A winning family traditionFriday, August 29, 2008
By CRAIG MURPHY NDN Sports WriterLike father, like son. Ron Morris was a fullback on the 1952 Newton football team that won the mythical state championship. “Oh definitely, absolutely,” Ron said of whether his team did indeed win the state title.
There’s no disputing the 1980 Newton team won the 4A state title. Who was a fullback on that team? None other than Ron’s son Steve Morris.
That doesn’t happen every day — or every year, for that matter.“It’s rare, very, very rare,” Ron said. “It’s rare to get a state title. Then to get two in the family, you on one team and your son on the other, that’s unbelievable.”
When Steve’s senior season started in 1980, he knew the success his dad had during his sophomore season of 1952.
“I was aware of that,” Steve said. “I remember as a kid looking at his letterman’s jacket, and the team scrapbook. It definitely helped motivate me to be a better player.”Ron was one of only two sophomores on the 1952 team. He was a backup fullback and also was on kickoff and return teams in addition to playing some defense.
“It was a great team,” recalled Ron, who sold his Newton home three years ago and now lives on Lake Ponderosa in Montezuma. “We had power at running back and didn’t pass. We had a good sized line. Those guys probably averaged 210 pounds. Back then, that was a big line. I can’t recall anyone coming close to beating us.
“They were comparing our backfield to a college backfield, with the size and speed we had,” Ron added.Ron attributes a good portion of the success to coach W.L. “Ole” Eidahl, who led his team to an 8-0 record and the Central Iowa Conference crown.
“He was one heck of a coach,” Ron said. “He stressed fundamentals. We worked on blocking and tackling every practice.”
In 1953, Ron’s Cardinals only lost once, to Boone in the final minutes. Newton tied twice in his 1954 senior season and lost once.After playing college ball in Sioux City, Ron worked at Maytag a few years before getting into car sales. Jack Maples named Ron his sales manager at Maples Chevrolet in 1970, and Ron stayed at that position until retiring in 2002.
During that time, son Steve grew up playing football with friends like Treye Jackson and Ed Ergenbright, who tonight starts his sixth season as the Newton head coach.
“I kind of grew up loving football and constantly played it in my backyard,” Steve said. “It felt good to be able to play high school ball, represent Newton and win the state title. All the hard work paid off.”Newton entered the 1980 season in the newly formed Central Iowa Conference.
“I remember feeling really good going into the season that we had a lot of talent,” said Steve, now an electrical engineer in the automotive industry living in Kansas City. “I got really excited as the season went along. It was great how the whole town got behind us. We definitely had big crowds. At most of our away games, we had more fans than the home teams. It was great to see. Even our semifinal game at Sioux City East, we had more fans.”
Steve, one of the main players on the 1980 team who also was the signal caller on defense at linebacker, remembers that semifinal game well.“That game, to me, was our toughest game of the year,” Steve said. “That was touch and go. We were behind for a while, but we were able to overcome that.”
Newton got the win, then went on to beat Bettendorf for the 4A title.
Watching every game from the stands was Ron, whose grandson Graham (Steve’s nephew) was — surprise — a fullback on last year’s Newton team.“I was very proud,” Ron recalled of watching the 1980 Cardinals march to the title. “The comments from other people really puffed my chest out. Steve was one of the main players on that team.”
The 28 years between the title teams gave Ron a different view on things, and thus he considers Steve’s title year as being bigger.
“When I was younger and playing, I didn’t realize what it really meant,” Ron said. “With that (1980) team, I guess I appreciated it more.”