August 11, 2026 — With a new academic year underway, fans around the nation know that the high school football season soon follows. In Georgia, the official kickoff to the season is the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic. It is nearly synonymous with Georgia high school football. Thousands recognize the event. Far fewer know the strong ties and deep connections that Corky Kell had with Cobb Schools. He spent much of his career shaping athletics in the district before lending his name to the state’s premier football event.
“The unique thing about my dad,” said his son, retired state superior court judge Tain Kell, “is if you were in a conversation with him, whether you'd known him for ten years or ten minutes, you were the only person in the world to him. So, he became a major mentor, father figure, and an integral part of so many young people's lives. And that was what he wanted to do. That's what made him tick, and football was a great vehicle for that.”
A Coach’s Calling
Long before his name dominated event logos or flashed across football broadcasts, Carlton J. “Corky” Kell was known as Coach Kell. He moved with his wife, Carole, to Marietta in 1965 to take a job at the newly built Wheeler High School. He started as an assistant football coach and was also named the girls basketball head coach.
“Dad didn’t know anything about girls basketball,” son Tain explained. “Back in those days, girls rules and boys rules in basketball were completely different, but he learned the rules and ended up taking them to the state playoffs nine years in a row.”
The football team, though, despite its eager assistant coach, didn’t fare as well in the program’s first five years, finishing with only one winning season. However, in 1970, Coach Kell was elevated to head coach, and the Wildcats thrived under his leadership. The team went 6-4 in Kell’s first season in charge. In his nine seasons as head football coach, Wheeler went 77-25-1, never finished below .500, and had five seasons with two or fewer losses. Their best run began in 1973 when the team lost only one game for three straight seasons. Their only losses in 1973 and 1974 were in the state championship game and the state semifinals, respectively.
During his coaching career at Wheeler, the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association named him the Girls Basketball Coach of the Year in 1972 and Georgia’s Football Coach of the Year four times. Let that sink in. Four state Football Coach of the Year awards in nine seasons. He was inducted into Wheeler’s Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural Class of 2008-2009.
“He never won a state championship,” Kell’s son pointed out. “But that wasn't the main thing to him. I mean, he would have loved it. I'm not going to lie. But the main thing to him was mentoring young people and being a part of their lives.”
A Vision Beyond the Field
Wanting to make an impact on young lives, a new mission grew within Coach Kell after coaching an All-Star football game in 1975. The venue for the contest was considered by some to be the finest high school stadium in the Southeast at the time.
“Dad had some players in that game who literally were living in houses that didn't have electricity or running water,” Tain Kell reflected. “It made a big impression on him that it was a huge deal for these kids to play in an environment like that. This made my dad think, ‘We’ve got to figure out a way to give more players an opportunity to have that kind of experience.’”
The idea had been planted in Coach Kell’s mind, but it still needed time to grow. However, the vision wasn’t about building a famous event. It was about providing student-athletes with moments that might be the greatest experiences of their lives.
That commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for young people became a defining characteristic of Coach Kell's career. Although his influence would eventually extend across Georgia, his heart always remained with the district and school that brought him to the area.
“My dad loved Cobb Schools,” Coach Kell’s daughter Kimberly Kell Stinson noted, “but he particularly loved Wheeler. Although he had other opportunities, he remained at Wheeler for his entire coaching career.”
In the late 1970s, both Corky and his wife, Carole, a middle school English teacher, went into school administration. After a couple of years, Corky Kell landed his ultimate role as Director of Athletics for the Cobb County School District.
“Dad loved that job,” son Tain recalled. “He loved being a part of athletics all over the county. He missed the interaction directly with players, but that job gave him an opportunity to mentor coaches and see how he could help them improve their programs.”
In his role as Director of Athletics, Kell’s influence extended beyond one school. He could work with coaches and student-athletes throughout the district, helping shape one of Georgia’s strongest athletic areas.
During this time, Coach Kell also leveraged his connections to begin developing his idea for a showcase event for high school football players — a vision born of his desire to see high school competitors enjoy displaying their talents on a bigger stage. More than just additional games, he wanted to create lasting memories and fulfill dreams for those who would never play beyond high school graduation. It just so happened that the Georgia Dome would soon open as the new home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
“Dad and Dave Hunter, the Brookwood Athletic Director and football coach, kicked around the idea for several years about getting kids involved in something like that,” son Tain explained. “When the city started building the Georgia Dome, Dad and Dave were like, ‘This is it.’ One thing about my dad is that he's like a dog with a bone. If he's got an idea and he wants it to come to fruition, you might as well get out of the way because he's going to make it happen. So, when they figured out that the dome was getting built, that became, ‘Let's figure out a way to get kids in this environment to play because it might be the greatest moment of their lives.’”
Creating Moments That Last
Nearly 20 years after the high school All-Star game that sparked the idea, working with Hunter and Ralph Williams, then-principal at McEachern High School, Kell began to see plans take shape. In 1992, the first Georgia Prep Classic was held in the Georgia Dome. The inaugural event was a two-game showcase, and Coach Kell made sure Cobb Schools were represented by scheduling the McEachern Indians in one of the matchups. These contests kicked off the high school season and were the first actual games played in the Georgia Dome, one day before the Falcons’ first preseason game.
“This event began in the early years of my tenure as head coach at McEachern,” former Indians head football coach Jimmy Dorsey remembered. “Having the opportunity to showcase our football program and display our progress in becoming a program of relevance in the state of Georgia, this event couldn’t have come at a better time. To play in that magnificent facility was awe-inspiring for everyone involved.”
In 1994, after just two seasons of the event, Coach Kell’s health declined, preventing him from continuing his work organizing the football classic. At the time, he asked his friend and event partner, Hunter, to promise to keep the event going. In one of Hunter’s first acts as the primary event organizer, he put plans in motion to rename the event the Corky Kell Classic in honor of the man who had the initial idea.
“My dad was just overwhelmed by that,” Coach Kell’s son emphasized. “For him, it was just about kids getting an opportunity to play in a place that they’d never get a chance to otherwise. And not just football players, but cheerleaders, the band, everybody.”
Coach Kell passed away in 1995 at the age of 57 due to complications from lung cancer. At the time, the event that bore his name had grown to a three-game season opener.
For almost 30 years, the Corky Kell Classic was held annually, with one man’s name becoming associated with Georgia high school football’s first games. In 2023, the partnership group that owned the Classic updated its title to honor the retirement of co-founder Dave Hunter. The event’s evolution reflects the lasting influence of the two men who helped create it. This year marks the 35th edition of the event, now known as the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic.
“Number one, the Classic is a premier event,” noted Don Baker, Cobb Schools Director of Athletics since 2019. “Anytime that you can be part of a premier event in the country, that's huge. Number two, you have all eyes in the country on you. We're the only show in town that early in the high school football season, and it has become a destination event. Every year, kids get offered scholarships and opportunities they may not have received had they not been part of Corky Kell. And if it gives one kid an opportunity they wouldn't have had before, it's worth it. We're really proud and honored to be a part of it.”
This, too, would have made Coach Kell very proud.
A Legacy Rooted in Cobb
McEachern is one of two schools to have participated in every edition of the Classic. Eight other Cobb Schools have also made appearances, including the Cobb County School that also bears Coach Kell’s name. Less than a decade after his death, the district honored his contributions by naming one of its newest high schools after him. Kell High School opened in 2002. In 2010, the Kell Longhorns participated in the Corky Kell Classic for the first time and, fittingly, have done so every year since. With the event now encompassing 22 teams playing 11 games, Kell began hosting some of the Classic games on their campus in 2023.
Clearly, Cobb Schools’ roots run deep within the vaunted football event that bears Coach Kell’s name. It’s a matter of pride for many involved. Most agree that Coach Kell would be pleased to see part of his legacy still going strong.
“I know Coach Kell would be so proud that his vision to create a showcase event to promote high school football has endured through 35 years and counting,” Coach Dorsey said. “The many people who have worked behind the scenes to ensure this event is successful are always driven by their respect for Coach Corky Kell and his passion for high school football.”
Retired superior court judge Tain Kell reflects on how his father’s impact through this game has been personally impactful.
“When those games are being shown on TV, and I see my dad's name attached to it, the pride and the joy that I feel is just indescribable,” Tain Kell reflected. “To see that his legacy is still being carried on 31 years after he passed away is just phenomenal to me. It makes me so proud to see his dreams realized in that way.”
Even now, every August, new players take the field with championship dreams and live out unforgettable moments in the highly regarded event. Most were not alive when Corky Kell coached or served as Cobb Schools Director of Athletics. Yet every kickoff of the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic continues the legacy of a man whose influence helped shape high school football across Georgia and remains firmly embedded in the heart of Cobb Schools athletics.
h/t photos provided by Tain Kell and Kimberly Kell Stinson
