The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific Style (ma ...

Kenneth Howard Randolph "Randy" Horton, JP, MP is a former soccer and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

player from

Bermuda ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , ...

who is currently Speaker of the

House of Assembly of Bermuda The House of Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. The house has 36 Members of Parliament (MPs), elected for a term of five years in single seat constituencies using first-past-the-post voti ...

. He was named North American Soccer League Most Valuable Player in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

Biography

Horton was born on 22 January 1945 in Bermuda. He attended

Culham College Culham is a village and civil parish in a bend of the River Thames, south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The parish includes Culham Science Centre and Europa School UK (formerly the European School, Culham, which was the only Accredited Europea ...

in England and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

in the United States.

Sports

A top level cricketer offered trials to play for

Worcestershire County Cricket Club Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Worcestershire. Its Vitality Blast T20 team has been rebranded ...

, Horton turned down the opportunity to play English

County cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

and

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

football for

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. ...

to stay in a warmer climate following completing his Oxford University Institute of Education Teacher Training Certificate from Culham College in Oxfordshire, England. He represented

Bermuda national cricket team The Bermuda national cricket team represents the British overseas territory of Bermuda in international cricket. The team is organised by the Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB), which became an associate member of the International Cricket Council ( ...

five times between 1969 and 1980.

Soccer

Club career

He signed with the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independe ...

as was named NASL Rookie of the Year and First Team all-star for the

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

season. The Cosmos won the league championship in

as Horton was named league MVP, as voted by the players, as he led the league in scoring with 22 points in 13 games. He also scored New York's first goal in their 2–1 Finals win over

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. After the 1972 season Horton was offered a contract with Queens Park Rangers by their manager

Gordon Jago Gordon Harold Jago (born 22 October 1932) is an English former football player and manager, and the former director of the Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup international youth tournament. Playing career Born in Poplar, London, Jago began his professiona ...

. Horton decided to remain with Cosmos and complete his master's degree at Rutgers University in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. Horton played two more summers with the Cosmos before being traded to the

Washington Diplomats The Washington Diplomats were an American soccer club representing Washington, D.C. Throughout their playing existence, the club played their home games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and indoor soccer, indoor home matches at the neigh ...

for three first-round draft picks. After a season in Washington, he finished his NASL career playing for the

Hartford Bicentennials The Connecticut Bicentennials were an American soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1975 to 1977. Originally founded as the Hartford Bicentennials, the team relocated to New Haven, Connecticut after the 19 ...

. In Bermuda, Horton played for and coached the Somerset Trojans and represented

Politics

Horton has been a member of the Bermuda Parliament since 1998 and has held cabinet positions as Community Affairs and Sports Minister, Education Minister, Environment Minister and Labour Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister. On 8 February 2013 he was elected unopposed as

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible gover ...

, becoming the first member of an opposition party to hold that position.

Awards

*1971 Rookie of the Year for the New York Cosmos *1971 First Team All-Star (NASL) *1972 Most Valuable Player in NASL *1972 Leading Scorer in NASL *1972 Leading Goal Scorer in NASL *1972 First Team All-Star (NASL) *1973 Second Team All-Star (NASL) *1974 Honorable Mention All-Star (NASL) *1974, Bermuda Jaycees' Outstanding Young Person Award *1981, Selected as one of Ten Most Admired Adults in Bermuda by the Annual Teen Conference

References

External links

''New York Cosmos Soccer, Inc.''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Randy 1945 births Living people Speakers of the House of Assembly of Bermuda Bermudian cricketers Bermudian footballers Association football forwards North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players New York Cosmos players Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals players Washington Diplomats (NASL) players Connecticut Bicentennials players Ministers of Education of Bermuda Ministers of the Environment of Bermuda Interior ministers of Bermuda Labour ministers of Bermuda Sports ministers of Bermuda Bermudian sportsperson-politicians Bermudian expatriate footballers Bermuda international footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Bermudian expatriate sportspeople in the United States People from Sandys Parish