Finis Horne, the ‘Father of Lander Athletics,’ Passes Away By David Hays Hundreds of people packed the sanctuary of the First
Top: Coach Horne, left center, and the then-Senators celebrate their first Peach Belt Athletic Conference Tournament Championship in 1994. Middle: Lander received the Palmetto Cup, recognizing the best overall athletic program in NAIA District 6, following the ’85-86 season. Pictured with the trophy are Horne, far right, and, from left, Lander coaches and staff that season: Cheryl Bell, athletics secretary; Van Taylor, men’s soccer coach; Larry Jackson, Lander president; Katrina Sacoco, women’s basketball coach; David Talley, then-sports editor with The (Greenwood) Index-Journal; and Joe Cabri, men’s tennis coach. Bottom Left: The Lander team reviews strategy with Horne, center, and assistant coach Chipper Bagwell, bottom left, during a game in Horne Arena in the mid-1990s. Bottom Right: Steelwork for Lander’s physical education/athletic complex rises in the background as Joe V. Chandler, left, then-chair of the Division of Physical Education and Exercise Studies, and Horne review the facility’s plans.
Baptist Church of Greenwood on June 8 to say goodbye to Coach Finis Horne, who was not only “the father of Lander Athletics,” but was just like a father to so many of his former players, other Lander students, colleagues and friends. Horne died on June 2 at the age of 77. Born April 26, 1936, in Kentucky, Horne earned an associate of arts degree from Bethel (Ky.) College in 1963, a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Campbellsville (Ky.) College in 1966 and a master’s in physical education from Western Kentucky University in 1968. He did postgraduate work in counseling at the University of South Carolina. In the spring of 1968, a young and eager Finis Horne left his home state of Kentucky with a very bold agenda: to start a men’s varsity basketball program at then-Lander College, where no organized sports had ever been played. There was no coach’s office, no place to practice, no locker rooms in which to dress or take a shower, nowhere to wash the laundry, no vehicle for a team to ride in and certainly no place to play an actual basketball game. But Horne took care of those details with help from many in the Greenwood community, to whom he was always grateful, and was soon on his way to building a winning basketball program. After becoming athletics director in 1971, he began adding other sports to Lander’s upstart intercollegiate program. Under his guidance, the program grew to 11 teams, including a 12-time national championship men’s tennis program and several other national contenders. After earning 491 victories in 29 seasons of men’s basketball, Horne retired as both coach and athletics director on June 30, 1997. His legacy included a successful dream to build a new arena. The Finis Horne Arena opened in August 1993. Horne established himself as the winningest active coach in South Carolina and was inducted into the Lander Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 9, 1999. His induction into the South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame came in June 2011. While a member of the NAIA, Lander won three District 6 regular-season titles under Horne and reached the District 6 tournament championship game five times. He was voted the NAIA District 6 Coach of the Year five times and was the NAIA District 6 Administrator of the Year in 1986. Following a 21-9 record in the 1993-94 season, Horne was named the Peach Belt Athletic Conference Coach of the Year when the then-Senators won the PBAC Tournament and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II National Tournament. Lander repeated the feat in 1994-95. (continued on page 26)
Lander Magazine • Fall 2013
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