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Saturday, October 24, 2009
Athlete Known for His Jokes
By Lloyd Jojola
Journal Staff Writer
Ronald Morrison, an accomplished Albuquerque High School athlete and former UNM Lobos football player who went on to play for the Houston Oilers during the inaugural American Football League season, died this week.
The city resident was 71.
"He was just a great kid, and they didn't call him 'Moose' for nothing — he was big!" said Jim Hulsman, who was an assistant track and field coach at Albuquerque High while Morrison was a student at the Downtown-area school.
"He was one of those team leaders who had an extraordinary philosophy about getting along with people," the coaching icon said. "Everybody liked him. He was just a wonderful person to associate with."
Morrison several years ago was inducted into the Albuquerque High School Athletic Hall of Fame, Hulsman said, "the highest (honor) we can give to a graduate letterman."
Services for Morrison are scheduled for 11 a.m. today at French Mortuary, 10500 Lomas NE. Interment will take place at Sunset Memorial Park.
Morrison's lifelong "Moose" nickname was apropos. Various accounts placed the defensive tackle at about 6 foot, 4 inches tall and about 250 pounds during his playing days.
As part of the 1960 drafts, Morrison was selected by the Houston Oilers of the fledgling AFL and also the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League. In the Rams case, he was taken in the seventh round as the 73rd overall pick, according to a Wikipedia listing of the draft.
"He played a few games with the Rams — because I've got the programs," said Patti Morrison, his wife. "Then he went to Houston."
Fanbase.com indicates that Morrison played for the Oilers as a defensive tackle in 1960, when the team won the AFL championship.
Morrison had gone to the Rams training camp, and he recalled how the rookies came in with swagger to spare — until the veterans arrived.
"They sort of flicked them aside like fleas," is the way Morrison portrayed it to his wife.
"That's when he started realizing what professional football was all about," she said. "Even just walking out of the cafeteria and stuff, he said, 'We just sort of moved aside for the (veteran players). They were twice our size, they were faster, quicker. It was just amazing.'"
The Tennessee Titans football team, the franchise that was the Houston Oilers, were scheduled to send a representative to Morrison's funeral, his wife said.
Born in Lansing, Mich., Ronald "Ron" Morrison moved with his family to Albuquerque in the early 1940s. In 1956, Morrison graduated from Albuquerque High, where he had excelled in track and field and American football.
In the fall of 1955, he was named All-State in football, Hulsman said. The following spring, he was state javelin champion, having thrown the light spear 156 feet, 8 1/2 inches — an Albuquerque High record that stood until 1980, Hulsman said. Morrison also played for the North squad in the annual North-South football game later that same year.
He went on to play football for the University of New Mexico.
After his professional football stint, Morrison moved back to Albuquerque and worked in sales for American Gypsum/Centex for many years. He then worked in the boat business, and later became general manager at Sisco Sprinkler Irrigation Supply, where he had worked for about 20 years until his death, his wife said.
In announcing his death on Sunday, Morrison's family wrote that "a man of much wisdom and wit passed away."
"He was wise in that he was calm. He was patient. He never overreacted to things," Patti Morrison said. "He knew how to never burn bridges. He never offended people. Never said anything cruel or mean about anybody.
As for his wit, it was quick and peppered with "Ronisms."
"He was just a man of many, many jokes that could just keep you laughing all the time," his wife said. "Even in the hospital, he had a couple of jokes once and awhile and we were like, 'Our Ron's still here. You're coming back. You're going to make it. You're coming home.' "
Morrison had been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year.
His survivors include his wife of 28 years, Patti Morrison; daughters, Carrie Erdman and her husband Matt, and Roni Morrison; granddaughter Autumn Robinson; son, Jamie Morrison and his wife Christina; grandsons, Alesandro and Emiliano Morrison; brother, Dick Morrison and his wife Barbara and their family; and sisters, Janice Morrison and Janet Morrison.
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