1946-47 Fannin County High School Girls Basketball Team

When the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame was founded in 2012, the first team selected for induction was the 1945-46 Fannin County High School girls basketball team. That great team posted an undefeated regular season record and did not taste defeat until the state championship game. It was the first year that the state of Georgia conducted a state tournament for girls basketball. The 1945-46 team had two future charter members of the Hall of Fame in senior forward Bernadine Heaton and junior guard Bunzie Johnson. The team was coached by another Hall of Famer, Clyde Henry, and boasted two additional future Hall of Fame inductees, Jean Henry and Blanche Smith. The following year’s team in 1946-47 had four returning starters but faced the prospect of a season without Bernadine, the prolific scoring machine from the previous year’s state runner-up squad. So what did Coach Henry do to provide much needed scoring punch for the 1946-47 team? He simply moved Bunzie Johnson, a great athlete and defensive star from the prior year, to the forward position. Bunzie teamed with Willa Dean Cole and Doris Wheeler to form a formidable triumvirate scoring machine that played a large part in propelling the 46-47 squad to another district title and a follow-up appearance in the Class B state tournament in Macon. The ladies once again advanced to the title game before losing. It was not an easy road to the championship game for this team. During the regular season, they dropped two games to district nine foe Jasper High (now known as Pickens County High) and another contest to Ducktown, Tennessee High before entering the Northern District Nine tournament in the confines of the gym at arch-nemesis Jasper. The 1946-47 Fannin girls rose to the occasion to defeat Jasper to capture the District 9 North Division title. They advanced to the overall District tournament in Gainesville where they continued their hot play to defeat Cumming and Winder to win the overall District 9 title and advance to the state tournament in Macon. The post-season run continued in Macon where the Fannin ladies defeated Hawkinsville, Soperton and Colquitt on successive nights before dropping the state championship contest to Baxley High. Four Fannin girls, Jean Henry Zachary, Bunzie Johnson Ross, Willa Dean Cole and Blanche Smith Ganues, were named to the all-state team. Other team members were Doris Wallace Wheeler, Pauline Hyde Brown, Jean Prince Moore, Blanche Tipton, Anne Woody Bramlett, Wanda Vandiver Akins, Lena Ralston and Margaret Ann Richards Ballew.