Georgia basketball star Terry Fair dies

Fair’s Georgia teammates expressed admiration for their friend. James Banks said that Fair “epitomized toughness.”

“(He was) a great leader and teammate, was funny and played the game the right way,” Banks said. “We’re in shock right now as his teammates, but more importantly, as his friends. We love him so much.”

Credit: Richard Drew

Credit: Richard Drew

Derrick Floyd said that Fair’s impact on his life began before Floyd arrived in Athens.

“Terry Fair was one of the reasons I decided to come to Georgia to play basketball,” Floyd said, “and I am so glad I had an opportunity recently to talk to him. He will always be my teammate, friend and roommate.”

“Terry was a player who never thought about ‘me’,” former Georgia coach Hugh Durham said in a statement released by UGA. “He was always thinking about the team. He played so hard defensively and would do whatever you asked him to do for the team. Those are the things that I remember most about him as a player.”

Fair was a member of Southwest Macon’s 1979 state and national championship basketball team, thought to be one of the state’s greatest high school teams ever. He was a high school All-American and part of Durham’s important Georgia recruiting class that brought in Dominique Wilkins, Lamar Heard and Floyd.

Credit: W. A. BRIDGES JR.

Credit: W. A. BRIDGES JR.

Fair played at Georgia from 1979-83, leading them in rebounding in three of his four seasons, and averaging 12.1 points and 7.5 rebounds over for seasons. He played professionally in Israel for more than a decade.

In 1983, Georgia secured its first-ever invitation to the NCAA Tournament, with the Bulldogs’ run through the tourney ending in the Final Four. On their way there, the Bulldogs upset No. 3 St. John’s in the Sweet 16, with Fair scoring a career-high 27 points.

Fair was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.