MOULTRIE – Buddy Horne was trying to juggle playing baseball at the University of Georgia and working on a degree in forestry when practices with the Bulldogs cut into his classroom time.

One of his professors finally told him, “Mr. Horne, you’ve got to decide what you want to do.”

Horne made the decision to give up baseball and continue his forestry studies.

It worked out well for the young Norman Park student-athlete, who was a Georgia Registered Forester in Colquitt County for 40 years, working for Beadles Lumber for 35 of those years.

“And he loved what he did,” son Jamie Horne says. But the younger Horne said there might have been another reason his dad stowed his cleats and glove when he did.

“He truly wanted to marry my mother,” Jamie says.

Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame member Vernon W. “Buddy” Horne died Monday at 80 and services will be held at 3 p.m. today at Crosland Baptist Church. Burial will be in Deep Bottom Cemetery.

A stroke eight years ago and subsequent rehab slowed him down somewhat, but did not keep him from sitting in his familiar reserved seats at Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Family members encouraged him to sit in an area designated for the handicapped. He would have nothing to do with that suggestion.

“He said, ‘I’m going to sit up there with the Packer fans,’” Jamie remembers.

And when he couldn’t make it to the stadium, he listened in on the radio.

“We all knew where he was going to be on Friday nights,” Jamie says. “Everyone knew from 7 to 11 on Friday nights, he had radio duty and 93.9 was on. I don’t think he ever missed a Packer game.”

And while a longtime Colquitt County fan, and for several years president of the Packer Booster Club, Buddy Horne was first a Norman Park Trojan, and a darn good one.

He started on the school’s baseball team for four years and in 1955 led Norman Park to the Class B semifinals with a 13-0 record before a loss ended the Trojans season. During that season, Norman Park twice defeated each of its county rivals – Doerun and Moultrie.

As senior that year, he hit .569. When not playing center field, he was a pretty fair country pitcher.

In the first game against the defending Region 1-AA champion Packers, he threw a 1-hit shutout, striking out 13. In the second, a 4-2 victory, he struck out eight more Packers and slammed the first home run at Holmes Park.

Against Doerun, he struck out 18 Deers in the seven-inning victory.

Also pitching for Norman Park that season were sophomore Evan Baker and junior Harvey Dorsey. His catcher was Billy Weaver.

Following the season, Horne was selected to play in the North-South All-Star Game at Atlanta, where he played left field and hit fifth for the South team.

Not long after graduation, while working in a tobacco field, he was visited by a St. Louis Cardinals scout, who offered him a contract.

Horne turned it down to play for his hometown Norman College Bears. He had two outstanding seasons for Norman College and pitched in the Junior College World Series in Pensacola.

He then went on to Athens hoping to juggle baseball and studies.

Many believe Horne had the talent to play professionally.

“Two of the most prominent baseball people in Colquitt County – Kurt Scheub and Rip Bennett – told me, ‘Your daddy was a pro,’” Jamie Horne says. “He was the closest thing to a pro to come out of Colquitt County.’”

Horne’s baseball prowess was recognized locally in 2008 when he was inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.

He certainly passed on his athletic genes to his son Jamie, who played football and baseball at Colquitt County High and later coached both sports at Lee County, before moving into administration.

Jamie Horne is currently the principal at Willie J. Williams Middle School.

“He supported me in whatever I did,” he said. “All he wanted is that you enjoy the game and respect the game. And, by golly, you better hustle. If you didn’t hustle, it showed you didn’t enjoy the game.”

Horne played church softball for Norman Park Baptist Church for many years with, his son noted, the perfect blend of competitiveness and fellowship.

Those who knew Buddy Horne, but might never have seen him play, or even heard of his successes, knew him as a kind, decent and caring man.

“He just had a way of drawing people to him,” Jamie Horne says. “He certainly left a legacy that is hard for us to live up to.”