COLUMBIA --- A North Augusta man who died a year ago in a car crash would have a stretch of highway named for him under a bill introduced by state Rep. Lonnie Hosey.
Aaron Manigault coached high school football and worked as a computer system analyst at Savannah River Site. He was 35 when he was killed in Allendale County.
Hosey, a Barnwell Democrat, introduced the bill Dec. 15 at the request of Manigault's wife. It asks the state Transportation Department to rename a nearly 10-mile portion of state Highway 125, stretching from Highway 3 in Allendale County to SRS' boundary in Aiken County near Jackson. It would be called the Coach Aaron Manigault Memorial Highway.
"That would be great," said Wayne Farmer, the head football coach at Allendale-Fairfax High School, who had worked with Manigault since 1995, when Manigault started his career as a math teacher.
"He was my best friend," Farmer said. "We were like brothers."
In October, he named his newborn son Wayne Aaron Manigault Farmer Jr.
Hosey said renaming the highway isn't a sure thing because someone might have already claimed the stretch.
"If it's not posted on the road, you don't know whether it's been named and the sign has been taken down," Hosey said. "When you introduce these bills, people read them and say, 'OK, let's see.' I haven't had any inquiries so far."
Manigault attended South Carolina State University, where he earned a computer science degree and played football.
Hosey's resolution, H. 3144, says Manigault excelled as "a fullback under legendary Bulldogs head football coach Willie Jefferies, earned the nickname 'Madd Manee,' and was a key contributor in the Bulldogs' 1994 Heritage Bowl victory over the Grambling State University Tigers."
Reach Sarita Chourey at (803) 727-4257 or sarita.chourey@morris.com.
