Sidelines

Football

PETERSON TO JOIN GEORGIA SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Georgia Southern legend Adrian Peterson has been elected to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Class. He is among eight new members who will join the 2020 class. Induction ceremonies will be held in Macon the weekend of Feb. 21-22, 2020. Peterson is one of the most prolific running backs to play for Georgia Southern and remains the NCAA’s Division I all-time leading rusher with 6,559 yards in regular season games. He was a four-time All-American and was awarded the Walter Payton Award in 1999 as the most outstanding player in Division 1-AA (later named the Football Championship Subdivision). Peterson was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 2002 NFL Draft playing seven seasons with them, including the Super Bowl XLI squad. He will join Erk Russell (c/o 1987) and Tracy Ham (c/o 2012) as inductees from Georgia Southern in the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

GS Athletic Foundation

ALUMNUS HONORED BY UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA BOARD OF REGENTS

E.G. Meybohm (’65), a former Georgia Southern baseball and men’s basketball student-athlete, is one of the University’s strongest supporters. This year, he became the first Georgia Southern alumnus to receive the University System of Georgia Board of Regents’ Hall of Fame Alumni and Distinguished Friends Award. Meybohm and his wife, Lynn, provided the lead gift in a campaign to renovate the W.S. Hanner Fieldhouse on the Statesboro Campus. The initial phase of the Hanner renovations called for the expansion of the front entrance facing Fair Road to include a new home for an Athletics’ Hall of Fame, the relocation of concessions and expanded game day ticket offices. The second phase of renovations is devoted to fan amenities and game day hospitality.

Meybohm is a former Georgia Southern Alumnus of the Year and an Athletics Hall of Fame inductee for both baseball and basketball. He was on the Georgia Southern baseball team in 1962, when the team secured the baseball program’s first NAIA National Championship. He pitched a 10-inning shutout at that championship game. As a basketball player, he achieved a 67.9 percent free throw average. Passionate about philanthropy and sports, both Meybohms encourage Eagle Nation members to give at any level they can. Each received a bachelor’s in education from Georgia Southern.

Student-athletes

INVESTING IN THE COMMUNITY

Community service is important to Georgia Southern student-athletes. They finished 12th in the NCAA Division I in community service hours logged during the 2018-19 academic year. The football team finished with the most logged hours in the country in its respective sport. The swimming program finished fourth. Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform, collected the data. Eagle baseball led the athletic department with 8,352 hours of community involvement. Softball followed with 3,422 verified hours. At least 97 percent of the University’s student-athletes participated in at least one event.

Men’s Golf

FISK NAMED TO WALKER CUP TEAM

Former Eagle golfer Steven Fisk was one of 10 members on the winning 2019 U.S. Walker Cup team. The Walker Cup, played every two years, is considered the Super Bowl of amateur golf. The top amateur players from the United States compete against a team from Great Britain and Ireland. The U.S. team rallied on the final day to take eight of the 10 matches at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England. The Walker Cup victory capped a remarkable finish for Fisk who was named Sun Belt Golfer of the Year, had a second place individual finish in the NCAA Championships and earned a spot on the All-Nicklaus Team. The Sun Belt Conference named him its Male Student-Athlete of the Year for the 2018-19 season, making him the first athlete from Georgia Southern to earn that honor.

UNIVERSITY COMES TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE ITS CHAMPIONS

For the first time since the consolidation of Armstrong State and Georgia Southern, the University celebrated the successes of past Eagle and Pirate teams on the same evening. Georgia Southern Athletics honored 17 championship teams during the annual Night of Champions reunion in football’s home season opener with the Maine Black Bears. Two football national championships were among this year’s highlights. The 1989 team, which was the first NCAA Division I football team to ever go 15-0, celebrated its 30th anniversary, and the 1999 team that claimed a title with a dominating win over Youngstown State in the finals, observed its 20th anniversary. Both the 2009 Armstrong State women’s tennis and men’s tennis teams won NCAA Division II national titles. Thirteen other programs that won conference or regional titles were also recognized.

Teams honored at the 2019 Night of Champions

ARMSTRONG STATE PIRATES

30th Anniversary (1989)
Baseball NCAA Region Champions

10th Anniversary (2009)
Men’s Tennis NCAA Division II National Champions
Women’s Tennis Peach Belt and NCAA Division II National Champions

5th Anniversary (2014)
Volleyball Peach Belt Conference Champions
Softball NCAA Region Champions

GEORGIA SOUTHERN EAGLES

30th Anniversary (1989)
Football NCAA National Champions (FCS)

20th Anniversary (1999)
Football NCAA National Champions (FCS) and Southern Conference Champions
Softball Southern Conference Champions

10th Anniversary (2009)
Baseball Southern Conference Champions

5th Anniversary (2014)
Baseball Southern Conference Champions
Men’s Golf Southern Conference Champions
Softball Southern Conference Champions
Football Sun Belt Conference Champions