Ex-UGA coach dies in fire after crash

ATHENS, Ga. - The man who perished in a barn fire in Oconee County on Wednesday afternoon has been identified as former University of Georgia football player and longtime assistant football coach Sam Mrvos.

Mr. Mrvos, 76, died when his pickup left Georgia Highway 316, went through farm fields and a stream and crashed into a tin and wood barn off Pete Dickens Road. The barn caught fire after the Ford Ranger crashed through a back wall. Flames escalated quickly, turning into an intense fire that reduced the barn to a pile of smoldering ash and twisted tin around Mr. Mrvos' burned-out truck.

Mr. Mrvos apparently was headed home to Winder after visiting his longtime barber in Winterville, said a family friend, Zippy Morocco of Athens.

Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry said his office was able to confirm the coach's identity after receiving notice from the Winder Police Department that Mr. Mrvos had been reported missing.

His body was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for an autopsy. Investigators with the state fire marshal's office also continued to try to determine what started the fire.

Because the fire damaged Mr. Mrvos' body, medical examiners might not be able to tell whether a heart attack or stroke contributed to the death, Sheriff Berry said.

"We're still trying to determine the cause and origin of the fire and the time and cause of death," he said.

After Mr. Mrvos's truck crashed through the barn wall, Randall Scoggins, who lives at the Pete Dickens Road farm, tapped on a window of the truck, trying to get the driver to turn off the truck's racing motor. But the driver only turned his head toward Mr. Scoggins, then turned away, Mr. Scoggins said later.

Mr. Morocco, a former UGA football and basketball star and a friend of Mr. Mrvos' since the two played football together at UGA in the early 1950s, said Mr. Mrvos frequently met with Mr. Morocco and other friends in Athens. Like Mr. Morocco, Mr. Mrvos came from Pennsylvania to play football at Georgia in the early 1950s and wound up staying in the state.