Kosie Horn Has Died

He had been in hospital for just over two weeks with a lung infection and was to be moved from ICU when he suffered a stroke and died. He was 63.

Many people will have experienced his cheerful kindness in his 12-year stint as manager of the Blue Bulls referees and then as the Blue Bulls' training and education manager.

Jacobus Daniel Horn, known to everybody as Kosie, was born on 29 August 1952 in Frankfort on the banks of the Wilge River in the Eastern Free State, but he grew up in Durban, moving there when he was young and going to Dirkie Uys on the Bluff. He played scrumhalf at school and joined the police force in 1971. In 1978 he started refereeing, joining the Durban Referees' Society. The next year the young policeman was transferred to Ladybrand and then Bloemfontein and then on to Pretoria where he stayed till he died this year.

As a referee Horn became a first league referee in 1979 and from 1985 to 1994 he was a provincial referee, reaching Currie Cup status. In 1994 he moved to Pretoria and the next year stopped active refereeing. For eight years he had been he secretary of the Free State Referees' Society and then in 1996 he became the secretary of the Blue Bulls Referees' Society, becoming its first full-time manager in 1998 after taking early retirement from the police force. He ceased to be the referees' manager in 2009 and from then on was the Blue Bulls' training and education manager.

Kosie was the wonderful combination of efficiency and unfailing good cheer. You always felt better for contact with him. You looked forward to contact with him, for Kosie was the same cheerful man, unchanged by time.

Kosie is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter and his hero – his grandson. To them all who knew Kosie will want to send love and keep the whole family in their prayers at this time.