Our History: Featured Alumni/ae: McWhorter, Robert L. (Bob), 1917

Inductee, College Football Hall of Fame; Mayor of Athens, Georgia

Bob McWhorter was born on June 4, 1891 in Athens, Georgia and went on to play football and baseball at the University of Georgia. As a halfback, he scored 61 touchdowns from 1910 to 1913. In 1913, McWhorter became UGA’s first All-American. He was the captain of both the baseball and football teams in his senior year. He was a member of the  Phi Kappa Literary Society, and Phi Beta Kappa at Georgia. Although he was offered a professional baseball contract, he instead chose to study law at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1917.

After becoming an attorney, he returned to Athens, Georgia to practice law. He was a four-term mayor of Athens, from 1940-1947, and a law professor at the University of Georgia from 1923 to 1958. Bob McWhorter was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. He died in Athens on June 29, 1960, at the age of 69. He was inducted in the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1964. Six years after his death, the University of Georgia’s athletic dormitory, McWhorter Hall, was dedicated in his memory.