Terry Fair was heart and soul of 1983 Final Four squad

Two years after losing team captain Lamar Heard, Georgia’s 1983 Final Four Team lost another huge piece of that squad Thursday, with the passing of former Bulldog great Terry Fair.

According to Bibb County coroner Leon Jones, Fair died of natural causes.

A prep star at Southwest Macon, whom he helped lead to the 1979 national championship, Fair went on to star for four years at Georgia, where he was the heart and soul of a Hugh Durham squad that advanced to the 1983 Final Four before losing in the semifinals to North Carolina State.

“Terry was a player who never thought about ‘me.’ He was always thinking about the team,” Durham said on Georgiadogs.com. “He played so hard defensively and would do whatever you asked him to do for the team. Those are the things that I remember most about him as a player.”

Fair’s passing hits hard for a Bulldog program, which lost Heard, the 1983 team captain, back in May of 2017.

Heard and Fair were part of a Bulldog recruiting class many consider the program’s best of all time. Considering the class included the likes of Derrick Floyd and all-time great Dominique Wilkins, it’s easy to understand why.

A quick look at Georgia’s media guide reveals how valuable and how versatile a player Fair was.

Fair completed his career as the Bulldogs’ all-time leader in steals (194) and games played (123), and also ranked No. 2 in rebounds (923), No. 4 in points (1,492), and No. 9 in assists (177).

Thirty-seven years after his last year in a Bulldog uniform, Fair still ranks No. 2 in rebounds, No. 10 in points, and No. 6 in steals.

But it was his performance in the 1983 postseason when Fair played some of his best ball.

That year, Georgia earned its first-ever invitation to the NCAA Tournament after winning the SEC Tournament. Fair won MVP honors after scoring 19 points in the championship game against Alabama.

He later helped the Bulldogs upset No. 3 St. John’s with a career-best 27-point effort. Georgia beat No. 8 North Carolina in the NCAA East Regional to advance to the Final Four for the only time in school history.

Fair was later drafted in the fourth round by the Indiana Pacers, but played 10 years professionally in Israel before retiring.

He was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.