Sweet Home High School golf coach and physical education teacher Tom Horn was among former Western Oregon University athletes inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame Sept. 9.
Horn, who quarterbacked the Wolves football team for four years when the school was the Oregon College of Education, led them to a 29-10 record during that time.
“It was terrific,” said Horn of the induction ceremony. He said he saw 35 of the 41 members of the 1975 season, only the second time the team went undefeated in a reagular season and the first time the Wolves made it to post-season NAIA play. Four of the missing players were coaching high school football on Friday night and showed up Saturday. Of the four-man coaching staff from that year, Horn said, three are dead and one, Greg McMackin, is with the San Francisco 49ers and was unable to be present.
The induction was held at the Western Oregon University campus at Monmouth.
This was the second class inducted into the Hall of Fame. In addition to the 1975 football squad, inductees included a variety of individual sports stars and the 1968 women’s volleyball team, which captured the Northwest College Women’s Extramural Association Volleyball Tournament championship, out of a field of 32 teams.
Horn graduated from Sweet Home High School after leading the Huskies to their first winning season in 15 years. He was the third Sweet Home player to paly in the 4A Shrine football game.
The 1975 football team beat Linfield and ended the regular season with an exciting 27-24 victory over fifth-ranked University of Puget Sound, which sent the Wolves to the playoffs. Horn suffered a “devastating” knee injury in the first half, he said, and OCE lost to defending NAIA champion Texas I in Kingsville in the first round to end its run and finish ranked fifth in the nation in the NAIA.
Horn was named first team All-District, All-Evergreen Conference, All-Little Northwest and an honorable mantion NAIA All-American.
Horn has tuaght and coached at Sweet Home High and Sweet Home Junior High schools since 1979. He has coached for 24 years and in 48 different sports seasons, including varsity football, girls basketball, boys and girls tennis and golf.