Former coach returns for Epic 5K Race
Published 10:11 am Monday, October 21, 2013
The fourth annual Dylan Reid Faircloth First Memorial Epic 5K Run will be Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Spring Hill Christmas Tree Farm.
The run is held in honor and memory of Faircloth, a 2009 Bainbridge High School graduate and former Bearcats cross-country runner. Faircloth was an organ donor who lost his life in a car accident in July 2010 while driving home from a church camp in Pine Mountain.
Proceeds from the race benefits two scholarships, one that goes to a cross-country runner and one that goes to another outstanding student.
Stan Gann, a former quarterback for coach Wayman Creel at Atlanta’s Northside High School and coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, as well as a high school football coach in Warner Robins, received the honoree’s heart. Gann comes back each year to participate in the 5K. He and his wife, Sissi, live in Kathleen.
Coach Gann was a member of Northside’s 1956 state runner-ups and 1957 state champions. Late legendary Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head football coach Dodd named him starting quarterback in 1960.
The honorees mother June Faircloth is active in a transplant advocacy group affiliated with Life Link of Georgia.
In addition to coach Gann, two mothers received the honoree’s kidneys, a mechanic in Georgia received his liver, and two young boys received his corneas.
Faircloth and Gann had a couple of things in common. Both were born in March and both were distance runners.