Buck Cheves

James Parks "Buck" Cheves (November 28, 1898 – April 12, 1995) was an American college football player and referee. Cheves played for the Georgia Bulldogs and later was a Southeastern Conference official for 35 years.

Biography Cheves was born in Richwood, Georgia, in 1898, and his family moved to Atlanta before 1900. He then led the "ten second backfield" of the 1920 Georgia football team under first-year coach Herman Stegeman. The team compiled an 8–0–1 record and won a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) title. It was the first Georgia squad to be known as the "Bulldogs."

Cheves played without a helmet, because he claimed the headgear impaired his hearing. and still stands as one of the longest return touchdowns in Bulldogs history.

Cheves was also a guard on the Georgia basketball team. He was captain of the 1921 basketball team that lost to Basil Hayden and the Kentucky Wildcats' "Wonder Team" in the SIAA championship game. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. O! Cheves! O! Cheves!

In south, thou art rough,

The enemy grieves

When thou show'st thy stuff,

Thou art like a hurricane,

Thou hittest them hard,

God pity the man

Whom thou dost guard.

In 1924, sportswriter Morgan Blake listed Cheves as the quarterback in his selection of the greatest football players from Atlanta.

In 1945, Cheves was president of the Touchdown Club of Atlanta. He was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1976.

Outside of his sporting career, Cheves was involved in real estate from 1922 though his retirement in the 1980s.