Ray Goff helps open Smithsonian sports exhibit
Published 1:00 pm Monday, April 24, 2017
- Dignitaries cut the ribbon to open the HomeTown Teams traveling exhibit at the Colquitt County Arts Center. From left are Connie Fritz, executive director of the Arts Center; Arden Williams of Georgia Humanities; David 'Bull' Durham; keynote speaker Ray Goff; Moultrie Mayor Bill McIntosh; Jimmy Jeter; Durwood Dominy; and Leah Garcia, Arts Center curator.
MOULTRIE, Ga. — A local sports legend helped open a traveling exhibit of sports memorabilia at the Colquitt County Arts Center on Saturday.
“Most of my life was centered around sports,” said Ray Goff. “My dad was the recreation director.”
Three generations of Goffs have a spot in the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame — the only family with that honor. Lemmie Goff was an outstanding mill-league baseball player. His son, Jim Buck Goff, was headed for greatness with the New York Yankees before an injury killed his pro baseball career; he came back home and became director of the Moultrie Recreation Department, where he influenced thousands of Moultrie youth. And Jim Buck Goff’s son, Ray, starred as quarterback at the University of Georgia before eventually becoming the Bulldogs’ head football coach.
Ray Goff was keynote speaker at Saturday’s ceremony to open “HomeTown Teams: How Sports Shape America,” a collaboration among the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street and the Georgia Humanities.
Moultrie is the ninth of 12 Georgia cities the exhibit will visit. It started in Swainsboro in March 2016 and will end in late October in Monroe.
The exhibit, which also includes memorabilia from Colquitt County sports teams, will be open through June 3, during normal Arts Center hours.
A series of other programs will accompany the exhibit’s six-week run:
• April 1-30: The Moultrie-Colqiutt County Library Service is offering books on the HomeTown Teams reading list.
• April 29, 9 p.m.: Elev8 Showdown Throwdown.
• May 6, 10 a.m.-noon: ARTolympics, sponsored by Mobley Greenhouse, Inc., and held at the Colquitt County Arts Center.
• May 11: Special Olympics. Opening ceremonies will be at 9:30 a.m. at the football stadium, and games will take place there, at the practice field, rece department and YMCA.
• May 13, 12:30-2:30 p.m.: Pool day at the Moultrie Recreational Pool, sponsored by the Barbeque Pitt.
• May 25, 2 p.m.: Sports Movie Matinee at the Arts Center, sponsored by Vereen Rehabilitation Center.
• May 27: Demo diving at Moose Moss Farms Aquatic Center.
For more about the exhibit and activities, call the Arts Center at 985-1922.
