{{Short description|American football player (1902–1990)}} {{Infobox college football player |name=John Staton |image=johnstaton.jpg |caption=Staton cropped from 1922 team picture. |birth_date={{Birth date|1902|6|9}} |birth_place=Atlanta, Georgia, US |death_date={{Death date and age|mf=y|1990|9|16|1902|6|9}} |death_place=Atlanta, Georgia, US |currentposition=End |school=Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets |highschool=Boys |class=1924 |pastschools=Georgia Tech (1920–1923) |highlights= *SIAA championship (1920, 1921) *SoCon championship (1922) *All-Southern (1920, 1922, 1923) *Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame }} '''John Curtis Staton''' (June 9, 1902 – September 16, 1990) was a college football player and Coca-Cola executive.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gviPDwAAQBAJ|isbn = 9780520970946|title = Counter-Cola: A Multinational History of the Global Corporation|year= 2019|publisher = Univ of California Press}}</ref>
== Early years == John Curtis Staton was born June 9, 1902, in Atlanta, the son of John Curtis Staton and Bivien Hammond Staton.<ref>"Brasil, Cartões de Imigração, 1900–1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KX27-C6L : 4 March 2021), John Curtis Staton, Immigration; citing 1950, Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (National Archives, Rio de Janeiro).</ref> He attended Boys High School.
==Georgia Tech== Staton was an All-Southern end for William Alexander's Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the Georgia Institute of Technology.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=H4FY52QIMTQxMDAyMDYwMi44NTUwNzE6MToxMzoxMzIuMTk4LjUwLjEz&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=11&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=11&p_docnum=29&p_docref=v2:11210D30DA68B248@EANX-1146E0035DE89DC0@2422664-1146E00517B1B450@9-1146E00DA16D6B38@Experts%20Select%20Star%20Athletes%20All%20South%20Atlantic%20and%20S.%20I.%20A.%20A.%20Teams%20Named.%20By|newspaper=The State|title=Experts Select Star Athletes|date=December 5, 1920}}</ref> He played with his brother Albert Staton, and also played basketball, track, and swimming. John was elected to the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ramblinwreck.com/extras/local/halloffame.html|title=Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame|access-date=2014-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107055249/http://www.ramblinwreck.com/extras/local/halloffame.html|archive-date=2017-11-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.
==Coca-Cola== Staton then joined Coca-Cola in 1924, becoming vice president before retiring in 1968.<ref name=obit/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://history.library.gatech.edu/items/show/12452|title=Bill Fincher ; J.C. Staton}}</ref> It was said it was him who designed the company's first cooler and developed its first fountain dispenser.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|work=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/20/obituaries/john-c-staton-executive-89.html|title=John C. Staton, Executive, 89|date=September 20, 1990}}</ref> Prior to being vice president he was export manager, and his career included time spent in several other countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Mexico.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=URwlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1932|title=Canada's Coca-Cola: Refreshing the Nation for 120 Years|first=Douglas|last=Hunter|year= 2017|publisher=McClelland & Stewart|isbn=9780771023934|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3196822|title=Spenser and Milton in Southeast|author=Wm. B. Hunter, Jr.|year=1951|journal=South Atlantic Bulletin|volume=16|issue=4|pages=1–6|doi=10.2307/3196822|jstor=3196822|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{1920 College Football Composite All-Southerns}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Staton, John}} Category:1902 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football players Category:American football ends Category:All-Southern college football players Category:Players of American football from Atlanta Category:Coca-Cola people Category:Midtown High School (Atlanta) alumni Category:20th-century American sportsmen