10%

Behind the Stripes

Walter Banks

By Atlanta United FC

November 15^th, 2017

It’s hours before kickoff of an Atlanta United match and Walter Banks is looking at his very first #17 Atlanta United kit. He cracks a smile and of course offers a gracious thank you – he has just the frame for it. But then he erupts again, back to rattling off fact after fact about Atlanta sports.

“In 1996 we had the Olympics in Atlanta for 17 days,” he says. “While the bases at Suntrust Park are 15 inches wide, home plate’s pentagonal shape means it’s 17 inches wide.”

That’s what it’s like being with a man known just by his first name in the Atlanta sports scene. Walter literally overflows with knowledge for anyone smart enough to lend him their ear.

“I never lived anywhere but Atlanta."

"I loved school so much, I guess I always felt like I was going to miss something. But then I’d go home and listen to the crowds on the radio that my dad would have on. That’s what got me really into sports.”

That love has lasted a lifetime. An Atlanta native since 1939, Walter can list off the names of the broadcasters for Georgia Tech’s 1952 National Championship game, and can tell you who the Atlanta Chiefs played in each of their North American Soccer League playoff appearances back in the 1960’s. And of course he’s most known as an usher for the Atlanta Braves since 1965.

“I used to pass the stadium when it was being built, I was a courtesy car driver at the time. I remember I walked in and I felt like I had been swallowed by a whale – they were setting up the columns that looked like ribs – and I just tried to imagine Eddie Matthews or Hank Aaron hitting a home run."

"But I was excited for our city to get that stadium, it was a civic pride moment.”

Atlanta’s title-seeking misfortunes have garnered plenty of headlines. But it was still, as Walter points out, where Hank Aaron hit home run number 715, and where Michael Johnson set records at the 1996 Olympics. “It wasn’t about championships, but it was about achievements,” he says. And all the while, Walter worked the crowds and the owner’s suite, rubbing shoulders with mayors and athletes, TV stars and every other VIP for more than fifty years.

“I was in the same location every game and people would say my name over and over. Then people started to recognize me."

"I just tried to spread hospitality. One gesture from me doesn’t mean much, but one spark can turn into a flame and into a forest fire. When it comes to hospitality and extending goodwill, that can never spread too far.”

Walter became so beloved that he was invited to John Smoltz’s Major League Basseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony – and his portrait hangs next to Arthur Blank and Hank Aaron in the Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame. But Walter is still doing what he loves. You can find him in the press box on Atlanta United matchdays, offering a handshake, a smile and a story for any passerby.

“The difference about Atlanta United was I’ve never seen that kind of excitement or energy from the very first game. They haven’t won a title yet, this was their first year, but they blew my mind when they broke the attendance records.”

It's high praise from someone with as good a vantage point as anyone in the history of Atlanta sports, and it’s more than anything happening on the field. It goes back to Walter’s civic pride, his happiness in watching the city that made him grow in new ways.

“It was just amazing watching the Atlanta United community and people talking about people coming together in Atlanta. That’s something positive. With so much negativity going on in the world, that’s positive.”

With a smile and a handshake, it’s time for Walter to get to his post. Matchday is a busy day, and there are plenty more greetings to share for a man who embodies the ideal of southern hospitality. Each local reporter stops for a hello, and he remembers them – and sometimes their family members – by name. The national broadcasters from out of town are eager to meet him. He's kind and, as always, welcoming. And he can’t help but smile.

“I’m blessed.”

Button Label

Story Told With

Start publishing stories like this