He will forever be a trivia question.

"I'll take College Football Firsts for $800, Alex."

THE FIRST PLAYER IN GEORGIA STATE FOOTBALL HISTORY

Who is Mark Hogan?

Mark Hogan is now the safeties coach at Davidson, but in the spring of 2009, he was the first--and only--player for Georgia State's start-up football program.

With the Panthers' inaugural season of 2010 approaching, Bill Curry had been hired as the program's first head coach in June of 2008, and his staff began recruiting. The program would sign its first recruiting class in February of 2009, with that class enrolling in the fall of 2009 for a redshirt season.

Hogan's father, Mark Sr., had played for Curry at Georgia Tech, and the younger Hogan enrolled at GSU in January 2009 as the new program's first scholarship student-athlete, becoming a team of one for that semester.

"We tried to keep a consistent schedule as much as we could, as far as what it would look like in a college weight room, but it was just me so it was really like I had a personal trainer for a full six months before some other guys started to come in that summer," Hogan said.

"People knew football was coming but a lot of it was still under the radar when I first got there. There was some buzz on campus, but the buzz really started in the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010."

By August of 2009, Hogan was one of 71 players who took part in Georgia State's first football practice on Aug. 14. The Panthers had a makeshift locker room in the former aquatic center adjacent to the GSU Sports Arena and bused to several different locations for practices throughout the fall.

"That first year was tough, but we knew there was a plan in place," Hogan said. 

"Now, thinking about it from a coach's perspective, there had to be a ton of logistics and planning that went into that. Not having our own facility was tough at times, but that was the groundwork and foundation of learning how to work. We knew that the surrounding parts of it would get better as time went on."

It all came together on the night of Sept. 2, 2010, when the Panthers finally took the field for the first time.

"I remember the bus pulling up to the Georgia Dome and going across the overpass and looking down and seeing all the people there wearing their Georgia State blue. Just a sea of people.

"It was like, 'Wow, this is what we've been working for. This is incredible.' And what an atmosphere it was in the Georgia Dome that night. The idea of Georgia State football had been around for a long time, but to actually see that after years of talking about it was pretty spectacular."

Fittingly, Hogan was credited with the tackle on the defense's first play from scrimmage, and he went on to help the Panthers to a winning record in their inaugural campaign at 6-5. One of his biggest plays came in 2011 against future Sun Belt Conference rival South Alabama, when his interception sealed Georgia State's overtime victory. He collected 157 career tackles, at the time the most in GSU history.

Hogan's run of firsts didn't end with Georgia State. Also a baseball player for the Panthers, he turned one of the most unique double plays in college sports as a member of not one, but two start-up programs. After playing three seasons on the gridiron and two on the diamond at GSU and completing his degree in business, Hogan elected to play his final football season and begin his master's degree at Charlotte, where his family had moved after he completed high school in the Boston area.

"I loved my baseball experience at Georgia State," said Hogan, an outfielder who hit .313 in 92 career games. "In the spring of 2012, I played both sports. That was extremely challenging, but I felt like if I could handle doing both of those at the same time, I can take on anything that comes my way."

Prior to the 2012 football season, head coach Bill Curry announced that he would retire following the season. With a new coaching staff about to take over, Hogan had to make a tough choice.

"I knew I had to make a decision and be fully invested in one or the other, and I chose baseball at that time," he explained. "And then it just kind of fell in line that my family lived in Charlotte and they were about to play their first season. I clearly remember being torn up about the decision. Do I leave this group I've been working with, but baseball was a huge part of it."

And although he wasn't Charlotte's very first player, Hogan did score the program's first touchdown on a pick six in the 49ers' inaugural game.  

"I'm very blessed by the timing of it. I think about that quite a bit," Hogan said. "The year that I was born and how that lined up with Georgia State - it's kind of strange to think about how everything aligned so perfectly."

Another unique twist came as he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 2014 at Texas State, where John Thompson, his former defensive coordinator at Georgia State, was now coaching.

"The last game of the year in 2014, Texas State played at Georgia State," he explained. "After the season, I went back to Charlotte as a graduate assistant, and Charlotte's first game of 2015 was back at the Georgia Dome against Georgia State. I hadn't been there since 2012, and then I was there on the opposite sideline in back-to-back games."

Did he always know he wanted to be a coach?

"Not until the very end," Hogan said. "The first few years I wanted to pursue business, I thought coaches were crazy."

But something changed going into his final season at Georgia State.

"It was fall camp of 2012," Hogan recalled. "We were staying at the [hotel] near Turner Field, now Georgia State Stadium. I think I had to go over to the facility early for treatment, so I hopped on the bus and it was just me and one of the coaches, Anthony Midget (now an assistant for the Houston Texans). He was intently studying the papers in his hand.

"It was completely dark, five o'clock in the morning. We weren't talking, but I was watching him. I remember thinking, people aren't getting up for another hour and he's already locked in on what he's going to do for the day. That's one of the first times where coaching crept into my mind, and that year I started to have conversions with Coach Curry and Coach Thompson."

Hogan wouldn't trade his experience as part of the foundation of Georgia State football.

"Being part of of the beginning of something is never easy. We knew we were part of the infant stages. We knew Georgia State football was going to continue to improve, and it has.

"There were some tough moments. We took some lumps on the field, but at the same time, we grew from those experiences.

"More than anything else, I value the experiences with coaches and teammates and the people I met at Georgia State," he continued. "Blake Wyatt and Kail Singleton (his teammates on the inaugural squad) were in my wedding a couple of years ago, and I'm going to be in Blake's wedding (which was postponed by COVID-19). Just great friends and memories."