We have come a long way. There is still a long way to go.

Tony Barnhart, ‘Mr. College Football’ to the nation, was just one of 19 on a football field back in 1970.

No, his new book, “The 19 of Greene,” is not about an extra landing spot after playing 18 holes on a Greene County course that didn’t exist more than 50 years ago. It’s not even just about the sport he’s covered at the collegiate level for the better part of five decades both in print and over the airwaves.

A native of Union Point, Barnhart saw social change unfold before his very young eyes when he attended Greene County High School. Even though the segregated schools were working their way towards consolidation, the order came that it must be final for the fall of 1970. And so Greene County and Floyd T. Corry (where Black students attended) became one.

Barnhart relates that story in what is his sixth book just recently released. He and his wife Maria returned to Lake Country Tuesday as the special guest for the final “Meet the Author” program held at Eatonton’s Georgia Writer’s Museum. Barnhart, a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and – as of October – the Greene County High Ring of Honor, told the large gathering about his inspiration for the book and the research involved.

“In the fall of 1970, I played on the first ever integrated high school football team in Greene County,” said Barnhart. “It’s about football, but it’s also about all the relationships we built.”

No relationship for Barnhart from that team was stronger than with Charles Turner, the Greene County quarterback of 1970 who introduced Barnhart Tuesday. It’s a relationship that’s lasted 52 years, and Turner was the first person Barnhart reached out to when the idea create this book began. They set out to find all of their former teammates still living, visited their old playing location and reminisced about their former coach, CS Veazey.

Turner’s own record in education and athletics is second to none as he is a member of four athletic Halls of Fame, a state championship winner as a girls basketball coach at Athens’ Cedar Shoals High and a member of the first class of that Greene County High Ring of Honor in 2022.

“Our relationship began with that team,” said Barnhart. “It was a special time. We are proud with the way the book turned out.

“You go back and research that time, and there were problems going on at Putnam County, Taliaferro County, Morgan County, Hancock County as integration became the law of the land. It’s about all those things, what the culture was like. Our football team, we won seven of our last eight games to get into the playoffs. It was a bonding thing for the community. The community, which may have had some reservations about integration, did bond behind the football team.”

In those playoffs, Greene County had to face Gainesville High. It was a game of their more than 60 players – Barnhart saying they just kept coming and coming out of the locker room – to Greene County’s 18. Gainesville won 13-0.

“I tell people I was small, but I compensated by being exceedingly slow,” said Barnhart. “I was a very average player, but I could play a lot of different positions. The 19 in ‘The 19 of Greene’ stands for the fact we only had 19 players (18 suited up to face Gainesville). We had an all-white and an all-Black high school merge; we thought we were going to have 50 or 60 guys to field on the team. When spring practice was over, we had the 19.”

As to why a lower number than expected, Barnhart said neither he nor Turner could find a satisfactory answer. The best theory they have is transportation could have kept some from participating.

“Playing the game and learning about the game from coaches helped in my career when I got to the media and starting covering football for a living,” said Barnhart. “More than anything else, it’s the personal relationships I got out of it.”

Barnhart went on to attend the University of Georgia and graduate from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He worked 28 years for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and has been seen on various television networks such as ESPN and The SEC Network.

“I can’t take any credit for (Mr. College Football),” he said. “When I was working for the AJC, they came to me and said, ‘We want you to write a blog.’ They were just ramping up their internet product. ‘That’s great. What’s a blog?’”

Upon learning that it’s an online article that will generate arguments among readers, he agreed. He said it was the AJC that gave his blog the title “Mr. College Football.” “Cheesy” was his reaction, but they told him cheesy works on the internet. Barnhart left the AJC in 2008 and took the title with him.

“I tell would-be writers, would-be broadcasters today: Learn how to do everything,” he said. “You are going to use it all. When I first got into television working for ESPN, there would be five people around to get one person on camera. Now, it’s you and a cameraman, and that’s it. You have to be able to do a wide variety of things to work in today’s media environment.

“Social media is both a wonderful blessing and a terrible curse. It can be used for good, but a lot of people are screaming at each other. That doesn’t do anybody any good. You can spread the word quickly. But somebody said the great thing about social media is everybody’s got access. I said the horrible thing about social media is everybody’s got access. It is a tool we didn’t have when I started in the business. It is a wonderful tool to communicate and gather information.”