Georgia head coach Kirby Smart already had plenty on his mind this week with a College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup against Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. That focus was altered for many on Wednesday when an attack on Bourbon Street claimed double-digit lives and injured dozens. Smart also had another reason for anguish as his father, Sonny Smart, was injured in a fall in front of the hotel in New Orleans where he was staying.
Sonny Smart passed away early Saturday morning at 76 years old following complications that arose from hip surgery. He was surrounded by his wife, Sharon, and their three children: Karl, Kirby and Kendall.
«The Smart family expresses their heartfelt gratitude to the Ochsner hospital and medical staff for the exceptional care provided to Sonny. Additionally, they ask for your continued prayers for those affected by the tragic events that occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day,» a statement from UGA read. «The Smart family treasures everyone’s thoughts and prayers and now prays for God’s comfort, strength, and guidance.»
Smart discussed his father at the 2023 National Championship in Los Angeles.
«He’s a really special man to me,» Smart said. «Unfortunately, he’s not going to be able to make it to the game. He’s had some medical stuff. It hurts me that he and my mom won’t be here. But I know it’s the right decision for him. He’s been at almost every, in terms of home game in Athens, playoff games. It’s tough that he’s not able to make it. Nothing worse than watching your parents grow old. It’s like taxes; it’s inevitable. They’re going to get old. And that’s been tough.
But he’s taught me so much just about the way you handle things, the right way, the wrong way. Control the controllables. The moment’s never too big if you’re prepared. And I always watched the way he prepared our teams and our staff in high school. He was a very wise man, a man of few words. I tried to follow his mantra as a coach.
I’ve certainly evolved from going to coach for other people, but a lot of my core beliefs came from the way he ran our programs in high school.»
Sonny graduated from Samford where he played center on the football team, and coached high school football for over two decades in Alabama and Georgia, at Holtville, Bainbridge, and Rabun County. He was inducted into the Decatur County Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. It was at Bainbridge where Sonny coached his son Kirby.
«Obviously, you grow up around it. It’s in your DNA,» Smart said back in 2020. «Every coach doesn’t want his son to be a coach, he wants him to be something better—then they end up being a coach anyway because that’s all they have grown up around. My dad never discouraged me from coaching, but he never encouraged it either. Mike’s [Bobo] dad would probably say the same thing. When you see it in your parents like it was in our two dads who grew up—Highway 84, south Georgia football, a lot of great matchups and Friday night being the most important thing in the town—it’s just kind of in your DNA. So, it was that way for both of us, and we are both competitive people because of our parents.»