Former FSU athletic director Small dies
Published on Sunday, April 20, 2008
By Michael N. Graff
Fayetteville Observer Staff writer
Horace T. Small never let it show. He struggled with cancer off and on for 11 years, but some of his closest colleagues in Fayetteville State's athletic department didn't even know.
About a month ago, though, the disease finally forced Small to step back from work and spend his final days with his wife and family.
Small, who served as Fayetteville State's athletic director from 1996 to 2000 and stayed on staff as a physical education instructor after that, died Friday at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.
"You could see something was going on with him," said men's basketball coach Sam Hanger, who had worked with Small for almost a decade. "But he didn't tell me what it was and I didn't ask. He kept stuff pretty tight to the vest. He didn't ever want you to know that he was sick."
Friends and family described Small as a private person who spent his free time at church and on the golf course.
"He liked to stay busy," said his wife, Lovern. "I'm sure it kept him motivated to fight the disease."
Small's time as athletic director was marked by noteworthy firings and hirings.
He released three major-sports coaches - two football and one men's basketball - in five years.
He also hired Hanger, the current basketball coach, as an assistant in 1998. And in one of his final decisions as athletic director, Small helped bring in Kenny Phillips as football coach. Phillips has since led the Broncos to three CIAA championship game appearances.
"He had enough confidence to hire a guy with no head coaching experience," Phillips said Saturday. "I'll always be grateful for that."
After graduating from New Stanton High School in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1955, Small earned a bachelor's degree from Shaw University in Raleigh and a master's degree from Florida A&M.
He worked at several schools in the historically black Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association before settling at Fayetteville State in 1996.
He was Johnson C. Smith's football coach and athletic director from 1983 to 1994, and also worked at Shaw and Delaware State.
Fayetteville State has had three athletic directors since Small stepped down in 2000. He worked in the same building as all of them, teaching physical education until last month.
He also assisted with the National Youth Sports Program, an NCAA-sponsored program designed to give low-income children basic sports instruction.
"My contention is that the ‘can' in cancer says you ‘can' fight it," Lovern said. "You might not be able to beat it, but you can fight it."
Lovern wouldn't give her husband's age. And she wouldn't say how long the two had been married. That's how he would have wanted it, she said.
Horace T. Small is survived by his wife and two children - Horace T. Small II, who works in Fayetteville, and Jazzmine Bernae Small, a senior at Reid Ross Classical School.
Funeral services are scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Lewis Chapel Missionary Baptist Church on Raeford Road.
Staff writer Michael N. Graff can be reached at graffm@fayobserver.com or 486-3591.