Posted on

John Morr stepping down after fulfilling career at Alabama

When John Morr was a young boy growing up on a farm in Illinois, his father, perhaps not ready yet for his children to lose some of the magic of childhood, worried when his children began questioning the existence of Santa Claus.

So John’s dad conspired with the Jolly Old Elf himself, devising a plan to erase any doubt.

“That Christmas morning, there was snow on the ground,” John Morr recalled. “We went outside, and we saw deer tracks and sleigh marks in the snow. And there was a Clue game stuck in the snow, like Santa had dropped it or it had fallen out of the sleigh. To this day, there is no doubt in my mind about the existence of Santa. Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus. He is very real.”

It’s memories like that the longtime University of Alabama Assistant Athletic Trainer wants to create for his and wife Maggie’s own two sons, Will, 11, and Jake, 7. That’s why, on Aug. 31, at the tender age of 51, Morr will officially step away from one of the most demanding, exciting, and fulfilling careers he could have ever dreamed of as that kid growing up in Illinois.

“I don’t think of it as retiring so much as just maybe stepping away and into my other job,” Morr said. “I want my sons to have nice memories of their childhood that they can tell their kids and grandkids when they’re old.”

His sons are at the heart of the career move. Will has Asberger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Morr’s job at Alabama found him, daily, starting work in the Coleman Coliseum training room by 7 a.m. and rarely leaving before 7:30 p.m., often without even leaving for a lunch break. His wife, Dr. Margaret Stewart Morr, is equally busy as a family practitioner in Tuscaloosa.

Morr has been most visible with his work with men’s basketball, the draw that lured him in October of 1996 from his job on the University of Kentucky’s athletic training staff. He was also assigned to the Crimson Tide’s national champion men’s and women’s golf teams and as supervisor to the graduate assistant athletic trainer who works with Alabama’s spirit squads. Over the course of his career at Alabama, Morr has worked with the men’s and women’s tennis teams, gymnastics, baseball and softball.

“I’m sure there will be times I’ll miss it. I won’t miss the hours. But I’m at peace with the decision,” Morr said.

His Alabama career started as a whirlwind and the pace never slowed. The 1986 Eastern Illinois University graduate started his job the same week in October as basketball practice.

“Brian Williams and Eric Washington were the first players I met. They introduced themselves to me and asked me what my nickname was. I told them I didn’t have one. They said, ‘everybody has a nickname.’ I told them in high school they called me ‘J.B.’ Ever since, that’s what all the players call me.”

Walking away from something one loves is never easy. This is such a case.

“We (he and Maggie) had been talking about doing this for a few years, and now, with a new coach,” Morr said of first-year coach Avery Johnson, “it just seemed like, in the grand scheme, this was the time to make the exit. Avery welcomed me with open arms, and trying to tell him I was going to leave was tough. But it’s something I needed to do for my family, and he understands that.”

Morr is leaving a job he loved and one that loved him back.

“In life, you meet a lot of people. Some you forget, some you just can’t forget because of all the memories that you endure,” said Mo Williams, a guard for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers who played at Alabama in 2002 and 2003. “John, enjoy your retirement, my friend. It’s well-deserved.”

Morr’s career at Alabama spanned five head coaches: David Hobbs, Mark Gottfried, interim head coach Philip Pearson, Anthony Grant and now Johnson.

“David Hobbs welcomed me into the basketball family and his family. Mark Gottfried brought Alabama basketball to a level that it hadn’t been to in a while. The memory of the (2004) Elite 8 run was fantastic. Philip Pearson will always be a good friend. I appreciate Coach Grant’s passion and love for people in the community. He’s not a self-promoter. After the (April 2011) tornado, he was out there in the muck, doing all kinds of things to help the community and didn’t let any publicity get out about it. And Avery, I can’t thank him enough for his council and advice. And then there were men like Robert Scott and Kermit Koenig, great guys who passed on during my time here. They were very supportive.”

But it was the athletes who kept Morr coming back to work year after year.

“I didn’t need this job from a financial standpoint. I did it because of them,” Morr said.

“I’ll never forget Kennedy Winston, sitting on the training table while I was taping him, holding Will when he was a baby; playing cards on the road with Jeremy Hays and Travis Stinnett; my room on the road being a gathering point. They’d come in there to get treatment, but it was also where they could come in and be goofy,” Morr said. “Sometimes getting them ready to go somewhere was like herding chickens.”

Each year brought new faces, none, perhaps, more special as a group than the freshman class of 1999-2000 that included Erwin Dudley, Rod Grizzard, Terrance Meade and Kenny Walker.

“They were just fun to be around,” Morr said. “Like every other freshman, they were goofy and silly together, but they were also very talented. That’s one of the special things about that job, seeing the players grow from 18-year-old kids to 22-year-old men.”

He sat courtside on the team bench for hundreds of games, none, he recalls, more exciting than the Stanford and Syracuse wins in the 2004 NCAA tournament.

His duties went far beyond the physical care of the athletes. For basketball, he was also charged with arranging team travel and lodging, itineraries, rooming lists and per diem. That meant, even though basketball took him to Hawaii, Alaska, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, New York City, Boston, Europe and other grand travel destinations, he rarely left the hotel, except to go to practice and games.

Alabama basketball introduced him to his wife, Maggie. They met 13 years ago in the training room when she was in her second year of residency.

“When we were dating, we were watching a basketball game on TV, and he wondered what defense a team was using. I said, ‘I think triangle and two.’ He looked at me like I had three heads,” Dr. Morr said.

“I knew then,” John Morr said, “that she was the one.”

He helped athletes emerge triumphant through some of their darkest hours.

Some events still haunt him.

“Dealing with Ron Steele impacted me. It taught me never to truly trust technology. Trust the athlete, not the image,” Morr said of the former point guard’s knee injury that went undetected on several MRIs. “And the tragedy that Jermareo Davidson went through when he was in a wreck and his girlfriend died. That impacted me a great deal.”

Leaving that life behind will be different, but he looking forward to what lies ahead.

“I’ll miss the game. I’ll miss all the people. But what I’m gaining in return with my family will be priceless.”

 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20150826/NEWS/150829729