The Tigers of Tucker High School had some winning sports seasons and some losing ones. But over decades, they rarely, if ever, scored a touchdown, made a tie-breaking basket, or celebrated a bases-loaded home run without their biggest fan watching — James “Bud” Jeffrey King.
“Anything he could do to help, he would. Anything he could do for the kids, he would,” said James Harty, head coach for Tucker’s varsity basketball team. “He’s an icon here in Tucker. He meant a lot to everybody.”
King, who was autistic, disappeared Feb. 24 after taking a bus to visit one of his favorite Tucker restaurants. His body was found near Mariners Court March 2. Authorities have ruled his death an accident, his family said.
He was 57.
King didn’t own or drive a car, so he hopped a Marta bus every day to go from his Decatur home to Tucker, where he was a fixture at the DeKalb County high school.
Bud King graduated from Stone Mountain High School, where programs were tailored to his unique needs. But he grew up not even a block from Tucker High School and, as a youngster, developed bonds with the school’s coaches and players that would last decades.
Tucker High School was his heart and life, older brother Jerry King said.
He said Bud King had a phenomenal memory and could remember all the athletes, their stats, where they played, and the yard line where they dropped the ball.
“Everything was Tucker High School, morning until night,” Jerry King said. “He had to get to every game. He never missed a game for 20-something, 25, or maybe 30 years.”
Randall Rolader, a Tucker youth sports coach, said King’s remarkable memory was legendary and known around the country.
“He could remember the batting averages of every kid in the major leagues and the youth football leagues,” he said. “Teams used him as their statistician and had him keep their books.”
Bud King’s love of sports shined early. Rolader was coaching in Tucker in the 1970s when King, then 9 or 10 years old, started showing up at games.
King changed dugouts at one game when he realized the team he supported was losing to Rolader’s team. After that, some started calling him “better deal King,” Rolader said.
Another time, while on a youth football team trip to Savannah, King was worried some boys might prank him, so he slept in a closet. He got left behind when the team departed. The Chatham County Sheriffs Department passed the hat to put King on a bus for home.
Former coach, local businessman and longtime friend Trea Hurst said he “and the whole community are absolutely just crushed and devastated” by King’s death.
“We can’t understand how or why this happened to somebody who meant so much to everybody.”
Hurst described King as someone who never met a stranger, whether in a ballpark or another city.
“And usually somebody recognized him,” he said.
King was part of Tucker sports, every day, 365 days a year, Hurst said.
“If there was something going on, he was down there the whole day, every day,” he said. “He never missed a football game, a basketball game or a baseball game.”
Several Tucker coaches met in the mountains about three weeks ago for their annual Super Bowl watching. King was there, as always, Hurst said.
“He was the centerpiece of any group he was ever in,” he said. “Bud was just a magnetic person. He was the character of the party. Our community has stopped for about a week now. We’re in shock. We’re frozen. We’re going to miss him.”
Survivors include his brother, Jerry King; his sister, Jackie Boyles; and his nephew, Richard King.
