"Pride of the Panthers" tells the legendary story of Perry High School, which during the decades of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, became the greatest high school basketball dynasty in Georgia History. Its coach, Eric P. Staples, was the winningest high school basketball coach in America. His teams captured a phenomenal 83 percent of their games. This included 25 district/region championships and eight state titles. The year after Coach Staples retired from coaching, his assistant coach for many years, Paul Hartman, elevated to head coach, led his 1966 Perry team to a ninth and unprecedented state championship. The book takes you year-by-year, from the 1933 season through the 1969 season, replete with team rosters, team photos, and team won-loss records. Also included are box scores and reporting commentary for pivotal regular season games and tournament competition. As special addenda to the book, a section has been added for the Perry High girls' basketball teams and another section for the Perry High cheerleaders. The book was authored by Billy Powell, who played on Perry's 1953 state championship team, and who was an eyewitness to the Perry teams that played from the early 1940s through the late1960s. Powell has published four books on Amazon.com. United States Senator Sam Nunn, who grew up with Powell in Perry and was an "all-state" basketball player, wrote the foreword to the book. Perry, Georgia, was a basketball town, whose citizens took great pride in its winning teams and followed their play throughout the state. Senator Sam Nunn wrote, "If you liked the movie 'Hoosiers' and enjoy high school basketball, this book is for you."