ATLANTA — Turn left at Peachtree, you’ll run straight into Ralphie.
She’s first thing you notice when you walk through Donnie McLemore’s front door. sports store, located at the Peachtree Center in the heart of downtown Atlanta, is a mile-and-a-half south of Bobby Dodd Stadium in Midtown, where CU visits Georgia Tech Thursday night in the season opener for both schools. It’s also 1,429 miles southeast of Boulder.
“Been good for business,” Donnie said. “Been good for us.”
The Coach Prime Effect still lives here. In McLemore’s world, it never really left. A half-dozen shirts, some white, some black, hung Wednesday from a prominently placed rack at The Fan’s Wear, just past the store’s entrance. Seven new adjustable CU hats rested on a shelf on the back wall, not far from a high-def television.
McLemore’s been a manager at The Fan’s Wear for about a decade. He’d never carried CU shirts before Christmas 2022. Not before you-know-who showed up.
“We did have socks,” he cracked. “We had banners.”
“Did you stock any of this stuff?” I asked Tim Nguyen, who owns the store, “Prior to December 2022?”
Tim looked up from his spreadsheets. He raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“No,” Nguyen laughed. “Geez, no. Not with CU. But ever since, yeah.”
CU may claim Deion Sanders. Atlanta had him first. In his younger days, Coach Prime was an electric, All-Pro cornerback and returner for the Falcons from 1989-93 and an outfielder with the Braves from 1991-94. In October 1992, Coach Prime spent an afternoon playing for the Falcons in Miami, — he didn’t appear in the contest — for Game 5 of the NLCS against the Pirates later that night.
As a player, Sanders But he was an Atlanta legend.
“Deion’s huge here,” McLemore said. “Still is.”
Ergo, Tim and Donnie ordered a few boxes of CU stuff just before Christmas 2022. It sold so well that they bought more. And more.
It’s slowed up over the last 18 months or so, but from ’23 through the autumn of ’24, McLemore insisted, his Buffs swag moved. In downtown Atlanta.
Donnie got two more boxes of CU stuff in on Tuesday in advance of the Buffs’ visit to Tech. He expects half of it to be gone by the end of the month.
All signs point to a crazy Labor Day weekend — CU and Georgia Tech kick off Thursday in Midtown, while Baylor meets Auburn in the Aflac Kickoff Game Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. one of the largest pop-culture/comic/fantasy events in North America, runs Thursday-Sunday downtown. So basically, you’ve got Buffs faithful milling with Baylor and Auburn types downtown, while occasionally walking past packs of kids wearing full It’s a regular Nerdi Gras ’round these parts.
“You like the Jackets or Buffs?” I asked my Lyft driver.
He paused.
“Deion Sanders, man,” he said, his voice dropping to an almost nostalgic whisper. “Deion Sannnnnnnders. In Atlanta.”
***
If you want to leave an impression, the A-T-L’s a pretty darn good place to plant a flag — as a program and as a brand.
Atlanta is to college football talent what Kansas City and Dallas are to barbecue. Of 247Sports’ top eight national prospects for the Class of 2027, three hail from Georgia. Of the top 12 for ’28, two are Georgia preps.
“That’s the South, man,” Sanders told reporters last month. “That’s the South. It’s like — how prominent has the University of Georgia been the last decade? Prominent. Alabama? Prominent. Those schools from the South, (such as) Clemson, all those schools. So it’s a bed of talent here. And we’ve been able to penetrate that bed and grab some great players out of there. And they’re excited about going home. They’re excited about putting on (a show) in front of their families.”
While CU has a ton of competition, On3’s Chad Simmons told me that Sanders’ name alone opened more doors for local prospects than they had in the decade prior.
From 2018 to 2026, the Buffs averaged 30 offers to Georgia high schoolers, per the 247Sports database. From ’23-26, the opening four classes of the Prime Era averaged three Georgia high school commits.
Simmons has covered in-state recruiting in Georgia for more than two decades. CU wasn’t even on his radar before Sanders arrived in Boulder. Thanks to Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who played at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga., and Julian Lewis of Carrollton, Ga., the Buffs haven’t really left.
“I would say there wasn’t (a presence),” Simmons told me by phone. “There really wasn’t. I mean, they weren’t the brand … there wasn’t a lot of talk (about them), to me.
“Throughout my entire career, I’ve covered every level player from 3-stars, 4-stars, 5-stars, and you didn’t hear a lot about CU (here). Obviously, Deion changed that and he changed that overnight. Before Deion, there wasn’t much, if any, real chatter (about the Buffs) among the legit Power-4 guys in the state of Georgia.”
They’re talking now. And they’ll be buzzing Thursday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, just a few miles north of downtown Atlanta. As of Wednesday, the Buffs had 20 offers out to Georgia preps in the Class of ’28, per the 247 database. That group includes 4-star edge rusher Myles Tate (Woodward Academy, College Park, Ga.), 4-star cornerback Tyler Boyd (Carrollton (Ga.) H.S.) and 4-star safety Giovanni Tuggle out of Winder, Ga.
“I definitely think Deion has laid down the groundwork (here), and kind of put CU on the map for guys in this state,” Simmons continued. “With the way college football is now, anybody can recruit anybody, with (Name/Image/Likeness), the (revenue) opportunities there are outside of football.
“And even if Deion’s (not) there, if it’s (offensive coordinator) Brennan Marion or whoever may be the next coach, if they can kind of keep that brand, that style of football, winning some key games — obviously, they’ve got to play the NIL game.
“(Boulder) is a great place. I mean, kids come back home (to the South) that I covered in high school from CU and are always talking about how beautiful it is, the weather — it’s different from being in the city of Atlanta or around the Atlanta area. They like the change. So, yeah, there’s a lot for CU to sell.”
***
Including merch, as it turns out. Josh Young is a manager at the Hudson Grille in Sandy Springs, Ga., up in the north ‘burbs. It’s the home of the football watch parties hosted by Forever Buffs Atlanta, CU’s local alumni club.
Young hasn’t been there long, yet he figures a typical Buffs game-watch at the Grille draws 25-30 folks in black and gold — roughly quadruple what it was before the Coach Prime Era.
And not all of them are Buffs alums, either. Young bought a CU hat four years ago when Deion was hired. So did one of his co-workers. Neither had set so much as a foot inside Folsom Field.
“I can’t speak much for Sandy Springs,” Young told me, “but when you do walk around, you see (CU) gear in downtown Atlanta or in Buckhead. You’ll see people really supporting Deion. Even on game day.”
Heck, Donnie says that, among Denver-area franchises he stocks at The Fan’s Wear, the Buffs keep pace with the Nuggets — RIP, Dikembe Mutombo — while lapping the Broncos and Rockies.
All down to one dude. Who’s a touchdown underdog against the Ramblin’ Wreck?
“Tough one,” Donnie laughed. “Tech was good last year.”
“That was last year,” I quipped. “Haynes King is the Falcons’ problem now.”
Donnie took four or five calls Tuesday morning asking if he still had any CU stuff on hand. He got a couple more early Wednesday.
“We’re proud of Deion. We love him and support him,” McLemore said. “He definitely has his own identity. And he’s carried it on.”
Deion Sanders. In Atlanta.
You want to bet against that?
