The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will induct two members into this year’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Hall of Fame including former NC State head coach Dick Sheridan and former Peach Bowl, Inc. chairmen Jerry Bartels.
Established in 2002, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Hall of Fame honors former players, coaches and contributors, as well as staff and volunteers, who have had a significant impact on the Bowl.
A national coach of the year at both the FBS and FCS levels, Dick Sheridan won 69.4 percent (121-52-5) of his games during a stellar 15-year run as a head coach. Sheridan began his collegiate football career at Furman from 1978-88, winning 69 games in eight seasons, six Southern Conference championships and posting a 74.4 winning percentage that remains the best in school history. He received three Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors and was named the 1985 AFCA FCS National and Region II Coach of the Year. While leading the Paladins, Sheridan coached eight First Team All-Americans, 75 all-conference players and five SoCon Players of the Year. Sheridan was then named the head coach of NC State, where he posted the program’s first winning season in three years during the 1986 season that culminated in a berth in the Peach Bowl. His immediate turnaround in year one earned him the honor of being named the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year. During his tenure as head coach of NC State from 1986-1992, coach Sheridan led the Wolfpack to an impressive overall record of 52–29–3, including six bowl appearances, which were highlighted by his team’s 1986, 1988 and 1991 trips to the Peach Bowl. Boasting a .637 winning percentage in Raleigh, he would finish with the second-most wins in school history (52), while coaching four All-Americans and 31 all-conference players. He is a member of the Furman Athletic, South Carolina Athletic and South Carolina Football halls of fame, as well as the College Football Hall of Fame. Sheridan passed away earlier this year in July at the age of 81.
Jerry Bartels served as the executive vice president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and played a pivotal role in saving the Peach Bowl in the 1980s when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Bartels was determined to save the Peach Bowl and urged for everyone’s continued support of the bowl business and community involvement during some of its trying years. He spearheaded the charge to form a merger between the Peach Bowl and the Chamber during a 1986 meeting where the Chamber Board of Directors unanimously decided in favor of the idea. Following the meeting, Bartels was named the new president of the Peach Bowl until a new director would be appointed by the Chamber. Jerry Bartels remained at the Chamber until December of 1996 after closing out a very successful career in business by saving the Peach Bowl and bringing the Summer Olympics to Atlanta, among other accomplishments. Bartels passed away in May of 2023, but will always be remembered as an integral part of making Atlanta a sports mecca.
Including this year’s inductees, there are now 64 members in the Chik-fil-A Peach Bowl Hall of Fame, including players such as Mike Singletary, Reggie White and Jim Kelly, as well as coaches including Bobby Dodd, Vince Dooley and Lou Holtz.
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