Inducted 1991. All-American in Football and Basketball. Class of 1952.
James R. Morris, a Quincy native, played basketball, baseball and football at Notre Dame High School. He was named to the Catholic All-American high school team in both football and basketball, and All-State in baseball.
Jim attended the University of Notre Dame on a football scholarship. A knee injury forced Jim to forego football, but he continued to play on the baseball team. He lead the team in batting average and home runs for two years and was selected as an All-American his senior year. He holds the highest batting average, .714, in the NCAA World Series.
After playing one season of professional baseball in the New York Yankee organization, he became a teacher and coach at Springfield Griffin where he was employed for five years. He then went on to the Springfield Public School system for three years.
His Christian leadership abilities are demonstrated in the Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) program. He started TEC centers in Olivet and Joliet. He is co-founder and lay director of the Koinonia Weekend and has been coordinator of 21 Koinonia centers in eight states. J. Emmett Frost of the New World Chicago Catholic Publication called Jim Morris the greatest Catholic High School athlete in the country.
Jim and his wife, the former Susan Eck, have six children and live in Springfield. Jim works for the State of Illinois Mental Health Division.