MACON, Ga. — Eight legends were inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Brenda Cliette Thomas grew up in Macon, but says she never expected to be where she is today.
"Just little ole' me, just having fun, doing some things I like to do. Now, to be a hall of famer in the class that I'm apart of, this is pretty cool."
Growing up, she always played outside, and especially loved running track and shooting a basketball.
She says, "Racing people during the day and in the evenings, loved basketball, always loved basketball. We'd play basketball on the courts over there in the Davis homes projects."
When a high school coach saw how fast she was, he encouraged her to keep running at Northeast High School in Macon, and she continued to run in college at Florida State University, despite being heavily recruited by the University of Georgia.
She says, "I wasn't a big fan of track but I did well at track and Florida State had an awesome track program."
And then came the medals, and later, an induction into both the Macon Sports Hall of Fame and the Florida State Hall of Fame. She also earned a spot as an alternate in the 1984 Summer Olympics.
When she graduated, she knew she wanted to come back home to Macon to be with her family. That's when a friend encouraged her to try out for the Macon-Bibb Fire Department.
"I like to help people, I am a helper of the people and I am my brother and my sister's keeper. Once I got here and learned that that's what we do, 28 years later, here I am," she recalls.
Now, she's in good company, surrounded by other Georgia sports greats, like National Football League Calvin Johnson Jr., former Major League Baseball first baseman Mark Teixeira, and sports broadcaster Ernie Johnson Jr.