Buck Godfrey remembered at service for his multifaceted approach to life

In the next room, a slideshow displayed Godfrey’s personal life — laughing with friends and dancing with his daughter at her wedding.

Godfrey excelled as a two-sport athlete, a scholar, an educator and a coach. According to those close to him, he also excelled as a father, a brother and a friend.

Here are five stories shared at Godfrey’s memorial service that illustrated his enduring impact.

The tough-love coach

Rashan Ali’s first swim meet was not going well. Godfrey walked alongside his only daughter as she struggled to complete her 25-yard freestyle.

“My stroke is not the greatest, I’m trying to kick,” Ali said. “I’m doggy-paddling, and then, in the middle of it, I go over to put my hand on the wall, and my daddy took his hand and threw my hand off that wall and made me finish that race.

“And I looked at him like, ‘How could you do this to your baby girl?’ But I understood in that moment, no matter how hard it gets, you can’t quit.”

Ali didn’t just persevere to the end of the pool. Godfrey coached Ali and three of her friends, even making them swim in normal clothes to increase drag and resistance.

Ali and her teammates eventually broke two county swim relay records. Ali said her father called it the greatest win of his coaching career.

“I remember him embracing all four of us as he hoisted us up,” Godfrey said. “The moment was bigger than the race.”

All four girls went to college on swimming scholarships. Ali swam for Florida A&M.

The protector

Frank Godfrey Sr. shared a bed with Buck in their three-room home in Charleston, South Carolina, for 18 years.

The Godfrey brothers grew up in South Carolina during the era of Jim Crow laws. In an attempt to defy the racist regulations, Frank and his friends planned to swim at a beach restricted to white people. Frank said Buck knew the trip could be dangerous, so he immediately decided to come along to protect his brother.

“When we got out in the water, in my mind at that time, it seemed like thousands of white guys circled us,” Frank said. “The only thing between us was the Atlantic Ocean and these guys.”

Godfrey said the men continued to cuss at them until a patrol officer called them out of the water.

“Buck went there to protect me,” Frank Godfrey said.

The literary motivator

Cortez Allen followed in Godfrey’s footsteps in both academics and athletics. Allen watched Godfrey weave his poetic prowess into football the year after the Panthers lost in the 1993 state semifinals.

Godfrey picked a slogan designed to remind his team to look forward rather than focusing on what could have been. Common football phrases for leaving the past behind include “burn the boats,” “win the next play” and “turn the page.”

Godfrey’s phrase was not common.

“The die is cast, and we have crossed the Rubicon.”

The Panthers wore the historical reference to the life of Julius Caesar on team T-shirts the following season.

“What it meant was there’s no turning back,” Allen said. “We’re going to war, and we’re going to seal the deal, and that’s what we did.”

Allen was a senior when Godfrey led the Panthers to their first state title. Now the assistant principal and athletic director at Newton, Allen credits Godfrey as a major influence in his education career.

“One of my proudest moments was telling him when I got my master’s degree that I had a 4.0 (grade-point average) in grad school,” Allen said.

The friend to all

Godfrey didn’t just take care of his own players. Leon “JR” Johnson played defensive line for nearby Walker of Atlanta (modern day McNair).

Johnson was friends with several of Godfrey’s players at Southwest DeKalb, so he was frequently around.

“He would accept me just like I was one of his players even though I played for a different high school,” Johnson said.

Godfrey’s kindness didn’t stop there. He helped Johnson decide to accept a scholarship offer to play college football at Wisconsin.

“He was like, ‘Hey, man, you know we have two Decatur boys already in Wisconsin, so you know that you can go,’” Godfrey said. “He was instrumental because he gave me a little more confidence about traveling so far to go to school.”

Johnson and the other two Decatur natives, who both played for Godfrey, impressed Wisconsin so much that they flew Godfrey out to speak to the team.

Johnson said he owes his own coaching career to Godfrey.

The role model

Terry Pride broke the dress code of Southwest DeKalb colors Saturday night. He and several other men wore maroon shirts as former players of Godfrey at Towers, the school he coached before taking the job at Southwest DeKalb.

Pride knew Godfrey before most of the state did. Even then, the young coach was known for toughness.

Pride recalled one practice when the team thought it had completed its conditioning for the day, but Godfrey wasn’t pleased. He made the Titans start over and doubled their workload.

Godfrey was also known to make players try to block and tackle oak trees in full pads.

“The things that he had instilled in us (in practice) had prepared us mentally so that no game would even approach,” Pride said. “When we got on the field, we were so better prepared than the other team.”

Pride learned how to be tough on that field and has since applied it to the rest of his life. He also joined Omega Psi Phi because of his coach.

“There was nobody that was a better role model than Buck Godfrey,” Pride said. “So as I’m looking through all of (the fraternities), I’m like, ‘You know, I think I want to have some of what coach Godfrey had.’”