Panther Pride
The story of sports at Georgia State University … and the heroes and heroines who forged a great tradition
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Ed Gadrix graduated from Georgia State in 1965. An attorney, he obtained his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from John Marshall Law School. In the early 60s he helped form the first Panther Club which had no more than 10 to 15 members. The club staffed the concession games for basketball at the old O’Keefe high school gym, now a part of Georgia Tech. “My wife and I would go to the grocery store and buy cokes and candies and sell them at the games; they’d be no more than 50 people in the stands.” The club got no support from the university as there was no official athletics department with employees. Ed served eight years on the Georgia State Athletics Board and was the outspoken proponent for football which led to the administration, not wanting football, demanding he step-down. He has served on the nominating committee for the Georgia State University’s Athletics Hall of Fame and was instrumental in getting tennis great, Don Floyd, into the HOF the first year the Hall of Fame was instituted. In writing, Panther Pride, he spent numerous days over years in the Georgia State archives and library pouring over documents, photographs, yearbooks, records and Signal newspapers. He did the same at Georgia Tech since that was where Georgia State started. He conducted personal interviews with former athletes and their families in order to get the story firsthand. Ed became so enthralled in writing the book he said, “After interviewing the aged sister of Bill Layton, who I call the father of sports, I visited Layton’s grave in Atlanta’s Arlington cemetery. I sat by his grave for an hour thinking about all he and those early athletes had done but so few knew about it. Only Panther Pride could keep that alive.” All of the work over many years forms the product hereby presented, Panther Pride. 
