Recently at a beachside gathering, Bill Griffin invited Tommy and Susan Lawhorne to join friends for a social outing at which the conversational theme focused on the University of Georgia.
Bill and Tommy have much in common. Both are small town boys—Bill from Rutledge and Tommy from Sylvester—and few graduates of UGA could be more passionate about their alma mater than this pair of alumni stalwarts.
Each has a resume that is replete with signature contributions to the University.
Griffin grew up virtually within arm’s length of the Georgia campus and there never was any question about where he would be furthering his education following high school graduation.
Lawhorne was a focal point for college recruiters. He was an A-plus student and he was also an excellent high school linebacker. He could have matriculated at an Ivy League institution if he had chosen but preferred to enroll at his state university where he wowed academicians and played football for Vince Dooley, the brand new 31-year-old coach who had just taken over the football program in Athens.
Dooley liked what he saw in Lawhorne. He was a quality linebacker who was imbued with competitive fire and a canny presence on the field. He became expert about offense. As a result, Lawhorne was often in the right place at the right time which made him a big play player. Lawhorne was motivated to make his Saturday afternoons between the hedges an enhancement for success in the Southeastern Conference. Winning football games was important to him.
His young head coach, a serious academic aficionado himself with a Masters degree, enjoyed lionizing his perspicacious linebacker. A mutual admiration society existed with the two men. Years later, the player became an outspoken advocate for the field at Sanford Stadium being named for his former coach.
Where Lawhorne got the most attention was in the classroom. Most of us would call for champagne for a “B better” classroom performance. Not Tommy Lawhorne.
He had enduring contempt for any grade less than an A. If he made one during his time at UGA, I have never heard about it. Lawhorne was an All-SEC Academic selection, he made Academic All-America, and was valedictorian of his senior class while helping Dooley win his first conference championship in 1966.
Football was over for him following the 1967 Liberty bowl, but he left campus with three bowl watches and a conference championship ring. He heard the chapel bell ring often and was appreciative of the enriching campus experience that he had enjoyed. Few college athletes in his time better represented the essence of the term, “student-athlete,” than Thomas W. Lawhorne.
His next stop would be to study medicine at one of the nation’s biggest big-league academic institutions, Johns Hopkins, where he distinguished himself as a student. He was graduated with honors and returned home to Georgia and hung out his shingle in Columbus, getting the ultimate endorsement from Dr. Andy Roddenbery, a former Bulldog quarterback in Coach Harry Mehre’s Notre Dame box formation, and a highly regarded surgeon.
During his time in Columbus Tommy and Susan were community volunteers and stayed closely connected with their alma mater. Tommy would keep in touch with his teammates and classmates. He was particularly attendant to any needs of those with whom he played.
He would call and check on a former Bulldog player with a medical issue and would inform all their teammates that there was need for a comforting word for the family and a prayer.
Whenever a former teammate passed on, Tommy would take time off and show up at the funeral but he did his best to help his old friends avoid funerals or at least prolong their days. No doctor ever embodied the Hippocratic oath more fluently than Tommy did.
Now in retirement at Sea Island, Tommy has taken advantage of a state law that allows citizens to enroll at state colleges and continue academic opportunity. As they say in his native Worth County, Tommy jumped on that opportunity like a duck on a June bug.
All the while, he has been a Damn Good Dawg.