Economic Research: Buck Godfrey

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Buck Godfrey

William ‘Buck’ Godfrey’s journey to the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame was not a smooth ride, despite a DeKalb County leading 250 football coaching victories.Godfrey, the coach at Southwest DeKalb High School for 27 seasons, won the 1995 Class AAAA Georgia High School Association state championship, 13 region titles, and has posted a 250-79-1 record. Off the field, he has helped 258 former players get college scholarships–193 of those are college graduates. Godfrey, along with three other Atlanta sports legends, was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame on June 12 in a ceremony at Georgia State University’s Rialto Center for the Arts. All of it did not come easy as Godfrey dealt with racism in his home of Charleston, S.C., as youth league baseball player and throughout much of his early career in DeKalb County. “The great spirit puts you in a situation where you experience a lot of challenges and bumps along the way,” Godfrey said. “How you respond to those challenges determines your purpose in life.