By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Hornsby Howell spent his life helping people be their best in the present while also preparing them for the future. Whether it was his children, his N.C. A&T Aggies or his Georgia Bulldogs, Howell was dedicated to education and building the tools needed to prosper in all aspects of life.
“He wanted us to be successful in education because education can go a long way. He treated everybody like that,” said his son, Hornsby “Mike” Howell Jr., who lives in Athens and played for his father at North Carolina A&T.
Howell, an Athens native who died in 2017 at the age of 90, was both the first African American assistant football coach and athletics administrator at Georgia. After a long and successful run as head coach at his alma mater, N.C. A&T, Howell was hired by Bulldogs football coach Vince Dooley in 1982.
Dooley and Howell had first gotten to know each other years before when Howell would return to Athens to visit his family and would stop by Georgia’s football practices.
“When the time came to hire a football coach, staff member, administrator, there is no one that was more qualified than Hornsby,” Dooley said. “And he was good at what he did. …
“He was just a perfect fit and helped us in so many ways: recruiting, our staff — all of our staff members loved him. I couldn’t say enough good things about him.”
Initially hired to work with the scout team, Howell later turned his focus toward making sure all Bulldogs were prepared for life after college. Beginning in 1985, he coordinated and later was director of the UGA Student-Athlete Development and Career Placement Service. He retired from UGA in 1996.
“It was interesting how he came in within football and then expanded to the entire athletic association,” said Robert Miles, director of the Life Skills Program for the UGA Athletic Association, who worked with Howell for many years. “For him to be able to work with all of these different sports in any capacity, in any area, was a great thing.”
Around the Bulldogs, Howell was known as “The Judge.” When players got in some trouble or weren’t taking care of their responsibilities, they often had to go talk to Howell.
“The players called him ‘The Judge’ because he didn’t let them get away with anything,” Dooley said with a laugh. “If they did something that they shouldn’t be doing, they’d have to answer to ‘The Judge.’ And Hornsby was a good-sized judge that you don’t want to answer to.”
“That ‘Judge’ name not only stood for, in my mind, him not only wielding power in the discipline area but him also being able to comfort and talk to you about what you were going through and what you were doing,” Miles said, “and help you find a better place for yourself.”
After a great career as a lineman at Athens High and Industrial School, when local schools were segregated, Howell went to North Carolina A&T State University, a renowned HBCU in Greensboro. From being an Aggie player — he graduated in 1950 and later earned a Master’s degree in 1958 — Howell first became an athletic trainer before getting into coaching. In 1968, he was named both the head football coach and the athletic director at A&T.
Howell coached the Aggies from 1968-76 and his teams went 55-34-4. When one of his former players at N.C. A&T, Elvin Bethea, a great defensive end for the Houston Oilers for 15 years, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003, he asked Howell to give his introductory speech. There might not be a finer compliment that a player can give than to ask his coach to share in the moment of enshrinement in football’s most hallowed hall.
“He really enjoyed that,” Mike Howell said.
When it was Bethea’s turn to speak, he talked about what Howell did to help him reach the Hall of Fame: “Here was a guy that I thought was insane, crazy, out of his head, but he was the man who put me here today; I would always say that to everyone. Coach Howell would push me to the point of no return. He would push you to the limit and beyond, and this is what I think, with his push and believing in me and saying ‘you can do it.’ I remember the many three practices (a day). But that’s what it all takes, and that’s what it all took to get me here today, and I say thank you, Coach.”
Howell has been inducted into the Athens, N.C. A&T and Guildford County (N.C.) halls of fame. There is an endowed scholarship in his name at N.C. A&T, while Georgia athletics in 2006 named its Community Service Award in his honor, “for his vision in establishing a community service component to student-athlete services at UGA.”
“He worked hard, I know that,” Mike Howell said. “He worked hard to get what he achieved.”
After retiring from Georgia, Howell worked as the interim athletics director at Savannah State from 1996-98. He died on Oct. 3, 2017, having lived a rich, full life, starting in collegiate athletics as a player and then a trainer at N.C. A&T, before working his way up and up, making a difference in people’s lives every step of the way.
“The main thing is, you may think he didn’t like you or he didn’t care for you or he made it tough for you, but it’s going to be tough in this world and he prepared us for that,” Mike Howell said. “And it paid off, it really did.”
