanding athletes.

Mack Tharpe went on to play tackle at Georgia Tech, where he also was the school’s line coach before being killed in 1945 in the Pacific during World War II. The Packers football stadium is named in his honor.

Mack’s younger brother was an equally outstanding football player and was an anchor on the line for the 1928 team that went 9-0-1, with only a 0-0 tie with the powerful Boys High team from Atlanta marring its record.

Colquitt County rallied around the team, which played in the new Moultrie Stadium beginning with the 33-0 victory over Adel on Oct. 4.

A 30-piece band played at the team’s games and a special train took the team, the band and its fans to Albany for the annual meeting with Albany High, which the Packers won 24-0.

Following the tie with Boys High, the Packers finished with 33-0 victory over Quitman, a 37-6 win over Ocilla and an 18-0 shutout of Valdosta before some 3,000 fans on Thanksgiving Day.

In the team’s 12-0 victory over Fitzgerald, The Moultrie Observer noted, “If they got Tharpe off his feet more than one time all afternoon, this reporter missed it.”

For his inspired play that season, Tharpe was named to the All-Association team.

Tharpe then followed his brother to Georgia Tech, where he became an outstanding left tackle for coach W.A. Alexander. He was the captain of the 1933 team that was part of the Southeastern Conference’s inaugural season. He was an All-Southern selection that year.

Being named team captain enabled Tharpe to become an automatic member of Georgia Tech’s athletic board.

In 1950s, the served on the board and was made an honorary lifetime member.

Tharpe also was a board member of the Georgia Tech Foundation and in 1988 received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.