Wright Bazemore/Notes

Bazemore is often considered among the greatest, if not the greatest, high school football coach in the history of the state.

Background

Fitzgerald High School - He was quarterback at Fitzgerald from 1931 to 1933, where he received national attention for his scoring. He reportedly lettered in football, basketball, track and tennis all four years.
- Ripley's Believe It or Not claim - The popular syndicated newspaper feature "Ripley's Believe It or Not" claims Bazemore twice scored 10 touchdowns in a game during his senior year at Fitzgerald, a misconception even carried by Sports Illustrated in 1970^[1]. However newspapers at the time report that he scored ten (or eleven) across across the span of two games, rather than in two separate games.
Mercer - He played college football and basketball at Mercer, graduating in 1938^[2].
After starting his career at Valdosta, Bazemore was drafted into the Navy during World War II.

Coaching career

Bazemore's began his coaching career at Waycross, where he was an assistant under BW Rushton in 1938 and 1939, and moved to Valdosta in 1940 as an assistant to Bobby Hooks for a season where the school won their first state title 21-0 over Cedartown in the Class B Championship game. He took over as head coach in 1941 and 1942 before being joining the Navy for three years during World War II.
After returning in 1946, Bazemore led the Wildcats until 1971, when he stepped down from coaching at age 55, although he stayed as athletic director until fully retiring in 1979.
At the time Bazemore was the winningest coach in Georgia history and the only coach to have won more than 200 games. His teams won 14 state championships in 28 years, many in the highest classification in the state, and Bazemore never had a graduating class that had not won at least one state title.
Bazemore additionally compiled a 176-22 record as Valdosta's boys basketball coach, including a 28‐0 mark and state championship in 1947, and coached six state championship tennis teams^[3].

Awards

In 1970 Bazemore was selected as the National Prep Coach of the Year^[4].
Cleveland Field, Valdosta's home field since 1922, was renamed Bazemore-Hyder Stadium in September 1996, shortly following the death of Nick Hyder, another highly successful Valdosta coach^[5].
Bazemore has been inducted into several Halls of Fame, starting with the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1960^[6], was one of 16 athletes inducted into the Mercer Hall of Fame inaugural class in 1970^[7], the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1998^[8], and the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001^[9].
Bazemore is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in Georgia's history and nationally as well. For their 75th anniversary in 2007, Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director magazine selected Bazemore as the best high school coach in Georgia in any sport since 1931^[10] and in 2014 MaxPreps identified Bazemore as the top football coach in the nation for the decade of the 1960s^[11].

Personal life

In May 1989, Bazemore suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and virtually unable to speak. He regained partial use of his limbs during a stay at the Roosevelt-Warm Springs Rehabilitation.
He passed away in 1999, survived by his wife of 48 years, Bettie Louise Fowler Bazemore, his son and two daughters, and four grandchildren.