ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart’s father, Sonny, died early Saturday of complications from hip surgery after falling Tuesday in New Orleans ahead of the Sugar Bowl, the school announced.
Sonny Smart, a longtime high school football coach in Alabama and Georgia, fell while walking on New Year’s Eve and fractured his hip. He was hospitalized and had hip surgery at Ochsner Medical Center, where he died surrounded by his family, according to a release from the university. He was 76.
The Smart family was in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, a College Football Playoff quarterfinal between the second-seeded Bulldogs and seventh-seeded Notre Dame that was pushed back a day because a man rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and injuring about 30 early Wednesday in what authorities have said was an act of terrorism.
Georgia lost to Notre Dame 23-10 on Thursday, ending a 12-3 season for the Bulldogs.
Sonny Smart couldn’t make it to the CFP title game in January 2023 — when Georgia beat TCU 65-7 in Inglewood, California, to repeat as national champions — because of health problems. Before those arose, he had been a regular at his son’s games since Kirby became head coach at his collegiate alma mater in 2016.