Clarke Central High School Media Specialists Naomi Craver and Angela Pendley pose with CCHS varsity football assistant coach Damien Gary (from left to right) in the CCHS Media Center holding the book “The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia,” on April 17. The three CCHS staff members collaborated to launch a summer book club for student-athletes during 2026 with the hopes of teaching the history and significance behind the book. “When I (was) in the process of reading it, Ms. Pendley was also reading it, so every day we’d be like, ‘Did you read this,’ or ‘Did you hear about that?’ We were both just glued into the book,” Gary said. “Then Ms. Pendley took it a step further, and was like, ‘Well, what if we did a book club with the athletes talking about the history of Clarke Central, how it came into existence, and the people that paved the way.’ I was like, ‘Man, that’d be a great idea.’” Photo by Kye Streetman
CCHS media specialists and coaches are introducing a summer book club for student-athletes, who will read “The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia,” to celebrate the history of school integration in Athens.
What once unfolded on the football fields of Athens will now be revisited by a new generation of student-athletes during the summer of 2026 through a book club designed to teach students about the city’s history of integration in the 1970s.
CCHS Media Specialist Angela Pendley spearheaded the creation of the book club, working alongside CCHS Media Specialist Naomi Craver. The club is centered on the comprehensive narrative: “The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia” by author Mark Clegg, which was published on Sept. 1, 2024, and explores the history of racial integration in Athens through the lens of high school football.
“I hope that (the book) sparks an interest in the history of the school and the local community.”
— Mark Clegg,
Author of “The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia”
The idea first arose during the summer of 2025, when Pendley introduced the book to CCHS varsity football assistant coach Damien Gary, whose grandfather, former Burney-Harris High School football player Leonard Champion, is featured in the book, and pitched the idea of reading it with the football team.
“Coach Gary took (the book) home and came back, and he was like, ‘This book is amazing. I couldn’t put it down. It’s a go, let’s read this as a book club.’ Then we started talking about diving into it and (organizing) something over the summer where it wouldn’t be competing with academics for the students,” Pendley said.
Variety Staffer Mzée Pavlić explains the Clarke Central High School athlete summer book club in Billy Henderson Stadium on April 14. Originally, the book club was planned for members of the CCHS football team, but expanded to include every athletic team practicing over the summer. “So that’s kind of originally how it started off, with our interest in the book, and then (Media Specialist Angela Pendley) kind of took it a step further and was like, ‘What if we did a book club with (all) the athletes,’” CCHS varsity football offensive coordinator Damian Gary said. Video by Mzée Pavlić
After the book resonated with Gary, Pendley began raising the approximately $7,000 needed to fund the project through fundraisers and community support. Each student who participates in the book club will receive a free copy of the book, which has a $26 retail price, along with an annotation kit. To help defray expenses, University of Georgia Press, the book’s publisher, offered a 50% discount on book copies in support of the initiative.
The book club was originally planned to be for members of the CCHS football team, but after discussions with head varsity flag football coach Cherelle Pass, the club expanded to the varsity flag football team and quickly grew to include athletes from all sports practicing during the summer of 2026.
“(CCHS varsity football assistant coach Damien) Gary took (the book) home and came back, and he was like, ‘This book is amazing.’”
— Angela Pendley,
CCHS Media Specialist
“We’ve had a great ton of success with former athletes. I know some of the people that I looked up to are in the book. My granddaddy’s name is in the book, so having those experiences was really key for me,” Gary said. “Our generation now, even though a lot of the names that are in the book (are) obviously way older than them, I hope that (athletes will) see that (there’s) a rich history of successful athletes to have (been) born and raised and come from Clarke Central.”
A graphic shows a summary of the information talked about in author Mark Clegg’s “The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia.” Graphic by Kye Streetman
The book club will be structured differently for each sport to accommodate different teams’ needs and practice schedules. The CCHS media specialists have also arranged to create an audio version of the book, which will be narrated by various CCHS faculty and staff.
“I hope that (the book) sparks an interest in the history of the school and the local community. I suspect that people will start reading the book and realize (they’ve) got a family connection here. Plus, it’s important for students to realize that the history of the school is so unique,” Clegg said. “If you look at the history of schools that merged during integration in the ‘60s and ‘70s in the South, they always took the name of the legacy white school. (They) didn’t do that here, Clarke Central High (School) emerged.”
The club is designed to educate students about their school’s integration and broader community history while building connections through shared experiences. To Pass, whose grandfather, former CCHS football player Clarence Pope, is also featured in the book, CCHS athletes must understand its history.
“As a flag football coach, we typically play schools that are either predominantly white with white coaches or predominantly Black with Black coaches. (CCHS is) one of the few schools that is very diverse,” Pass said. “Reading this book will enlighten our girls to understand (that) even then, they were facing certain obstacles because they chose to diversify and change the narrative in (the Clarke County School District), and we may still be subconsciously dealing with some of those issues.”
Author Mark Clegg sits in the Clarke Central High School media center reading his book, “The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia,” on April 2. During the summer of 2026, all student-athletes on teams holding summer practices will read the book as a part of a book club aimed at teaching them the history of their school. “It was my hope that Clarke Central would adopt the book as its origin story, which it really is. It describes how we got there, in terms of the steps that were taken before Athens High and Burney-Harris merged (into) Clarke Central in 1970, (and) the steps involved on how we got there,” Clegg said. “(It’s) perhaps (the) most interesting part of the story, it was anything but easy.” Photo by Kye Streetman
An event will be held during the 2026 Homecoming week for all athletes participating in the book club, featuring an author’s visit with Clegg and a panel of community members who were a part of the integration of Burney-Harris High School and Athens High School, to celebrate the club’s completion of the book.
“(CCHS) had a really rough start with the school in general, but also with our football team, so for Billy Henderson to come in and rebuild this team to bring us into what we have today, we need to know what our beginnings were,” Pendley said. “Because this book is specifically about Athens, I think that will be really powerful for our students to be able to empathize with and to see what we have rebuilt here. (That’s) important.”
