As chronicled in Stephen D. Reddy’s award-winning book “A Ball with No Points,” coach Horne guided the Westfield High School boys basketball team to the 1972 Group IV State Championship. The Blue Devils’ upset of Elizabeth (No. 1 in New Jersey during the regular season and No. 2 during the state tournament) remains one of the biggest basketball upsets in the state's history.
Horne led Westfield to three Watchung Conference Championships.
In retirement following a pacemaker operation, Horne guided the Westfield boys’ freshman basketball program for over a decade and also volunteered his time into his late 70s mentoring his grandchildren, their teammates and the Westfield PAL girls’ basketball program, his obituary says.
Westfield was not the only town where Horne made his mark. He was a conference championship coach at Ridge High School, which he guided to two state sectional finals.
In 1981, Horne led the Somerville boys’ basketball team to one of the best seasons in school's history, winning the Mid-State Conference Championship, the Somerset County Championship and the Central Jersey Group 3 Sectional State Championship.
Horne’s final championship run was at Union Catholic High School , where he guided the team to the Watchung Conference Championship.
Horne also led Union Catholic to another one of the biggest upsets in New Jersey boys’ basketball state championship history — described as “an upset of gargantuan proportions” — implementing in just three days a specially designed offense and defense the team had never before practiced — in order to slow the game down against nationally ranked CBA.
That Parochial A State Championship game upset in the final state championship game played in New Jersey in 1987 remains the only time in boys’ basketball history that a team then-unranked in the Star Ledger’s top 20 poll defeated in the state finals a team that had been ranked No. 1 in New Jersey the entire season, his obituary says.
Horne contributed significantly to the sport through his various basketball camps and clinics and received numerous Coach of the Year awards, according to his obituary. In 1995, he was inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
A funeral service is planned at St. Helen Church, 1600 Rahway Ave. in Westfield, on Saturday, July 13, at 10 a.m., preceded by a wake at Higgins and Bonner Echo Lake Funeral Home, 582 Springfield Ave. in Westfield, on Friday, July 12, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Union Catholic High School is establishing the Coach Neil Horne Memorial Scholarship in his memory. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Union Catholic via check (made payable to Union Catholic High School, with In Memory of Coach Neil Horne on the Memo line) sent to Union Catholic, Office of Development, 1600 Martine Ave., Scotch Plains, NJ 07076 or Westfield PAL via check (made payable to Westfield PAL, with In Memory of Coach Neil Horne on the Memo line) sent to Westfield PAL, P.O. Box 873, Westfield, NJ 07090.
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