'True Blue': Floyd County Community Remembers Bill Thornton

Bill Thornton was a proud country boy who never met a stranger. He was a true blue Armuchee boy, though the shades of blue varied from the colors of Armuchee High School to the old Berry Academy. He went to be with the Lord early Sunday morning.

Bill was born in Armuchee in February of 1934 and married the former Avis Cordle in June 1957.

Bill served two years in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and overseas in Frankfurt, Germany. He graduated from Armuchee High School in 1952 and earned his Bachelor of Science degree at Berry College. He received his Masters degree from Middle Tennessee State University and then his Education Specialist degree from Jacksonville State University.

Prior to his career in education, Bill worked for a while at Firestone Tire & Rubber, the General Motors assembly plant in Atlanta, and Metropolitan Life Insurance. He joined the staff at Berry Academy, where he was a teacher and dean of students.

He coached almost every sport available — including basketball, baseball and soccer — served as intramural director and also guided students through outdoor activities that included camping, hiking and canoeing.

Retiring from Berry Academy he then returned to his beloved Armuchee High School as a teacher, coaching the basketball, baseball, softball, tennis and cross country teams. He served as assistant principal in charge of discipline for students in grades 6-12 and supervised the in-school suspension program until his final retirement in 1995.

But for Bill, life was just beginning at the age of 61.

For nearly 30 years, Bill has served as a volunteer with the Rome-Floyd Recreation Department where he taught basketball and tennis skills to hundreds of youngsters — and in the case of tennis, adults, too. Many of his younger students went on to high school and collegiate successes. One of his biggest thrills came when he coached his grandson Henry Thornton as a 5-year-old.

He served the recreation department as a site director for tennis tournaments, and was a youth baseball, baseball and football coach. Bill also served as Beginning Adult Tennis coach, and was a member of the Hall of Fame golf tournament committee, Hall of Fame barbecue committee and many tennis tournament committees.

He served the local tennis community in a plethora of positions and found some time to be a successful adult tennis player as well. Bill played on many teams that won league championships and was a member of five teams that won state championships. His Mixed Tennis 6.0 level teams won state titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He played tennis regularly into his late 80s and received the USTA Male Captain of the Year award in 2019.

He later discovered pickleball and was a leader in the growth of that sport in Rome and Floyd County. Bill was a leader of the Rome Tennis Club and the Coosa Valley Tennis Association for many years. He served as a team captain over the course of many years, was the president and league coordinator for the CVTA and was a tournament director for a number of state championships hosted by the CVTA and the Rome-Floyd Recreation Department over the years

Two of those tournaments received awards from the Georgia Chapter of the United States Tennis Association. One was named tournament of the year while another was named the tennis event of the year.

He served his church Upward Basketball program at New Armuchee Baptist Church as director and coach. He served on several boards locally, the CVTA, Rome Tennis Club, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Rome Floyd Sports Hall of Fame and Citizens for Better Park. He also served on the Georgia Tennis Association Board of Directors. His dedication to the local recreation community did not go unnoticed by his peers.

Bill has been recognized with the Georgia Wallis Service Award in 1999, the Horace Anthony Volunteer of the Year Award at the recreation department in 2002 He was inducted into the Rome Floyd Sports Hall of Fame for Meritorious Service in 2004. In 2007, Bill was a recipient of a Heart of the Community Award. Four years later, in 2011, the indoor facility at the North Floyd Park was named the Bill Thornton Center. In March 2024, the Floyd County Board of Education named the road from US 27 into Armuchee High School as Bill Thornton Way.