Sonny Smart, father of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, passes away at 76
Sonny Smart, the father of Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and Rabun County resident and former Wildcat coach, passed away due to hip surgery complications after falling in New Orleans, La., early on Saturday, Jan. 4.
While in New Orleans to watch his son lead the Bulldogs to a hopeful victory over Notre Dame in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Smart fell on New Year’s Eve, hours before the tragic attack on Bourbon Street that left 15 dead and dozens more injured.
Smart was taken to Ochsner Medical Center soon after, but it wasn’t until nearly a day after the Bulldogs lost 23-10 to the Irish that he would lose his valiant fight.
The University of Georgia released a statement regarding the Smart family.
“The Smart family expresses their heartfelt gratitude to the Ocshner hospital and medical staff for the exceptional care provided to Sonny,” the statement reads. “Additionally, they ask for your continued prayers for those affected by the tragic events that occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day. The Smart family treasures everyone’s thoughts and prayers and now prays for God’s comfort, strength and guidance.”
Smart is the father of one of the most prolific coaches in college football today, Kirby Smart.
However, Sonny Smart will also be known for the years of being a highly favored high school football coach, leader and friend to many.
Smart finished his football career as a player at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
Later he became the head football coach at Holtville High School in Alabama, where he also led the baseball team to a state championship in 1982.
Smart also was the head football coach at Bainbridge High School, with Kirby playing for him at safety.
From 1995 to 2003, Smart was the head coach at Rabun County High School and helped lead the Wildcats from a 3-7 season in his first year to an 11-2 region championship in 1998.
During his head coaching tenure at RCHS, Smart's son, Kirby, also served as a community coach.
Former Wildcat quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. was Sonny Smart’s gunslinger for four seasons and remembers Smart as an individual who taught him everything about the game of football and how to be an upstanding human being.
“He had an ability to bring the best out in people and help them really reach heights and goals that they never knew they could really obtain themselves,” Edwards said of Sonny. “He is going to be deeply missed. He and his family have been a huge part in Rabun County and helping better the county. He's just made such an impact on so many young people, so many other people that he’s come in contact with, and he has left the world a better place.”
Edwards said he immediately felt sadness when hearing of his former coach’s death. Edwards remembered back to when he made many trips to Athens with the Smart family to watch Kirby Smart play for the Bulldogs from 1995 to 1998.
Sonny and his wife Sharon, who was an English teacher in Rabun County, were a huge part in Edwards’ young life.
In comparison to Kirby Smart's UGA coaching style, Sonny had a very calm demeanor while coaching the Wildcats from the sidelines.
Edwards said he kept his players “calm, cool and collected.”
“Don’t get me wrong, he definitely had that passion about him, and I can tell you this right now, I think this is one of the things that has stuck with me forever, is that he could be as loud as it can be,” Edwards said. “But as far as his demeanor on the sideline and during any kind of intense situation, he was very calm.”
Edwards said that no matter how loud the whistles of the referees and the yelling of teammates were, he could always hear Sonny’s voice stretch across the field calling his quarterback’s name.
Edwards would always hear and answer the call.
Smart taught Edwards everything that a good quarterback should know – whether it’s reading defensive coverages; throwing on the run; or leading an offense to a touchdown score.
However, Smart believed in having a great work ethic in the classroom, being a good person and being a good community member.
Edwards said Sonny helped teach all of those things to his players.
Sonny also taught the Wildcats that it didn’t matter where they lived. They could become a great football team.
While thinking back on the 1998 season, when the Wildcats went 9-1 in the regular season and won two playoff games before falling to Taylor County, Edwards said Sonny was a driving factor in proving that a group of mountain boys could win football games at a high level.
There have been many coaches who have helped Rabun football become what it is today, most recently current Dawson County head coach Jaybo Shaw and current Wildcat head coach Michael Davis.
Shaw's father, Lee, was inducted into the Rabun County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2024.
Sonny sits on that list of influential coaches who have transcended the Wildcats into a winning program.
“Just because we were a bunch of kids from the mountains (didn’t mean) that we were always going to be mediocre … I think him coming here proved to us that we can be competitive and we can be a program that has become what it is today,” Edwards said.
Since Sonny coached in Rabun County, the Houston County, Ala., native kept close ties to the community, living here in the Northeast Georgia mountains during his retirement.
Nearly 13 years ago, Sonny helped start Georgia Mountain Senior Golf (GAMS), which is an organization that brings golfers over the age of 50 together to join in fellowship, while competing in golf around the state of Georgia.
In 2024, ending its 12th year, GAMS ended its season with 160 members and averaged over 90 members playing in each tournament.
“He was just the consummate coach,” GAMS member Terry Graham said of Sonny. “He was a great guy, a good friend, and he’d always have time to talk with you.”
Members of GAMS, Graham and Jeff Reeves of Reeves Hardware in Clayton, remembered Sonny as a great friend.
“I call (GAMS) fellowship,” Reeves said. “I’ve got some really close friends that I never would have met without what coach (Sonny) Smart has done.”
Sonny stepped down from his leadership role of GAMS and handed the reins to John Hood, father of former Rabun standout student-athletes Lucy and Jack Hood.
However, Reeves remembers Sonny still being an advocate of the rules of golf.
“We’re going to miss him every two weeks, getting onto us about slow play or not picking the ball up when you’re out of the hole,” Reeves said with a laugh. “When he spoke, people listened, that’s the character he had and it wasn’t because he thought he was better than anybody else.”
Reeves described him as a regular guy who viewed himself as someone who puts his pants on the same way as anybody else. It didn’t matter if he was the head coach of a good football team or the father of the Bulldogs’ head coach.
Reeves, an alumnus of Clemson University, remembered never having a quarrel with the Georgia staple who was clearly an avid fan for the Bulldogs.
“He didn’t put himself on any pedestal; didn’t think that he was better than the rest of us; and that’s a problem in the world today, is (not) having some humble pride about yourself,” Reeves said.
“I know he was proud of what he did as a coach and what his son has done and all of his grandchildren, but he knew what he was,” Reeves said. “He was just a regular guy (and) didn’t try to be anything more than to do the best he could with the teams that he had here.”
There will be a somber feeling throughout the state of Georgia, with the loss in the Sugar Bowl and the loss to the state’s beloved Sonny Smart.
However, the Northeast Georgia community can take solace in the fact that it was impacted by one of the Georgia greats.
Per Beck Funeral Home, "a Christian Service in Witness to the Resurrection and a Celebration of Life will be held at the Rabun County High School Gymnasium on Saturday, Ja. 11 at 3 p.m."
Doors will open at 2 p.m. and overflow will be in the Fine Arts Building.
This article was updated on Monday, Jan 6 at 1:15 p.m.