Junior Morgan-RIP

[jimsumner]

Starting center on Duke's first NCAA team.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/chi-hed-morganjun24,0,4511931.story

[roywhite]

Thanks, Jim; sounds like an interesting guy.

By the way, who better to ask about this tidbit:

"In the 1954-55 season, when Duke played in the NCAA tournament for the first time, Mr. Morgan fouled out of 13 of 28 games, setting a record for disqualifications that stood until 1974, according to university records."

Who broke that dubious record? Trying to think of players from that era---Fleischer, Billerman, Hodge, Redding...?

[jimsumner]

Willie Hodge

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Willie Hodge

Willie never saw a foul he wouldn't commit :)

He had so much talent, but it only occasionally showed up in a game.

[DisplacedBlueDevil]

Hey y'all - My first post... I just wanted to say I was saddened to hear of Junior Morgan's passing. My father, Richard (Dick) Rosenthal played with Junior for 2 seasons in the mid '50's but I never knew that until 2005 when I was putting together a video for our family reunion. I was in touch with the archives at Duke library and ordered a game tape (the only one they had from that era) which showed Morgan in a Dixie Classic matchup against West Virginia and their star, Rod Hundley. The archivist even sent me the box score: Junior outscored Hot Rod 11-2. Junior also had 11 rebounds and only 4 fouls! He was quite a presence on the floor...

My father told me he sent my tape to Junior after he saw him at the homecoming football game a few years ago and he said that "made his year".

Another Blue Devil in heaven...

[DukePA]

Hey y'all - My first post... I just wanted to say I was saddened to hear of Junior Morgan's passing. My father, Richard (Dick) Rosenthal played with Junior for 2 seasons in the mid '50's but I never knew that until 2005 when I was putting together a video for our family reunion. I was in touch with the archives at Duke library and ordered a game tape (the only one they had from that era) which showed Morgan in a Dixie Classic matchup against West Virginia and their star, Rod Hundley. The archivist even sent me the box score: Junior outscored Hot Rod 11-2. Junior also had 11 rebounds and only 4 fouls! He was quite a presence on the floor...

My father told me he sent my tape to Junior after he saw him at the homecoming football game a few years ago and he said that "made his year".

Another Blue Devil in heaven...


Welcome!! What a great first post. I cannot wait to read more from you. Say hi to your dad for us and perhaps you can tempt him to start posting :)

Donna

[DisplacedBlueDevil]

Thanks, Donna - you won't find my father teaching Computer Science at Duke...I'll see if I can get him up and running on DBR, he would love reading all this stuff! He does have some great Old School stories. We attended Duke's reunion in 2004 honoring the school's 50 years in the ACC and heard some more good stories. Stay tuned!!