Lars Tate, among UGA football top all-time rushers, dies. 'He was a heck of a player'
Lars Tate, who led Georgia in rushing in back-to-back seasons in the mid-1980s and had the third most carries in program history, died late Monday, according to his son Donavan.
Tate, 56, helped the Bulldogs make a claim to be RBU, a program with a rich running back tradition.
Tate was diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer about a month ago, Donavan Tate said. He was to begin chemotherapy this week and passed away in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he lived for the last three years with girlfriend Kelli Edwards.
“It was kind of sudden,” Donavan Tate said by phone Tuesday from Cartersville. “If you knew him and how he was, you just thought cancer was the next thing that he was going to overcome. Even with conversations with him, he was in good spirits.”
Tate rushed for 3,017 yards, which is sixth most in program history, leading the Bulldogs with 954 yards in 1986 and 1,016 in 1987 when he rushed for a combined 30 touchdowns those two years.
Only Herschel Walker and Nick Chubb had more carries than Tate’s 615 from 1984-87.
“Shocked,” said former Georgia coach Ray Goff, who recruited Tate to UGA from Indianapolis as running backs coach, when he learned the news on Tuesday. “He was a heck of a player. To a guy to go from where he was to Athens was very good for us because he was a good player.”
Georgia beat out Michigan for Tate.
Word of Tate’s passing got to Kim Stephens on Tuesday morning.
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Tim Worley, who played running back with Tate, reached out to several teammates to share the news.
“He was fast and smooth is the best way to describe him,” said Stephens, who started at offensive guard during all four of Tate’s Georgia seasons. “He was highly motivated and supertalented.”
Tate, a second-team All-SEC selection in his final two seasons, was the top rusher in a Georgia backfield that included Worley, Keith Henderson and David McCluskey and in his final season, Rodney Hampton.
“We had some really good guys back in that era,” Goff said. “It was tough on all of them because they all wanted to play.”
Tate left Georgia as the second leading rusher behind Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker whose shadow loomed over him when he first arrived to Georgia.
"I just wanted to establish myself as Lars Tate,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1987. “I tried to keep all that out of my mind, but I was tense at first and not running as well as I thought I should. I was not relaxed. I was trying too hard."
Tate was a second-round NFL draft pick by Tampa Bay in 1988 and played three seasons in the league, the last with Chicago.
Tate had significant obstacles to overcome off the field.
He was shot in the throat in a domestic dispute in 1997 in his hometown of Indianapolis where he was a Parade All-American.
“He really seemed to have an appreciation of life and teammates and the days we played together,” Stephens said.
He also dealt with effects of concussions, said Donavan, who was the No. 3 overall MLB draft pick in the 2009 draft and later a quarterback at Arizona.
Lars Tate is also survived by son Stephan and daughter Lauren and four grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are still pending.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Former Georgia running back Lars Tate has died of cancer in Florida
