Sam Nunn: High School Athlete Turned U.S. Senator

In a highly political climate, we can tend to get swept up in it all, especially in the year of a tumultuous presidential election. Politics have always divided the country, even back in 1938, when Sam Nunn was born. Sam Nunn is a retired senator hailing out of small-town Perry, Georgia. He is known for co-founding the Nuclear Threat Initiative, was a chair holder on the national defense committee, and was even considered as a potential running mate in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. But to Perry High School’s legendary coach Eric Staples, Nunn was a star athlete. 

When Nunn was still in high school, he went out for his high school basketball team under Staples’ strict leadership. When looking back at the importance of the team to the community, Nunn said: “You can’t imagine what basketball meant to the community. It was like a ‘Hoosier’ movie. There would be 40 to 50 cars caravanning to our out-of-town games. We didn’t have a football team until I was a junior in high school. We were a small school, but under Coach Staples’ leadership, we could compete with schools in higher classifications.”

Now, almost 70 years later, communities in Georgia will be rallying around high school basketball once again to raise spirits dampened by the hardships of 2020. 

What Nunn learned from basketball helped him in his political pursuits. From Staples, and later coach Whack Hyder at Georgia Tech, Nunn learned discipline, hard work, ethics, and, above all, leadership. He used these attributes to help him climb the political ladder.

He was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1968. Nunn ended up serving in the Senate for 27 years, becoming one of the most accomplished politicians to serve, even being called “the best president the nation never had” in a book by Nunn’s longtime press-aid. 

Wherever Nunn went in life, he always remained a Georgia boy with roots deep in the high school athletics system. A former teammate of Nunn’s, Billy Powell, looked back on the success the two men shared when playing ball for Perry.

“Sam was one of Perry’s greatest players,” Powell said. “He was a two-time All-State selection, a great shooter who scored 27 points that night when we beat undefeated Valley Point for the state title in 1956.”

High school sports are valuable to the community. Whether it’s camaraderie, teaching students important life lessons, or simply entertainment, high school sports are an important part of society. As the 2020-21 basketball season begins, let’s look at who has previously come through our courts and who’s next to come out of them.

Written by: Lexi Fitzpatrick