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Buck Cheves
	Cheves, c. 1920
No. 19
Position	Quarterback
Personal information
Born:	November 28, 1898; Richwood, Georgia, U.S.
Died:	April 12, 1995 (aged 96); Cobb County, Georgia, U.S.
Weight	145 lb (66 kg)
Career history
College	Georgia (1919–1920)
High school	Georgia Military College
Career highlights and awards
	SIAA championship (1920); All-Southern (1920); Georgia Sports Hall of Fame;

James Parks "Buck" Cheves^[a] (November 28, 1898 – April 12, 1995) was an American college football player and referee. Cheves played for the Georgia Bulldogs and later was a Southeastern Conference official for 35 years.

Biography

Cheves was born in Richwood, Georgia, in 1898, and his family moved to Atlanta before 1900.^[4] He prepped at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.^[4]

Cheves starred in the backfield of the 1919 Georgia football team,^[5] He then led the "ten second backfield"^[b] of the 1920 Georgia football team under first-year coach Herman Stegeman. The team compiled an 8–0–1 record and won a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) title.^[7] It was the first Georgia squad to be known as the "Bulldogs."^[8]

Cheves played without a helmet, because he claimed the headgear impaired his hearing.^[8] He returned a kick blocked by Puss Whelchel for 87 yards, scoring a touchdown to defeat Alabama during the 1920 season.^[9]^[10] The play was ranked fourth in the 2008 book The 50 Greatest Plays In Georgia Bulldogs Football History,^[10] and still stands as one of the longest return touchdowns in Bulldogs history.^[9]

Cheves was also a guard on the Georgia basketball team.^[11] He was captain of the 1921 basketball team that lost to Basil Hayden and the Kentucky Wildcats' "Wonder Team" in the SIAA championship game.^[12]^[13] He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.^[4]

A ballad dedicated to Cheves appeared in the student newspaper, Red and Black:^[14]

O! Cheves! O! Cheves!
In south, thou art rough,
The enemy grieves
When thou show'st thy stuff,
Thou art like a hurricane,
Thou hittest them hard,
God pity the man
Whom thou dost guard.

In 1924, sportswriter Morgan Blake listed Cheves as the quarterback in his selection of the greatest football players from Atlanta.^[15]

In 1945, Cheves was president of the Touchdown Club of Atlanta.^[16] He was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1976.^[12]

Outside of his sporting career, Cheves was involved in real estate from 1922 though his retirement in the 1980s.^[4] He died in 1995, aged 96.^[4]

Notes

^ His surname appears as "Cheeves" in some publications, including contemporary Pandora yearbooks,^[2]^: 256 and the present-day Georgia Bulldogs media guide.^[3]
^ The term "ten second backfield" generally refers to players capable (or thought to be capable) of running a 100-yard dash in 10 seconds—that is, fast runners.^[6]

References

^ "Draft Registration Card". fold3.com. Selective Service System. February 1942. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
^ Pandora. University of Georgia. 1921. Retrieved September 9, 2024 – via usg.edu.
^ "All-Time Lettermen". Georgia Football Media Guide. Georgia Bulldog Athletics. 2024. p. 135. Retrieved September 9, 2024 – via issuu.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Cheves". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. April 15, 1995. p. B7. Retrieved September 9, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
^ H. J. Stegeman (1920). "Foot Ball in the South". The Official National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Guide: 97.
^ "Advent has ten-second backfield". The Cincinnati Post. November 11, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved September 9, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
^ Michael Bradley (November 30, 2006). Big Games: College Football's Greatest Rivalries. p. 151. ISBN 9781574889093.
^ ^a ^b T. Kyle King. "Georgia Bulldogs v. Alabama Crimson Tide Game Day Open Comment Thread". Retrieved January 30, 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Longest Plays". Georgia Football Media Guide. Georgia Bulldog Athletics. 2024. p. 117. Retrieved September 9, 2024 – via issuu.com.
^ ^a ^b Garbin, Patrick (2008). The 50 Greatest Plays in Georgia Bulldogs Football History. Triumph Books. pp. 204–205. ISBN 978-1-60078-119-3 – via Internet Archive.
^ "[1]". The Sigma Chi Quarterly. 40: 310. 1921.
^ ^a ^b "James P. "Buck" Cheves". Archived from the original on March 13, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
^ Fuzzy Woodruff. "U. of K. Defeats Georgia Bulldog".
^ Patrick Garbin (2008). About Them Dawgs!: Georgia Football's Memorable Teams and Players. p. 30. ISBN 9780810860407.
^ McGill, R. E. (December 30, 2024). "The Sport Aerial (column)". Nashville Banner. p. 13. Retrieved September 9, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
^ "The Touchdown Club of Atlanta History". Archived from the original on February 21, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2015.