Marti Lea Griffith Hobbs - 1990

Marti was born September 14, 1958, in Fort Worth, Texas.  She grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, and graduated from Grissom High School in the spring of 1976 where she was an outstanding gymnast.  While at Grissom her teams won four consecutive state gymnastics championships.  Marti signed a gymnastics scholarship and enrolled at Jefferson State Junior College in the fall of 1976. 

While at Jefferson State Marti led her teams to two NJCAA Region XXII Championships and two NJCAA National Championships.  Marti is the only woman gymnast to have won two consecutive individual all-around championships in the NJCAA championship meet.  She did this in 1976-77 and 1977-78.  She was also national champion in side horse vaulting in 1976-77 and floor exercise in 1977-78.  She was first-team All- American in all-around in 1976-77 and 1978, in side horse vaulting and in 1976-77 and floor exercise in 1977-78.  She was chosen Gymnast of the Year by the Alabama Gymnastics Association in 1978. 

While at Jefferson State Marti excelled in academics as well as athletics.  She was a member of the Phi Theta kappa Junior College Honorary Society and was named to Who’s Who in American Junior Colleges in 1977-78.  She was also the recipient of the Samuel C. Landman Scholar Athlete award given each year to the athlete who has completed two years at Jefferson State, is eligible for graduation, and has the highest grade point average among the athletes.  She was also named to the Dean’s List.  Marti maintained a 3.52 grade point average. 

Following graduation from Jefferson State with an associates in Arts Degree, Marti signed a scholarship with the University of Georgia.  Marti was a member of the University of Georgia team that won a regional championship in competition sponsored by the Association of intercollegiate Athletes for Women. The team went on to place thirteenth in the AIAW National Championship competitions in 1978 and 1979.  She was named to the Dean’s List at Georgia. 

After a career-ending injury at Georgia, Marti transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she was again named to the Dean’s List and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation.  Marti returned to Jefferson State as a volunteer assistant coach while completing her degree at UAB.  She contributed very strongly to a team that finished second in the NJCAA meet at Essex Community College in Maryland. 

Since graduation from UAB Marti has distinguished herself as a gymnastics coach and judge.  She has served at the Mountain Brook Community Education Center as gymnastics coach, at the Shades Valley Human Resource Zone in Birmingham as gymnastics director, and at the Northwest Alabama Gymnast School in Jasper as gymnastics director.  She has also taught college level gymnastic activity and technique classes at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  She has judged gymnastics for eight years and has achieved a rating of a Class I judge, the second highest classification in judging.  She continues to be very active in gymnastics through her judging of club and college meets. 

Marti is married to Mark Hobbs.  The couple has a daughter, Jessica.