In 1976, sixty people participated in bowling, swimming, weightlifting, table tennis, track and field, basketball, and football at a Wheelchair Games Jamboree in Winder, Georgia.

In 1979, the Georgia Wheelchair Sports & Recreation Association hosted the First Georgia Invitational Games at Westminster Schools where over 50 athletes competed in swimming, track & field, table tennis and slalom.

The Second Annual Georgia Invitational Games were hosted at the Cobb County Civic Center on August 22-24, 1980 with nearly 100 wheelchair athletes competing.

In 1981, the Georgia and Alabama Wheelchair Athletic Associations came together to form the Dixie Wheelchair Athletic Association and hosted the First Annual Dixie Regional Wheelchair Games at the Cobb County Civic Center. Over 100 athletes competed over three days in swimming, weightlifting, archery, track & field, slalom, and table tennis.

Over the next 20 years, the Dixie Games have been a yearly regional, sanctioned competition for wheelchair athletes from around the southeast and as far away as Canada and England. Host sites have included the University of Georgia, the University of Alabama, Emory University, Lakeshore Rehabilitation Center and Sanford University, West Georgia College, University of Alabama-Birmingham and Spain Rehabilitation Center, the Cobb County Civic Center, Auburn University, and most recently Warm Springs Rehabilitation Center, Warm Springs, Georgia.