TIFTON — The long, long coaching career of Fred Tucker was honored recently with an exhibit at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture.

Tucker, a Tift County native, spent more than 70 years on various sidelines at Tifton, Cuthbert, Randolph County, Berrien, Irwin Academy and many of Tift County’s elementary schools. The exhibit featured memorabilia from most of these stops. It also had time to honor Tucker’s own career as a football player at Tifton High and Georgia Military College.

Greg Tucker was at the exhibit to chat with visitors, reminisce and tell stories about his father. However, he said the idea for the exhibit came from Polly Huff, the curator at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture. For the exhibit, the Museum made a banner summarizing Coach Tucker’s life and career.

At his various stops, Tucker coached football, girls and boys basketball and track. The latter might have been his favorite. At the age of 96, he was still helping out with Tift’s middle school programs. In a sea of successes, it was arguably his most successful. Tucker won state titles at Cuthbert in 1963 and the consolidated Randolph County High in 1964 He also nearly won a state basketball title with Tifton in 1954.

Pictures made up much of the exhibit, but there was also a program and medal from the original Peach Bowl, which was played in the 1940s between junior college teams. On display as well was one of Tucker’s signature hats and the last whistle he ever used.