744 and more Fantastic, Fascinating, Freaky, Famed, Favorite, Foremost, Fateful, Fabulous, Forgotten, Funny, & Phenomenal FEATS & FACTS ABOUT THE FINE FOLKS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA By: Scott B. Thompson, Sr. @ 2021 THIS IS A COMPILATION OF THE OUTSTANDING ACTS OF NATIVE, SHORT TERM, AND LONG TERM RESIDENTS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS COMPENDIUM, ONLY ACTS OF STATEWIDE, SOUTHEASTERN, NATIONAL, AND WORLD ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE LISTED. VOLUME 2 WILL CONTAIN MORE FEATS ON A LOCAL LEVEL. THERE ARE HUNDREDS, PERHAPS THOUSANDS MORE ACTS WHILE NOTEWORTHY, DO NOT MEET THE CRITERIA SET OUT ABOVE. IF YOU HAVE MORE EXAMPLES OF FANTASTIC FEATS, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT SCOTTBTHOMPSONSR@YAHOO.COM THE LIST WILL BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET AND WILL BE UPDATED ON A REGULAR BASIS.

150. Marshall Chapman, a former Dublin Mayor, served as Grand Master of Georgia Masons for the year 1954.  

151. Clarence F. Lloyd, of Dublin, came to here to work at the plywood mill on the Oconee River.  Lloyd served as the traveling secretary for the  St. Louis Cardinals for 19 years.  Lloyd was also a sports writer and in 1967 was honored by the Baseball Writers Association of America when he was given a No. 1 card.  Lloyd served as a sportswriter for the "St. Louis Dispatch" and the "St. Louis Times" before his association with the Cardinals. (152)   In May of 1967, the Cardinals honored Lloyd by inviting him to an all-expense paid trip to St. Louis.  The occasion was the final game at Sportsman's Park and the first game at Busch Stadium.  At that time, Lloyd held a lifetime pass to all major league games, being the second oldest sportswriter in the United States. (153)

154. Before he moved to a room in the Central State Hospital, Jackson Pollack lived in a Dublin boarding home.  The Pulaski County native claimed to have lived to the age of 126.  Although his claim was never proven due to the lack of accurate records for African American citizens, the Social Security Administration accepted his age, which would make Pollack the oldest known man in the history of the world, Biblical persons excepted.

155. Larry Foss, a pitcher on the 1955 Dublin Irish team, played for a brief time for the defending World Champion Pirates in1961 and the hapless 1962 New York Mets, the worst team in major league history. (156)

157. Sgt. Major J.W. Beasley, of Dublin, was the highest ranking enlisted man in the Georgia State Patrol.  Beasley was blinded by a shotgun blast in 1953 and returned                                                                    

   to duty as a  radio operator for two decades.

158. Capt. Fred M. Stuckey, of Laurens County, was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in action when he piloted his helicopter into an extremely hazardous area under difficult weather conditions and rescued American soldiers who were pinned down under enemy fire in Vietnam.

159. Charles W. Brantley, a native of Laurens County served Director of the Florida DMV, a former director Florida Highway Safety Board (160) and head of the Florida Trucking Association, was chosen as the Chaplain of the Shrine of North America in the 1990s.  (161) 

162. Selina Burch, a native of Dubin, was one of the first female presidents of a Telephone Workers of America local union in the United States.

163. Dublin High’s basketball coach, Clinton Thomas was named Class AA Georgia High School Coach of the Year 2006, after leading his team to the school’s first of two state championships. 

164.  Col. Lewis Cleveland Pope served as the first captain of the first National Guard Company in the National Guard in the Southeastern United States.  The company, organized as Co. A, 121st Georgia Infantry Regiment, fought in World War under the regimental command  of Col. Pope, who died during the war. (165)

166. Dublin High School quarterback Steve Edwards and Morehouse College star During his career at Morehouse College, Steve played with his brother, Don Edwards, and former Dublin star footballers, Dallas Allen and Greg Rooks.  Edwards didn't start out to be a football player.  One morning during a P.E. touch football game,  Edwards dropped back to his own 48 yard line and threw a pass out of the back of the end zone.  An amazed coach, Travis Davis, noticed the bomb and invited the freshman to try out for the football team.   The rest, as they say, was history.  In his senior year at Dublin High School, Steve was selected to play for the South team in the state all-star game

167. Judge Peyton Wade, a Dublin attorney and a judge of the Court of Appeals from 1914-1919, was chosen as the Chief Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals in 1916 and served until his death in 1919.  In 1885, Wade was awarded a place as a University of Georgia Junior Speaker for graduation exercises that year (168). Wade was the editor of the student-run newspaper (169). In 1886, as a senior, Wade was elected by his classmates as Senior Poet and Senior Class Orator (170).  He was also a member of the first Board of Editors of The Pandora student yearbook (the first collegiate yearbook in the Deep South (171).  His poem, “Alma Mater,” was a featured and popular poem in that first edition in 1886.  He was a member of the Phi Kappa literary society. Brother Wade became a member of the Kappa Deuteron chapter of Phi Gamma Delta   by 1885.

172. Joe Moran, of Dublin, served as Captain of the 1925 and 1926 Virginia Tech Hokies, and was inducted into the Virginia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. (173) 

174. Dublin High golfer, Robert Swinson, won the Georgia AA low medalist in 1965.

175. Judge Earl Camp was chosen as a delegate to the 1932 and 1936 Democratic National Conventions.  (176)  Camp was elected as a member of the Electoral College in 1940, committed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  (177)

178. Former Dublin High School catcher, Michael Coffey,  was chosen as a member of the All Peach Belt Conference team in 2011, representing Georgia Southwestern.  

179. Charlie Ridgeway, a former Dublin Green Sox player, as manager the Fitzgerald team, he made professional baseball history when he sent in twelve-year-old Joe Reliford (left) into a game, making the young man the youngest man to play professional baseball and the first black player to play in the Georgia State League.  

180. Otis Troupe, a native of Laurens County, was a member of the Morgan State Football team, the 1935 Black College National Champions.  Troupe was selected as a Black College All American (181) and a member of the Black American College Football Hall of Fame. (182)  As a professional, Troupe played for Coach Fritz Pollard’s New York Brown Bombers of the Negro League.  (183) Pollard was the first African American NFL player and coach.  

184. Judge H. Gibbs Flanders, Jr. served as President of the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia for the 2004-2005 year.

85. Trooper Ronnie Gay, of Dublin,  appeared in a speaking role in the iconic movie “Smokey and the Bandit” portraying a Georgia State trooper, his “day job.”

186. Professor W.L. Hughes, a leader of the Dublin African-American community,  was elected as a delegate to the 1940 Republican National Convention.

187. In 1937, Miss Gallimore, of Laurens County and a daughter of Jonas Gallimore, gave birth to the first known set of African American Siamese Twins ever born.

188. John M. Simmons, Sr., originally of Dublin, moved to South Georgia and became the largest manufacturer of wooden fruit crates in the world. 

189.Trinity Crusader football coach, Tracy Ham, led his Georgia Southern Eagles to back to back national championships in 1985 and 1986.  Drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1987 (190). Grey Cup Champion in 1987 (Edmonton) and 1995 (Baltimore.) (191) CFL Most outstanding player 1989, (Edmonton Eskimos, (192).  CFL leading rusher, 1990, (Edmonton Eskimos) (193).   1995 MVP Grey Cup, (Baltimore Stallions.) (194)  Elected to the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame (195), the NCAA Football Hall of Fame (196) , and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. (197) First CFL quarterback to rush for 1000 yards in a season. (198) Ranks  seventh all time in CFL with 40,534 yards passing, (199) tenth in rushing with 8,043 yards, (200), and stands in second place all time among quarterbacks in rushing. (201)