Retired Lowndes High baseball coach Noel George receives his 1981 State Championship ring Friday night during the ring presentation at Lowndes High.

VALDOSTA — Lowndes High’s first state championship baseball team has its rings.

Members of the 1981 Lowndes baseball team were presented with state championship rings on Friday night in between games of the Georgia-Florida Challenge at Noel George Field.

When they won state in 1981, giving out rings was not a common practice, like it is today, and the Vikings did not get them. The Lowndes football team that won state in 1980 also did not get rings.

Last year, the Lowndes Touchdown Club raised the money to give the football team their rings. At that same time, former assistant coach Kip McLeod and a couple of former players were trying to do the same thing for the ’81 baseball team.

“It was something we had been talking about doing even before the football team got their rings,” said catcher Tony Bowden, a member of both state championship teams. “Kip McLeod, Keith Evans and I wanted to see it happen, and thanks to some people in the community, we were able to make it happen.

“It was a good night, a special one for all of us. It was nice to have all of us together again. The rings they designed for us were real nice.”

Friday night was a reunion for many of the players. Though some have stayed in the area and remain good friends, some of the players have been gone for years. Most of the team showed up for Friday’s ceremony, many bringing their families with them.

Pitcher Keith Hagan and Bowden recalled the final out of their championship season. With the tying run on third and the Vikings leading 1-0, Hagan got a Griffin batter to swing and miss at a pitch in the dirt. Bowden scooped up the ball, fired to first base. When Wes McDonald caught the ball, and stepped on first, the Vikings were state champions.

“It’s good to see all these guys out here. This is the first time I’ve seen Wes McDonald, our first baseman, since we won state,” McLeod said.

The first person to get his ring Friday was head coach Noel George, the patriarch of Lowndes baseball. In his baseball coaching career, George won 343 games, and lost just 122. Standing on the field that is now named after him, George received a nice ovation from both the crowd and his former players.

“People don’t know how special Coach George and Kip McLeod were to this program. They both did so much for Lowndes baseball,” Bowden said.

The players at the ceremony were: Bowden, McDonald, pitcher Keith Evans, Hagan, shortstop Ray Luke, outfielder Jimmy Miley, outfielder Scott Taylor, third baseman Joey McDonald, outfielder Charlie Harrell, pitcher Phillip Vickery, second baseman Ray Parker, pitcher Ronnie Harrell and third baseman Perry Scarborough. McLeod, the pitching coach for the 1981 and 2000 state champions, also got a ring.

The team also hopes to one day give rings to the five players who were not there. Jimmy White, Eddie Layton, Jimmy Evans, Jay Bargeron and former assistant coach Dickie Williams were unable to make the ceremony. The team also hopes to locate Andy Malham, whose pinch hit home run in the final game gave the Vikings their only run in a 1-0 victory.

The 1981 season was a special one for the Vikings. With several future college players, some big bats and a left-hander that couldn’t be beaten, Lowndes went 25-6 and won three-game series in each of the final four rounds to win the championship.

“We had to win four three-game series to be state champions,” Bowden recalled. “Each series, Keith Hagan won Game 1, Keith Evans would pitch a good game in Game 2, but we’d lose the game by one run, and then the next day, Keith Hagan pitched again and won the third game.”

Hagan went 17-0 that season with a 0.72 ERA. His 17 wins and 220 strikeouts (out of 438 batters faced) are state records that will probably never be broken.

“I remember rubbing down Keith’s arm after games, getting it ready for the next game,” McLeod told one of the players. “I remember it like it was yesterday.”

“I remember that, too,” added Hagan, who is now a minister in the Atlanta area.

As soon as they were done celebrating their state championship, Lowndes’ seniors headed across campus for another big moment in their lives: graduation.

“We won the third game, then we went and graduated,” Hagan said.

“It was quite a day, winning the state championship, then graduating on the same day,” Bowden recalled. “Then the next morning, we all got up and drove to Daytona Beach and spent the week there.”