George "Sonny" Horne (January 3, 1924 – September 27, 1959) was a professional boxer in the 1940s who faced off against opponents such as

Rocky Graziano Thomas Rocco Barbella (January 1, 1919 – May 22, 1990), better known as Rocky Graziano, was an American professional boxer and actor who held the World Middleweight title. Graziano is considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing hi ...

Kid Gavilán Gerardo González (January 6, 1926 – February 13, 2003), better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a Cuban boxer. Gavilán was the former undisputed welterweight champion from 1951 to 1954 having simultaneously held the NYSAC, WB ...

, Pete Mead, and

Artie Levine Artie Levine (January 26, 1925 – January 13, 2012) was an American boxer in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions in the 1940s during which time he gained top ten ratings in both weight classes.Silver, Mike, ''Stars in the Ring, J ...

. An outstanding defensive boxer, Horne lost only 10 bouts and fought one draw in 121 professional fights.

Early years

Horne grew up in a working-class

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

family in

Niles, Ohio Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan a ...

, a town located in the industrial region of the

Mahoning Valley The Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH–PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, typically known as the Mahoning Valley (and historically the Steel Valley), is a metropolitan area in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania the United States, with t ...

. He began his amateur

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

career in the late 1930s, under the guidance of local trainer and police chief Matt McGowan. By the time he was 17 years old, the fighter had already established an impressive amateur career.''The Girard Review'', Sept. 6, 2007. By 1941, he had won several Golden Glove titles and was considered one of the most promising amateurs in his weight class in the country. In the late 1940s, Horne relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to establish a professional career.

Professional career

Horne won 24 of his first 26 professional fights and lost only six of his first 50. While he fought many of the leading boxers of his day, including Bobby Dykes and Tommy Bell, Horne is best known for three matches with the legendary Rocky Graziano. He first stepped into the ring with Graziano in New York on January 18, 1946, losing in the 10th round. Horne faced Graziano again on April 5, 1948, and a final time on December 6, 1949. In both cases, he lost in the 10th round. Horne also faced middleweight contender Pete Mead, losing a bout in 1946, but defeating Mead in a rematch the following year. In the late 1940s, he was knocked out by Artie Levine.

Illness and death

Horne's career came to a tragic end when he was diagnosed with

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

in the late 1940s. He succumbed to the chronic illness in 1959. His accomplishments were remembered in his native Ohio, where Horne was the first person to be inducted into the

Trumbull County Trumbull County is a county in the far northeast portion of U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 201,977. Its county seat is Warren, which developed industry along the Mahoning River. Trumbull County is part of the ...

, Ohio and Area Boxers Hall of Fame. Horne's daughter, Marilyn Horne Nickell, was on hand for the induction ceremony. Among the local celebrity boxers who attended the ceremony was former

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

lightweight champion

Harry Arroyo Harry Arroyo (born October 25, 1957) is an American former professional boxer who held the IBF lightweight title from 1984 to 1985. Early years Arroyo, of Puerto Rican descent, was born on the south side of Youngstown, Ohio, a steel-man ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horne, Sonny 1924 births 1959 deaths American people of Irish descent Neurological disease deaths in Ohio Deaths from motor neuron disease People from Niles, Ohio