JACK MORRIS

AS PLAYER OR ATHLETIC DIRECTOR,
MORRIS LIVED LIFE AS A BLUE DRAGON

Ask Jack Morris which he preferred – playing for Hutchinson Community College or serving as the prestigious program’s director of athletics – and the choice is a tough one to make.

“That’s really hard to say because I lived both of them,” Morris said. “As the A.D., it was pretty much 24/7, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. I enjoyed both. I really can’t pick one over the other. They were both the best experiences I ever had.”

Morris is an HCC Quarterback Club 2016 Hall of Fame inductee. He is the third Hall of Fame member to be both a Blue Dragon player and then a coach/administrator.

Morris was a Blue Dragon football all-conference player in 1968 and 1969. He then became the Blue Dragon athletic program’s third athletic director in 1985 and held that position until 1997.

In his time as a Blue Dragon, Morris was surrounded by Hall of Famers.

His head football coach and defensive coordinator, John Matous and Willie Adkins, were enshrined in 2000 and 2004, respectively. As athletic director he hired Hall of Famers David Farrar (2009), Steve McClain (2013) and Pat Becher (2014) and oversaw 2005 Hall of Famer Gary Bargen when it took over in 1985.

“Those two guys are responsible for any successes that I had,” Morris said, referring to Matous and Adkins.

Morris became a Blue Dragon after a prep career at Shawnee Mission North.

 “They spent two years trying to run me off,” Morris said of his high school coaching staff. “After that, they gave me the best advice ever.

“They told me ‘you can go to Fort Hays State or Emporia and have a good career or you can go to a junior college and have an opportunity to play D-1.’ I didn’t know what a junior college was. My coaches told me that Hutchinson was the finest academic and athletic junior college in the state.”

After a solid freshman season at Hutchinson in 1968, Morris had a breakthrough season in 1969. He was a two-way player who was also the team’s punter. Morris caught 33 balls for 563 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged a nation-leading and team season-record 43.1 yards per punt on 42 punts. (That record still stands at the time of Morris’ induction).

 Morris was a unanimous all-Jayhawk Conference selection as a receiver, defensive back and punter. He was an NJCAA first-team All-American on Hutchinson’s undefeated 1969 Jayhawk Conference and Sterling Silver Bowl championship team.

“To be unanimous at three positions, that was pretty special,” Morris said. “I’ve always been surrounded with good teammates and good coaches. (That team) had all the elements. It had a great, great defense. Coach Adkins was a great coach. He was able to get more out of people than any coach I’ve ever been around.”

After a tremendous playing career at the University of Arkansas, Morris was a Razorback graduate assistant and ultimately transitioned into becoming the Dean of Continuing Education at Hutchinson Community College in 1976.

In 1985, Morris returned to athletics, taking over for Hall of Famer Sam Butterfield as Blue Dragon athletic director in 1985.

One thing was certain at the start of Morris’ tenure with Hutchinson … the Blue Dragons’ two signature teams – men’s basketball and football – weren’t reaching expectations.

“Every basketball coach I interviewed I challenged with that I expect our team to be in the national tournament once every three years,” Morris said. “They all accepted the challenge and they all met it.”

When Morris took over, the vaunted Blue Dragon men’s basketball team hadn’t qualified for the NJCAA Tournament in nine years. That all changed with Bargen’s 1986 team. Men’s basketball under the guidance of Morris went to the national tournament four times, each with a different coach, in 12 seasons.

HCC basketball also reached the pinnacle of junior college basketball with national championships in 1988 and 1994.

“One thing that I am proud of is that in those 12 years, we got in (to the national tournament) four times with four different head coaches and we won it twice,” Morris said. “That tells me that everybody involved was doing something right, not just one great coach.”

It took a little longer for football to turn things around, but when Morris hired Sam Pittman, the return that program to the top of the Jayhawk Conference started. Pittman guided the 1993 Blue Dragons to the Valley of the Sun Bowl, HCC’s first bowl game since 1970. The 1995 Blue Dragons won the conference for the first time since 1974.

“My interest in athletes and my love for the college and it was a way to get back into athletics,” Morris recalled about becoming athletic director. “It turned out to be a really good match.”