Horace Edward King (born March 5, 1953) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

from 1972 to 1974 and professional football in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

from 1975 to 1983. A native of

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, he played high school football at Clarke Central High School in that city. He next played at the

from 1972 to 1974, totaling 1,673 yards from scrimmage. On October 12, 1974, he gained 134 yards and tied a Georgia record with four touchdowns against Ole Miss. King was selected by the

in the sixth round of the

1975 NFL Draft The 1975 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1975, at the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Steve Bartko ...

and played nine years for the Lions from 1975 to 1983. He was the Lions' leading rusher in 1977 when he totaled 521 rushing yards. His best season was 1978 when he started 15 games at fullback and totaled 1,056 yards from scrimmage (660 rushing and 396 receiving) and scored six touchdowns. In his nine-year NFL career, King totaled 2,081 rushing yards and 3,660 yards from scrimmage. He was cut by the Lions in late August 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Horace 1953 births Living people Players of American football from Athens, Georgia American football running backs Georgia Bulldogs football players Detroit Lions players