{"id":12435,"date":"2026-06-30T10:41:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=12435"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:41:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:41:31","slug":"erk-russell-at-100-remembering-the-man-his-friends-and-the-round-table-at-snookys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2026\/06\/30\/erk-russell-at-100-remembering-the-man-his-friends-and-the-round-table-at-snookys\/","title":{"rendered":"Erk Russell at 100: Remembering the Man, His Friends and the Round Table at Snooky\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On July 23, 2026, Erskine \u201cErk\u201d Russell, legendary Georgia Southern football coach, would have celebrated his 100th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We celebrate him for reasons that are difficult to effectively itemize. He started the football program from scratch, borrowing equipment and transportation for his team to show up and play. He led these teams to five national championships in only eight years, bringing home the trophy three times \u2014 his last season, undefeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon his reputation and the promise of the program, the Statesboro community along with Allen E. Paulson, founder of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, raised the money to build Paulson Stadium, the \u201cprettiest little stadium in America,\u201d which today holds about 25,000 True Blue Eagle fans. During his coaching tenure, as Georgia Southern grew in notoriety on the field and prominence in academics and research, enrollment nearly doubled from 6,641 students in winter of 1983 to 12,250 students in fall of 1990, its first year as a university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His spirit inhabits our traditions \u2014 players still headbutt his bust before coming onto the field; they still ride in yellow schoolbuses to every home game; the gnat-filled drainage ditch beside the old practice field will forever be called \u201cBeautiful Eagle Creek,\u201d and forever will our new players, coaches and even University presidents be baptized in its gunky, magical waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If ever there was a chip on a shoulder, a little more gas in the tank, a need to G.A.T.A., or reach the goal line just \u201cone more time,\u201d Erk was and is there. The friends who knew him best still love talking about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a marriage made in heaven \u2014 Erk Russell and Statesboro, Georgia,\u201d said Garland Nessmith, one of Erk\u2019s close friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To them, he was just Erk \u2014 a lover of cigars, a quick wit, a raconteur and a man of the people. After his retirement from football, his wife, to whom he sometimes referred as \u201cThe War Department,\u201d insisted he get out of the house each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given his marching orders, he went to Snooky\u2019s. For those who weren\u2019t in Statesboro before its closing in 2012, Snooky\u2019s Restaurant was an institution. Located on the corner of Fair and Tillman Roads, Snooky\u2019s served breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you might find the same people there for all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t go there for the food,\u201d said Donald Nesmith, another friend of Erk\u2019s. \u201cYou went there for the fellowship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a blue-collar atmosphere, where student \u201cmeal plans\u201d and patron tabs were kept on a slip of paper. Right by the cash register was the round table where Erk held court with a rotating cast of friends, acquaintances and visitors who wanted to pay their respects and meet the legend. Doug Lambert, another close friend, said that didn\u2019t always go as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe had a Republican named Guy Millner who ran for governor, and he was making the rounds,\u201d Lambert recalled. \u201cOne of his handlers brought him in and said, \u2018Now you need to meet Erk Russell, because he\u2019s a pretty famous guy. He\u2019s over there at the table.\u2019 Millner said, \u2018Which one is he?\u2019 His handler said, \u2018He\u2019s the bald-headed guy.\u2019 So Millner goes over to a bald guy named Billy Rushing and said, \u2018Are you having a good year?\u2019 And Billy said, \u2018No, no, not me!\u2019 Erk just thought that was hilarious. But I don\u2019t know how you expect to be elected governor if you don\u2019t know Erk Russell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of meeting at Snooky\u2019s every morning, Erk and his friends decided to formalize their group and their antics. In 1993, they formed a political action committee and called it SnookPac. Almost immediately, they were solicited for support. A candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives from East Point, Georgia, sent a formal request for a campaign donation. Instead of reaching for a checkbook, however, Erk reached for a napkin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe took that napkin,\u201d Lambert said, \u201cand wrote on it that the Pac couldn\u2019t send her a dime because we\u2019d bet all our money on the Georgia-Florida game. Then he asked her if she had $25 she could spare for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though they had no designs on political action, SnookPac was far from inactive. Each year, they hosted a golf tournament and donated the proceeds to various charities and scholarships at Georgia Southern. However, SnookPac members remember them more for Erk\u2019s yearly \u201cState of the Pac\u201d speech, where he would recount memories from the past year and roast his friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following selections were given to this reporter on special loan as the contents of the Official SnookPac Briefcase are top secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great year at SnookPac,\u201d began Erk\u2019s speech from 1999. \u201cOf course, the big news is that Coach Paul Johnson, nourished by the epicurean delights offered at Snooky\u2019s and armed with secret plays designed on napkins, led the GSU Eagles to an unprecedented fifth national title. Coach Johson was so proud of the accomplishment that he immediately displayed a bumper sticker that read, \u2018I\u2019d rather be fighting chickens.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPratt Hill, fearing the Y2K worst and acting on advice from his stockbroker brother Randy, sold all his stocks and bonds,\u201d Erk said in the same speech. \u201cPratt invested in a water purifier, gas generator and 1,296 cans of SPAM. The market soared to a new high the following week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBucky Wagner [former Georgia Southern director of athletics] has been retained by Turner Outdoor Advertising as a sign consultant,\u201d Erk said. \u201cHe awaits bus ticket money to report for work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of the daily roundtable visits and Pac events, Erk was a man of the community. He ran errands. He visited his mother. He was down to earth, approachable and affable. He kept index cards in his pocket and wrote the names of the people he met so he wouldn\u2019t forget them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once he left the Statesboro city limits, however, his celebrity status was undeniable. He and Bruce Yawn, former owner of Snooky\u2019s and former player under Erk at the University of Georgia, traveled to Athens, Georgia, each year for the Letterman\u2019s Golf Tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yawn, who died in 2022, recounted to Lambert and others how they stopped for a drink or snacks in the middle of nowhere. Erk went to the counter to pay, but nobody would take his money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t even let him pay,\u201d said Lambert. \u201cBruce said it was like traveling with a rock star.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His children got to see it up close as well. Erk\u2019s son, Jay, who served as an assistant coach under his father, said he had no problem separating the coach from the legend from parent. On the field, he never got special treatment from Coach Russell. At home, he was his beloved second son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was loved by his players, by his coaching staff, by his community, by a lot of people in Georgia, from Athens to Statesboro,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was just a really cool guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erk died on Sept. 8, 2006. Among his effects was one beer, tucked away in the back of his fridge. SnookPac members each took a shot of Erk\u2019s last beer, a final toast to the man they knew as a friend, a coach, a legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t consider himself a legend,\u201d said Nessmith. \u201cHe knew what his job was. And when he was on the job, he was 100% there. And when he was at the round table at Snooky\u2019s, he was just one of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 23, 2026, Erskine \u201cErk\u201d Russell, legendary Georgia Southern football coach, would have celebrated his 100th birthday. We celebrate him for reasons that are difficult to effectively itemize. He started the football program from scratch, borrowing equipment and transportation for his team to show up and play. He led these teams to five national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":9937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91,92],"class_list":["post-12435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2025","tag-spring-2026"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t