University of Georgia Athletics
Former Athletes Chosen For Induction Into Circle Of Honor
August 19, 2007 | Football
ATHENS, Ga. --- Former football All-Americans Ben Zambiasi and Royce Smith and former NCAA team and individual champion gymnast Hope Spivey have been chosen for induction into the University of Georgia’s Circle of Honor the school’s highest tribute paid to former athletes and coaches. Zambiasi, Smith and Spivey will be honored at an induction banquet on Friday, Sept. 14, at the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, where they will be permanently enshrined in the Circle of Honor exhibit. They also will be recognized at the Georgia-Western Carolina football game on Saturday, Sept. 15.
The all-sports recognition program is designed to recognize and pay tribute to extraordinary student-athletes and coaches who by their performance and conduct have brought honor to the university and themselves, and who by their actions have contributed to the tradition of the Georgia Bulldogs. The criteria also stipulate that each recipient has earned his or her academic degree.
Ben Zambiasi:
Of Zambiasi, former Georgia football coach Vince Dooley once said, “In all my years of coaching, I never coached a more intense and tenacious football player.” That tenacity began at small Mount de Sales High School in Macon. Passed over by most colleges, Georgia coaches noticed him while scouting one of his teammates. A prep All-American as a fullback and linebacker, he was on state championship teams in both football and baseball earning team MVP and All-State honors.
Zambiasi became a Bulldog in 1974 and it didn't take him long to make an impact. He earned a starting spot as a sophomore, posting 148 tackles and helping the Bulldogs to a 9-3 record and berth in the Cotton Bowl. He followed with 144 more tackles as a junior, leading a Bulldog defense that allowed only 10.7 points per game and helped earn the SEC championship and Sugar Bowl bid. During the season, he was named the UPI national player of the week for his performance in Georgia’s 21-0 shutout of Alabama. His play earned him All-America and All-SEC honors. Zambiasi added 177 tackles in his senior season, earning All-SEC and All-America honors for a second time. Zambiasi was named Georgia’s most outstanding defensive player in both 1975 and 1976. He set the Georgia record with 467 total career tackles, a mark that has stood for 30 years. Following his senior season, he was named the recipient of the 1977 William K. Jenkins Award as Georgia’s top lineman as well as the Wallace Butts Memorial Award, presented annually to the Georgia football player who best pays the best price’ to be a success.
The end of Zambiasi’s Georgia career marked the beginning of one of the greatest runs in Canadian Football League History. Joining the Hamilton Tiger Cats in 1978, he was named the Most Outstanding Eastern Division Rookie and also earned a spot on the CFL All-Star Team. It was the first of six CFL All-Star Team recognitions and eight Eastern Division All-Star appearances. He was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 1979 and the Eastern Division Most Outstanding Defensive Player twice. He led his team to four Grey Cup appearances and the league championship in 1986. Following an 11-year CFL career, he was named to the Hamilton Tiger-Cat Walk of Fame in 1999 and to the team’s Wall of Honour in 2002. Zambiasi received the league’s highest honor in 2004 when he was inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame.
Royce Smith:
A little over two weeks after his final game as a Georgia Bulldog, the mayors of Savannah and Garden City, issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 17, 1972, as “Royce Smith Day” in his hometown community of Chatham County on Georgia’s coast. His success story actually began eight years earlier, as a ninth grader at Groves High School. He decided to take the advice of Groves football coach Jack Miller to give up basketball, get into a weight-lifting program and concentrate on football. Smith began lifting weights three hours a day and to stay in shape for football, he also went out for track. Playing tight end initially, Smith made a name for himself and after his junior season, University of Georgia assistant coach John Donaldson expressed interest in him.
Smith doubted he could play college football, but Miller told him he could do it if he worked for it. Smith took him at his word and worked hard in the weight room during his senior season. Despite the fact that few schools showed interest, Dooley and Donaldson still liked the way Smith played football and signed him to be a Bulldog.
He arrived in Athens weighing 190 pounds and the Georgia coaches quickly determined his best chance for playing would be at offensive guard. He re-committed himself to the weight room and rose to 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, but he still could run the 40-yard dash in 4.8 seconds, the fastest for a Georgia lineman. And he could bench press a then-Georgia record 430 pounds. An offensive guard, his play on the field produced an All-America career that ended in 1971 with an 11-1 record and Gator Bowl victory over North Carolina. His senior season was highlighted by selection to 12 All-America first teams. He also was named a consensus All-SEC player, earned an invitation to the Senior Bowl post-season all-star game, was selected as the winner of the Jacobs Blocking Award as the SEC’s outstanding blocker, and was elected by his teammates as the 1971 Bulldog team captain.
That paved the way for his selection a few months later in the first round of the NFL draft by New Orleans, where he would play before closing his career with Atlanta. In 1995, he was inducted into the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. Smith passed away unexpectedly in January 2004, at the age of 54.
Hope Spivey:
A member of the 1993 NCAA Championship team and Georgia's four straight SEC Championship teams, Spivey was known as one of the greatest collegiate gymnasts ever.
A native of Suffolk, Va., Spivey tallied 12 First-Team All-America awards, four individual NCAA national championships, four individual SEC titles and three All-SEC honors. She was the second Georgia gymnast and just the fifth in college history to record a perfect 10.0, and she finished her Gym Dog career with 27 perfect scores. At that time, only the teams from Georgia and Utah had more combined 10.0s than Spivey.
In 1991, Spivey became the first Georgia freshman ever to win the NCAA all-around title with a then-NCAA record of 39.525 as well as the first to earn All-America honors on all four events. She tied for the NCAA vault title and won the floor championship in the same meet. She was also named the SEC’s Freshman of the Year and was presented with the Honda Sports Award, which goes annually to the nation's top collegiate gymnast.
As a sophomore, she became the first Georgia gymnast to post two 10.0s in the same meet, hitting perfect marks against rival Alabama. Spivey also scored her first of four SEC individual titles during her sophomore campaign, winning the vault and floor exercise events. The Gym Dogs captured the national title during Spivey’s junior season of 1993. That team is still considered the greatest college team of all-time, with a perfect record of 32-0, as well as becoming the first to score a 198.0 in team competition. In 1994, Spivey won her second NCAA individual floor exercise title with the only 10.0 scored at that year's NCAAs. She was named the SEC’s Gymnast of the Year.
Her gymnastics career also included appearances representing the United States at the 1987 Pan American Games, the 1988 Olympic Games and the 1993 World University Games. Spivey became the first member of her family to earn a college degree, and followed her Gym Dog career with two years on the professional circuit. She continues to share her love of gymnasts with youngsters at Spivey’s Gymnastics & Tumbling International in Winder. In 2004, she was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame for her home state of Virginia, joining a class that included former two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange.
