Sunday, June 24, 2007

Help the Brahma Bull



Written by Lennie Mac

My apologies for not writing for a while, busy enjoying the Red Sox. Now its July and I look forward to writing about the upcoming season. I'll be writing my numbers articles starting this week, but before I do that, I want to bring to your attention to a GT great that needs our help. It comes from a very disturbing story in this week's Sporting News.

Larry Morris is arguably the greatest GT football player of all (pictured left on the cover of Sport Magazine in 1954). He was captain of both the football and baseball teams, started all four seasons in football, won a national championship in 1952 and went 4-0 in bowl games. He followed that up with a storied career with the Chicago Bears, winning an NFL championship in 1963, named the championship game's MVP with an interception and two sacks of Y.A. Tittle. Unfortunately, he remembers none of it.

Larry Morris is now 73, in full blown dimentia, likely due to multiple concussions he received playing football. His college teammates said that he received several of those concussions playing for the Yellow Jackets.

From the Sporting News:

"One detail that remained clear in his mind then was the importance of his relationship with Bobby Dodd, the legendary coach of Georgia Tech. Morris' father died when Morris was a young boy, and Dodd became a father figure. Few men played as large a role in Morris' life as Dodd did. Yet while Morris looked through a scrapbook of his old newspaper clippings three weeks ago, he said he never played for Dodd."

Due to business decisions likely caused by his dimentia, their fortune is depleted and it is widely known about the lack of funds from the NFLPA to help players out from the 50's and 60's.

If you want to help out their family and their medical bills, please go to http://www.jerrykramer.com/ and their Gridiron Greats fund. If you go under dire need players, you will find Larry Morris.

I hope you all get a chance to read Sporting News this week and contribute whatever you can to his fund. I know I will.