A group of friends gathered Saturday at a table at Brogen’s in the Pier Village to remember one of the finest athletes the Golden Isles has ever produced.
George Rose was an all-state and all-American football player at Glynn Academy who went on to play collegiately at Auburn and in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers. His death was announced Friday via social media.
A day later, his Glynn Academy teammates and friends remembered Rose not just as a great athlete, but a great man.
“We admired him as a person, and liked him as a person,” said Carroll Minick, who was a standout baseball player at Glynn Academy at the same time Rose was shining on the football field. “He was a hero to a lot of us.”
At Glynn Academy, Rose lettered in football, basketball and track, but it was the gridiron where he made his name. The running back ran for more than 2,800 yards in his Glynn Academy career while also playing defensive back.
Speed was Rose’s dominant skill. He was the fastest player that any of his teammates ever saw, and he showed it early.
Jim Hodges, one of Rose’s teammates, recalled a race the coaches had all the ninth-graders take part in. Hodges hadn’t heard about Rose until he got to junior high and expected another friend who he thought was the fastest guy he had ever seen to win the race.
“Coaches had heard about George, so they had a timer,” Hodges said. “(My friend) was fast, but he was six feet behind George. They clocked him in the 100-yard dash, but I don’t know what it was. They were flabbergasted. I’d love to go back and see what (that time) was.”
The Red Terrors’ best season with George in the backfield was 1958, which saw Glynn go a perfect 10-0 in the regular season before losing a close contest to LaGrange in the state playoffs.
One game that stood out that season was a 7-0 win against Waycross, one of the top teams in a different classification than Glynn. Rose scored the only touchdown in the game. He was running with the ball when he fumbled, but the ball bounced back up to him and he broke away from the defense to score.
“He broke through, and he fumbled the ball,” Hodges said. “The ball just fell out and it bounced right back up into his arms. As soon as it bounced back up into his arms, he was gone. Once he broke through, then it was over.”
The game plan for Glynn Academy’s offense at the time wasn’t very complex. Against LaGrange, it was on full display.
“The coach’s game plan was let’s just run George every play,” Hodges said. “George ran the whole game, plus he played safety. He played the whole game.”
Rose’s play earned him plenty of attention from colleges looking to recruit his services. Ed Hummel, also a teammate of Rose at Glynn Academy, said he had around 30 offers. One of those offers was from the in-state Bulldogs.
“Georgia wanted him really bad,” Hummel said. “He visited up there and did not like the environment. He came right back home, and he’d already been offered by Auburn. He met (Auburn coach) Shug Jordan, and they liked each other a lot. He just fell in love with Auburn.”
“It was a different atmosphere (at Georgia) than it is now,” Minick added.
When it came time to make his commitment official, Rose did so at the first available moment, signing to play at Auburn at 12:01 a.m. with Jordan there in-person to witness it.
Hummel said that Rose was Auburn’s top recruiting priority that year. Erk Russell, the legendary defensive coordinator at UGA and head coach at Georgia Southern, was an assistant at Auburn when Rose was recruited to play for Auburn.
Years later, one of Rose’s Glynn teammates, Jimmy Gash, would give Russell a ride when he came to town to speak to a group of Cub Scouts. Gash told Russell that he played with Rose, and Russell simply responded that “George Rose was the finest high school player I’ve ever seen.”
At Auburn, Rose would again pull double duty as a wingback and a defensive back. He was a captain his senior season and played in the Senior Bowl, where he was chosen as the game’s most outstanding defensive player.
He was drafted by both the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League and the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League. He signed with the Vikings, and Gash made the trip to Chicago to see him play during his rookie year.
“I was in the Air Force, and I took the train to Chicago and saw him play against the Bears his rookie year,” Gash said. “He ran punts and kickoffs back, but he also covered their top receiver Johnny Morris. George had a great game.”
Rose had six interceptions his rookie season. He retired from football following his 1969 season in San Francisco and returned to Glynn Academy to be its head coach for the 1970 season. He also coached at Auburn as an assistant.
Rose would be eventually elected into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. Hummel said that it took a while because someone on the board was determined to keep Rose out because he didn’t go to Georgia. Legendary Georgia offensive lineman Len Hauss put a stop to that.
“We got Len Hauss involved and he said ‘You let me take care of that,’” Hummel said. “So we all went to Macon, sat down with the board and Len was on the board. George got in that year.”
Rose was also an inaugural member of the Glynn County Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
While his on the field exploits are remembered, Rose’s teammates and friends made sure to let it be known he was also a great man. He even saved the life of one of his former teammates.
“I was upstairs, went to stand up and fell down,” said Cormac McGarvey. “I couldn’t move (anything). He picked me up and got me down three flights of stairs. He saved my life.”
Those that gathered Saturday to remember their friend will definitely never forget Rose.
“George was truly one of the good guys,” Gash said. “It’s a sad day. George was such a great guy. We’re all going to miss him.”
