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.
Lawhorne was a focal point for college recruiters. He was an A-plus student and an excellent high school linebacker. Although he could have matriculated at an Ivy League institution if he had chosen, he 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 with competitive fire and a canny presence on the field. He became an expert on 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 with a master’s degree, enjoyed lionizing his perspicacious linebacker. The two men had a mutual admiration society. Years later, the player became an outspoken advocate for the field at Sanford Stadium, being named after his former coach.
Football was over for Lawhorne 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.
His next stop would be to study medicine at one of the nation’s most prominent big-league academic institutions, Johns Hopkins. He 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 who stayed closely connected with their alma mater. Tommy kept in touch with his teammates and classmates, particularly attending to the needs of those with whom he played.
Whenever a former teammate passed away, Tommy would take time off and attend the funeral. He did his best to help his old friends avoid funerals or at least prolong their lives. No doctor ever embodied the Hippocratic oath more fluently than Tommy.
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 opportunities.
As they say in his native Worth County, Tommy jumped on that opportunity like a duck on a June bug. And all the while, he has been a Damn Good Dawg.