When you live in Perry, you get the Cordele television station WSST 55. One of the last programs I saw on that channel at the end of July was the long preview special for local high school football. This one gentleman went to … let me just say it was a lot … of places in south Georgia to record interviews with coaches.

Most of these places were, simply put, small towns. Fitzgerald, Ocilla, Dawson, Rochelle, Ashburn, and the home-base school Crisp County High for example. I didn’t see the whole show, the first 90 minutes, but at the end of each segment, the interviewer would say something to the effect, “When we come back, we will talk to this coach at this place.”

Well, when he is going to one of those breaks, he says something that makes me – as I am heading to another room – do the old comical double-take and, “Say what?!” He says he is going to be in Dooly County talking to Jimmy Hughes.

Now understand, I was leading the double life of Moultrie Observer sports and Perry resident. For the first part of that equation, I often see in the history books the name Jim Hughes, the first Colquitt County High head football coach to win a state championship. That was in 1994. Do I need to go over the rest? Hall of Fame career that spanned 30 years in Moultrie and Thomasville?

So I can’t wait to see this. Could it be? We are here in Vienna at Dooly County High with Bobcats head coach Jimmy Hughes. Definitely an older gentleman, but can’t be HIM. Not saying anything about his entire career, just what they are doing to get ready for a new season.

Got to get to the bottom of this someday. Finally thought about it recently. This is one case out of quite a bunch where the Georgia High School Football Historians have names that needed to be clarified on the coaching list. Jim Hughes, just wrote about him. Jimmy Hughes, Dooly’s coach since 2010 and has built up quite an impressive win total of 49. Impressive considering that, in three years prior, he won six games in three years (two each) at Monticello. That’s it for Jimmy’s Georgia coaching record.

Yes, there is still plenty out there to learn about the state’s football history.

•••

So the NFL Hall of Fame Game did not take place last weekend due to field safety issues, one of them being congealed paint on the logo.

Takes me back to the story of McConnell-Talbert Stadium – once known as International City Stadium – in Warner Robins. It was the 2014 season, and that grass surface just could not take it anymore. No, the ground didn’t talk to school officials, who didn’t need any words to figure out that surface was no longer suitable for competitive football.

During the playoffs, there was some heavy rain in-between the first two rounds. Both Northside and Houston County High had home games on back-to-back nights. The sports reporter from way up in Dalton, at the venue to cover his team playing Northside, described the field as “chewed up” in his story. Northside won and earned the right to host Glynn Academy in the quarterfinals, but it was those school officials who made the call to relocate and got Peach County High’s stadium in Ft. Valley.

After beating Glynn, the Eagles won the coin toss to host Allatoona in the semifinals. That game was played at Mercer’s new stadium – synthetic turf and all – in Macon.

McConnell-Talbert received new carpet during the ensuing offseason. The 2015 season was also the last time that three – yes, three – teams called that stadium home. A new placed called Freedom Field is opening soon adjacent to Houston County High’s campus, and it too will have a not-so-real playing surface. Veterans High, which opened in 2010, will share Freedom Field with the Bears as a home field.

Going back to that 2014 season, I made the count that there was – playoffs included – 20 varsity football games played at The MAC from August to November. That will chew up some grass in a hurry.

Veterans High, by the way, used Perry High School’s stadium for home football games up to last season. It came to my attention that, during last Friday’s scrimmage there, a rather vehement announcement was made about how it was now exclusively Perry’s field again. The stadium is named after Herb St. John, a Georgia Sports Hall of Famer for his playing days at the University of Georgia.