Lauren Hargrove, 79, of Atlanta was 'Herschel Walker' of his day

“He was the Herschel Walker of his day,” he said.

In 1948, Mr. Hargrove scored two touchdowns and kicked the winning extra point in the Class A championship game vs. Decatur High. That year, the state’s first All-American was the most sought-after football player in the nation, wrote Gene Asher in “Legends — Georgians Who Lived Impossible Dreams.”

Mr. Hargrove was a three-year letterman at UGA from 1950 to 1952. In one game against Auburn, he racked up 167 yards in one half.

“Last time I visited him in Hiawassee he had a clipping of that game hanging up on the wall,” said UGA sports personality Loran Smith. “He didn’t enjoy the best of times in Athens — we didn’t have the best teams when he came through — but he still was an outstanding back.”

The six-foot, one-inch, 190-pounder was an 8th-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers. Shortly after being drafted, however, he was drafted again. This time in the Army. After his military service, the phantom wanted to return to Green Bay, but the franchise had traded him, said his former wife, Judy Hargrove Foltz of Dunwoody.

“I don’t remember the name of that team,” she said, “but he didn’t want to play for them. So he quit football altogether.”

The funeral for Lauren Hargrove Sr., 79, of Atlanta, will be 2 p.m. Sunday in the Arlington chapel of H.M. Patterson & Son Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements. Family and friends will gather an hour before the service to view memorabilia from his glory days. Mr. Hargrove died Sept. 17 at Embracing Hospice in Cumming from complications of throat cancer.

Mr. Hargrove worked in insurance briefly before he became an Atlanta-based salesman and manager for Ford Steel Co. He retired after 27 years and moved to Hiawassee, where he lived three years. He eventually returned to the area, first Cumming and then Atlanta, where he spent the last two years of his life.

He played football at a time when the gear wasn’t very protective. Mr. Asher wrote in his book that the athlete endured a separated shoulder, a broken leg and had his nose injured several times at UGA.

In 2007, Mr. Hargrove discussed the game’s grittiness.

“Down in Tifton, one of their defensive players hit me right in the mouth with his elbow and broke two of my front teeth off, and they went through my lip,” he said at the time. “I was bleeding like nobody’s business, and my players in the huddle were looking at it and about [to get] sick. I didn’t know it because I was so numb that it didn’t even hurt me.”

John Wiggins, the Fitzgerald booster official, remembered a race the Atlanta Crackers had at one of its baseball games. Four of the state’s fastest running backs competed in the 100-yard dash with cleats and helmets.

“Lauren walked away from all of them,” Mr. Wiggins said. “He was a natural.”

Survivors include a daughter, Ashley Dickerson of Cumming; two sons, Lauren Hargrove Jr. of Atlanta and John Hargrove of Savannah; and two grandchildren.