MACON, Ga. — Tommy Hart - a Macon-born NFL player and multi-time Super Bowl champion - died on Nov. 20, his family announced. He was 80 years old.
Hart spent 13 seasons in the NFL as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. During that time, he appeared in 177 games and recorded 83 sacks. He was a member of the NFL’s All-Pro Second Team in 1976, and he earned a Pro Bowl nomination in 1977.
He was also inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
Hart’s daughters, Keke Hart and Crystal McLoughlin, want their father to be remembered for more than just what he did on the football field.
“He just made time to be our dad,” McLoughlin said. “He didn’t bring work home, and it wasn’t something we saw a lot. We just knew him as our big, cuddly teddy bear of a dad that liked to play and show us lots of love.”
Hart, his daughters say, was one of eight kids growing up in a three-bedroom Macon house. He attended Ballard-Hudson High School and, after graduating, attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
During college, Hart earned Second-Team NAIA All-America honors in 1968 and All-Conference honors for three consecutive seasons. The entire time, he was driven by one purpose: his family.
“He felt like it was his responsibility to get his family out of that situation,” Keke Hart said. “And he did that.”
Hart got drafted by the 49ers after college, and according to his daughters, he spent his first NFL paycheck buying his mom a house on Thomaston Road in Macon.
Hart became a Hall of Fame player at the NFL level, and once he retired, he took up coaching as a defensive line coach with the 49ers. His daughters say Hart was always trying to help the younger generation improve, trying to be an inspiration for them to look up to.
Even with all of that on his plate, Keke and Crystal say their father always managed to make time for his family. When he wasn’t working or with his kids, Hart was an avid horse-racing fan, according to his children.
Keke Hart also recalled that her father enjoyed walking in his downtime. She said he had a walking buddy and every Friday, they would walk 10 miles together - they called it “Hell Friday.”
As far as his journeys took him - San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and more - his daughters say Hart never lost sight of his roots. They say he used to donate shoes to his alma mater, and he used to make appearances around the Georgia community to support youth athletes.
“He never forgot where he came from,” Keke Hart said. “He was still just a Georgia boy at heart. He never forgot where he came from, and he never thought he was better than any of the people he was raised with.”