William "Buck" Godfrey, who won 273 games and a state championship in 30 seasons at Southwest DeKalb High School, died Aug. 1 at age 83.
Godfrey compiled a 273-89-1 record from 1983 to 2012 without a single losing season, Atlanta News First reported. He remains the winningest football coach in DeKalb County School District history and, according to Atlanta News First, the winningest Black football coach in Georgia history.
His Panthers won the 1995 GHSA state championship, reached the 1990 title game as runner-up, captured 13 region titles and made the state playoffs 27 times. Southwest DeKalb strung together 18 consecutive playoff appearances from 1986 to 2003.
Godfrey won 10 or more games 12 times. His worst seasons were three 5-5 finishes. He faced 147 opposing coaches over three decades; only 31 hold a winning record against him.
More than 300 of his players earned college scholarships.
"If you really got to know my father, you would have found a softer side that really cared about not only his football players, but everyone walking the halls of the school and the community," son Colin Godfrey told The Champion Newspaper. Colin played for his father at Southwest DeKalb in the late 1980s.
Southwest DeKalb athletic director Kathleen Richey-Walton, whose sons served as ball boys for Godfrey, told Atlanta News First on Tuesday, Aug. 4, that he was "a once in a generational coach."
Marcus Jelks, now head football coach at Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, recalled losing to Godfrey's teams while coaching at Lithonia. Jelks said Godfrey would call him after those games to encourage him, and that he came to realize Godfrey "wasn't just coaching a football team, he was mentoring the next generation of coaches."
Beyond the sideline
Godfrey grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, graduated from Burke High School and attended Delaware State University on football and baseball scholarships. He captained both teams and won the CIAA batting title with a .511 average. He played in the New York Mets organization and competed as a Golden Gloves middleweight boxer.
He earned postgraduate fellowships at Columbia and New York universities before completing a master's degree in English from Atlanta University, now known as Clark Atlanta University. He began his teaching career in New York City's Spanish Harlem, then relocated to Georgia.
Before taking over at Southwest DeKalb, Godfrey coached baseball at Gordon High School to a 31-16 record over two seasons, including a 26-4 mark in 1976. He also served as an assistant football coach at Gordon and later at Towers High School.
Godfrey taught English at Southwest DeKalb throughout his coaching tenure. He authored several books, including The Team Nobody Would Play (2008), which told the story of his Little League baseball team barred from the World Series regional in Rome, Georgia, because it was a Black all-star team from Charleston.
Honors
In 2015, DeKalb County renamed Panthersville Stadium to William "Buck" Godfrey Stadium. He was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2023 and the Delaware State Athletic Hall of Fame.
His daughter, Atlanta radio personality Rashan Ali, paid tribute on social media, writing, "My hero. Daddy. Coach Godfrey's Daughter." Georgia Rep. Omari Crawford (D-Decatur) said on Aug. 2 that Godfrey "was one of Georgia's greatest builders of men."
Southwest DeKalb's current head football coach, Marion Bell, enters his fourth season leading the program Godfrey built.
