COLUMN: Bibb County’s Olympic history

Athletes compete for a variety of reasons, but representing a nation can be the most fascinating.

With the Olympics set to begin today, thinking about representation is more and more prevalent. The sporting spectacle rolls around every four years and a hibernating patriotism always emerges, but it makes me think harder about representing an entire country.

There’s levels of regional pride — national, state and local, each bringing a prouder side effect. To represent the country is no small feat, but to represent one’s hometown might almost be more inspiring to a smaller group.

Like you might have read last week in Caleb Slinkard’s column, the ever-quotable Joe Kovac Jr. makes a good point: “Everyone is from somewhere.”

And yet we still always want to prop up those from the same place we call home, to recognize them on a different level.

So, of course, I went hunting for Macon Olympians not long ago.

That’s what led me to Brenda Cliette Thomas, a Macon legend for a variety of reasons, not least among them her prowess as a track and field athlete in high school and college. I spoke with her a few weeks ago about her status as an alternate for the 200-meter dash at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Thomas spoke at length about what an honor it was to represent the U.S., of course. The people of Los Angeles embraced her like nothing she’d ever seen before, she recalled, asking for her autograph at the parade and shouting encouragement even though she would not actually run the race.

But what she recalled just as much was the enthusiasm of her fellow Maconites, those at her alma mater of Northeast and others, who celebrated her for years to come.

“People will still mention it to me,” Thomas said. “I was representing Macon, too, not just the country, and it was a great honor.”
She’s not the only Maconite to make the trek to the Olympic Games, though hers was within the nation’s borders.

If you go back many years, one early Maconite with an Olympic appearance was, surprisingly, Selby Buck, a local legend for his high school football coaching prowess, according to Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (of which he’s a member, of course).

Many know of Buck’s illustrious career at Lanier High School, compiling a record of 167-71-13 and winning five state championships. He was no slouch in other sports either, winning four more state titles in basketball and another pair on the baseball diamond.

But he was also an Olympian! A member of the U.S. Water Polo team, Buck competed in the 1920 games in Belgium. Though his team did not win — in fact they came just short of a medal, losing in the main bracket to the eventual champions from England, then to Belgium and Sweden in the ensuing silver and bronze rounds — he represented his country, and is part of an exclusive club of Macon-native Olympians.

Also in that club is Chip Minton, who competed in the Winter edition of the contest on the American bobsled team in both 1994 and 1998. Minton had a stint as a professional wrestler as well.

While there are far from all-encompassing historic volumes written on these figures, and especially not ones about their Olympic status, they are still iconic in a unique way. As someone who has spent my entire life here in Macon, reading what details there are about them at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame or otherwise is a great sports fan experience.

The matter of that representation brings to mind other instances of sports representation, of course. The fascination with being the face of one team and one team only is one.

The trade of Freddie Freeman comes to mind, as a Braves fan. I’m not one to bemoan Matt Olson, of course, but it’s still a wonderful feeling for a supporter to have a face of the franchise, a team member that spends an entire career in one place. It’s even more of a rarity nowadays.

Then there’s the high school level of sports. I’m a Central alum and, though I of course won’t let it cloud my reporting of our local sports, a fan of the Chargers. Though this leads me to remember our rivalries against some schools like Southwest or Westside, the success of those schools is just more fun for anyone in Bibb County.

Any time a Macon school succeeds, it brings me and some others, I’m sure, almost as much pride as if it were our own school. I root every year for a Macon team to make noise in the GHSA football playoffs.

Then there’s the matter of pro athletes from Macon, and even beyond Bibb County in the rest of the Middle Georgia area. A tremendous sense of local pride surrounds football players, in particular, as I found when I interviewed Bud Dupree, a Toomsboro native, a little more than a year ago.

Dupree was set to run a Juneteenth parade, but he’s also the part-owner of Vibez, a downtown Macon restaurant. He glowed when talking about both cities and Middle Georgia in general, saying their support played a huge role in his career.

The same sentiment came from Austin Cox, a former FPD pitcher now in the Kansas City Royals system. He lived in Forsyth for a lot of his youth but, being born in Macon and playing there at FPD and Mercer, remembers it fondly and still gets support.

“I played at Vine Ingle, too, so of course I remember the Green Monster there,” Cox said about his time in Macon. He’s now moved to Kansas City to be with his wife and son, but he still gets plenty of support from back home.

College allegiances, too, are intriguing ones. I did not attend Clemson University, and yet I root for their football team — much to the chagrin of may of you who are assuredly Bulldogs or Yellow Jackets, I’m sure, but some of you might not have attended UGA or Georgia Tech either.

I root because of my family heritage, as my wonderful grandfather attended Clemson and passed that intense fandom down to my dad, then my brother and me. Some of you share the same family fandom, others may follow teams just because of geography.

But I think those two aren’t so different after all. Macon feels like a family to me, after all, which is part of the reason I love writing for my hometown’s newest paper. Maybe that’s why finding those Macon Olympians felt special, and maybe it’s why telling this place’s sports stories feels so important.

Micah Johnston is The Melody’s sports editor. Email him at micah@maconmelody.com.