West Rome High School Chieftains Rome GA

Delightful Interview with our Beloved Head 🏈 Coach Charles Winslette
He mentions lots of our players and history 💚

Legends of the game, Charlie Winslette and Marvin Barton Created with Wondershare Filmora

They accept defeat from none! West Rome's Class of '81 💚 45th Reunion on Saturday at 6 pm 😎

For our Collectors... 💚

Here are the Answers to the Pop Quiz!!! 💚

Do you remember your Class Yell? Do they even have those at today's schools? 😂

SAVE THE DATE!!! The Class of 1976 is holding their 50 Year Reunion on October 10th in Downtown Rome. Please reach out so they can add you to their Contacts and keep you in the loop! 💚

1976 Chieftain Acts --- So many things were Red, White and Blue as we celebrated the Bicentennial. Happy Sesquicentennial, USA! 💚🇺🇸💚🇺🇸💚

Another EXCELLENT Article by the Rome News-Tribune 😎 They interviewed Coach Charles Winslette and it brings back the MEMORIES! 💚🏈🏆🤗

The 1976 Track Season continued... Gary Tillman, MVP. (50 years ago this week)
West Rome and later UGA Track All Star Gary Tillman earned the Most Valuable Player trophy after the Chieftain track season of 1976... and while accepting his trophy... turned around and gave it to his head track coach, in his first year with West Rome HS. Coach Gary Phillips. CLASS. PURE CLASS. Gary would later exhibit this same unselfish quality as he gave his life to protect others during a tragic aviation crash into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida... piloting the plane while steering close enough for passengers to swim to shore before it crashed into the ocean... In remembrance of a great West Rome and UGA athlete... and a great person as well.... Gary Tillman. MVP. From the Rome News-Tribune of May 23, 1976...
The Tillman Clocktower 5K Road Race & 2 Mile Health Walk is named in his memory 💚

(Excellent Article from the Rome News-Tribune) Thank you! 💚
West Rome making state Hall of Fame mark
By Matthew Brown [email protected]

When looking at the recent accomplishments of Bowdon High, Eagle’s Landing Christian and powerhouse Buford High, they still haven’t surpassed the standard bearer. Bowdon High will have that opportunity in the fall as it goes for its fifth state football championship in row, but for now the record sits at four straight in the Georgia High School Association with the West Rome High Chieftans of the early- to mid-eighties forever seated as the first.

Four state championships in a row. West Rome only lost one game in that four-year span.

It’s something Valdosta High’s legendary program came one season short of accomplishing twice in the 1950s and ’60s.

The commemoration of West Rome’s accomplishment is on display at Barron Stadium along with the triumphs of neighbor East Rome in the 1970s and Rome High just about a decade ago. In October, the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame will also forever recognize this Chieftan stretch when it holds the induction ceremony for the Class of 2026.

In that same class is a player who made his name in both football and the ministry of the Gospel well beyond his high school days.

The late David McCluskey spearheaded head coach Mike Hodges’ team to a 15-0 record capped off by a dramatic 7-6 win over Mary Persons High and another legendary coach, Dan Pitts, in the 1982 season. McCluskey, an All-American at running back and linebacker for West Rome, was also inducted into the Rome-Floyd County Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.

McCluskey then found himself at the mecca for college football running backs. He became a four-year letterman at the University of Georgia from 1983-86. As a fullback, McCluskey blocked for the likes of Lars Tate. Two others in that backfield were Keith Henderson and Tim Worley.

In four years, McCluskey rushed for 1,503 yards and scored nine touchdowns for Georgia and was a late-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Bengals.

McCluskey’s impact in college went beyond football as recalled by UGA longtime radio sideline voice and columnist Loran Smith.

“With David McCluskey, he was popular with the Black community in Athens,” Smith told the Rome News-Tribune. “I went to hear him play the organ at church many years ago for a column about his interests beyond football.”

Bishop David E. McCluskey was Senior Pastor of Glorious New Jerusalem when he passed away in September, 2023, at the age of 59.

“It was such a downer when he passed away at such a young age,” said Smith. “I can see him smiling now, deep and wide with those sparkling eyes which made you feel he was a Good Samaritan and friend.”

Under Hodges, West Rome would go on to win a second straight state championship 15-0 in 1983. It was the last of Hodges’ five seasons as West Rome head coach; he left with 53 career wins and then won another state championship at Thomasville High in 1988.

Another standout player from the West Rome title run is Eric Floyd, an offensive lineman who starred at Auburn University and played six years in the NFL with the Chargers, Eagles, Cardinals and Broncos.

Rodney Walker, winner of 300 high school football games as a head coach everywhere in Georgia from Villa Rica to Stephens County to Jones County to Peach County to Sandy Creek, led West Rome football for the 1984 season going 14-1. Walker passed away May 9, 2026. Ten years prior he was interviewed for a podcast series on the Sportsmic site called “Conversations with Tom Mobley.”

Walker mentioned how, in that one year, he had a “great group” of juniors.

“You look back on your life in coaching, and I think about that year. It was a great year,” said Walker. He mentioned what Hodges had done before his arrival and won that second championship with the juniors he had as sophomores.

“Probably the only bad move in coaching I ever made was leaving West Rome. I did not do those kids right. It’s something I never have felt good about. I should have stayed there ... not to win a state championship (again). I should have stayed because it was the right thing to do. I let ego get in the way. Sometimes we think we are a little bit better than we are ... I made a very poor decision, and I own it. It was my fault. I don’t mind telling the story.”

Charles Winslette took over in 1985, winning the fourth of four in row and 36 games overall in four years. Like Hodges, Winslette also won a state championship post West Rome when he was at Greene-Taliaferro (1993) for five seasons.

The Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony for 2026 is scheduled for Oct. 26 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. The Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame was established in 2022. Other inductees for 2026 include: Daccus Turman, Washington-Wilkes; Kedric Golston, Sandy Creek; Rodney Hudson, LaGrange; Travis Stroud, Dunwoody; Patrick Pass, Tucker; Cosey Coleman, Southwest DeKalb; Jasper Sanks, Carver-Columbus; Stacy Searels, Trion; Vince Sutton, LaGrange; Terance Mathis, Redan; Mo Lewis, Murphy; Chuck Smith, Clarke Central; Eric Curry, Thomasville; Phil Baker, Pepperell; Jimmy Robinson, Ridgeview; Runt Moon, Commerce; Drew Hill, Newnan; Stump Mitchell, Camden County; Jim Bob Harris, Clarke Central; Joey Browner, Southwest Atlanta; Ricky Williams, Griffin; Randall Edmunds, Lincolnton; Billy Brice, Avondale; Dennis Chadwick, Decatur; Brent Cunningham, Putnam County; Doyle Orange, Waycross; Milton Byard, Risley; John Henry Jackson, Spencer; Wade Mitchell, North Fulton; Harold Olson, Southwest DeKalb; Jack “William” Peek, Tech; Bobby North, Tech.

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