Waycross-Ware County Sports Hall of Fame


Junior Fairley
Inducted 2001
Junior graduated from Hoboken High School in 1942. He played varsity baseball two years and basketball three years with outstanding success in both sports.
He led the basketball team to a 25-3 record his senior year averaging 20 points a game and compiled a 13-1 record pitching for the baseball team his final season.
In 1943, he played on a fast pitch softball team in Brunswick and that squad won the city championship.
After service in the Navy during World Ware II, Junior played briefly in the Georgia-Florida League with Thomasville in 1946 and Waycross in 1947. While with Thomasville, he combined with another pitcher to no-hit the Albany Cardinals in a 7 inning game.
Junior played semi-pro baseball for Homerville, Waycross and Baxley until 1960. He was voted MVP of the Double-T League in 1959.
A third baseman on the Sweat Grocery team, they won the city league fast pitch softball championship in 1949 and 1950.
Junior was one of the top three scorers in basketball for the city recreation league in the 1940s and 1950s averaging 18 points a game for both the 7-Up Bottling Company team and L.P. Langford’s quintet.
He coached basketball for three years and had two league titles to his credit.
In 1949, his Isabella team won the Midget Crown and his Alice Street Eagles were Midget Champions in 1958.
An excellent golfer, he began playing and 1964 and cared a first round 70 in the Okefenokee Invitational in 1966. He had two holes-in-one and won the first Okefenokee Seniors Invitational Tournament in 1989. In 1998, at age 74, he shot two rounds of 73 in the same week.
Junior was married to Ann Young Fairly and they had four children