There is nothing better than a good time-sucking research rabbit hole...which is where I've been mentally since finding out our recent standing in our division.
When the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution moved Jeff Davis to No. 2 in Class 2A following the win over Fitzgerald, one detail immediately caught my attention and I haven't been able to shake it:
It is Jeff Davis' highest ranking since 1962. 🤯
That left me with a burning question. What happened in 1962?
So GameFace started digging. Donna Knorzer Glenn gave us the end of the thread when she mentioned Bill Bass was the head coach of the Jackets at that time.
Well, we found Coach Bill Bass (sort of).
On January 11, 1962, The Soperton News reported that Bass was leaving Treutlen High School in Soperton to become Athletic Director and head football coach at Jeff Davis High School in Hazlehurst.
Jeff Davis County Schools Athletics must've known what it was doing.
When Bass had arrived at Treutlen four years earlier to coach the Vikings, the football program had lost 22 consecutive games. 😬
Under Bass, the program began to turn around. His teams progressed to 5–5, then 6–4, and in his final season at Treutlen, the Vikings finished 9–1 and won a sub-region championship.
Bass had also coached Treutlen baseball to a sub-region championship, played professional baseball for two years, earned his bachelor's degree from Northeast Louisiana and his master's from Mississippi State.
The newspaper wrote that many sports fans considered him “one of the best coaches in Georgia.”
Then, in January 1962, Bill and his wife packed up and moved from Soperton to Hazlehurst.
Coach Bass was a Yellow Jacket.
And that's where our trail gets especially interesting.
One of the players who came through Jeff Davis during the Bass era was Calvin Harrison, Class of 1964. Harrison went on to be selected for the Georgia North/South All-Star Game and later became one of the original inductees into the Jeff Davis Football Hall of Fame.
His legacy and our connection to Bass lives on to this very day by way of Calvin Harrison. We see the Bass/Harrison legacy on our field every Friday night.
Jeff Davis Junior, Jacob Laney wears Harrison's Legacy number 22 for the Jackets today.
The same Yellow Jacket team that has made us curious about 1962 has one of today's standout players carrying a number connected directly to that era.
Sometimes history isn't as far away as it seems.
🚨NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP.
We've found the newspaper clippings. We've begun piecing together Coach Bass's story.
But 64 years is a long time, and we know there are people in this community who may know things that aren't sitting in a searchable internet archive.
Did you know Coach Bill Bass?
Did you play for him?
Did your father or grandfather play for him?
Do you have a 1962 Jeff Davis football program, yearbook, team photograph, newspaper clipping, roster or photograph of Coach Bass?
Do you remember that season — or have stories that were passed down in your family?
GameFace would love to hear from you.
We're especially hoping to locate a photograph of Coach Bass and learn more about the players, opponents and story of that 1962 Yellow Jacket team.
For now, we're sharing the pieces we've found. Because 64 years later, the 2026 Yellow Jackets are making history — and in the process, they're helping us rediscover it.
1962 → 2026
MAKING HISTORY. REMEMBERING HISTORY. 🐝
-- Sophia Allen | GameFace Media