Billy Phillips - Football, 2014
Phillips was a two-sport star at Commercial High School from 1954-57 who earned a football scholarship to the University of Georgia. He began his college career in grand fashion with a crucial reception that helped Georgia’s freshman team defeat Georgia Tech in 1957, and he starred alongside UGA legends Fran Tarkenton and Pat Dye as a member of a freshman team that went on to finish 10-1 in the 1959-60 season and win the Orange Bowl. Phillips had one of the most memorable high school athletic careers in Savannah’s history, winning the Sears Trophy as the city’s best high school athlete in 1956 and being named to the Georgia All State Team. He caught 10 touchdown passes during his senior year and was named the Savannah News Press lineman of the year, and Commercial High’s football team won the Savannah City Championship. As a basketball player, Phillips was second in the city in scoring and first in rebounding during his senior season and was named an all-region performer during his junior and senior seasons. Although his athletic career ended too soon, his accomplishments on the field and on the court make him one of Savannah’s finest high school athletes ever.