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Published in The Seattle Times online on Feb. 8, 2023
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Feb. 11, 2023

Integrity made Bobby Morris the city’s first sports-star awardee

By Clay Eals

On the crisp Saturday afternoon of Oct. 3, 1936, in Pullman, 22,000 football fans streamed into a new stadium and saw Washington State edge Stanford 14-13. But the drama didn’t end with the final score.

For days, northern California newspapers kicked around fierce, spoil-sport claims. Five Stanford players had accused the game’s lead referee of coaching Cougar players on the field and, in the finishing moments, blowing back-to-back calls that stranded Stanford mere inches away from a comeback touchdown.

The complainers — in today’s political parlance, they might have screamed “Stop the steal!”— were never named, though the official’s name was made notorious. A San Francisco Examiner headline declared him “under fire” for “bum rulings.” His detractors, however, didn’t really understand who they were dealing with.

The ref was longtime Seattle sports official Bobby Morris (1897-1970), a mentor to thousands of school children and college athletes, and renowned for honesty and fairness. “Square as a die,” Cougar coach Babe Hollingbery described him.

The Pacific Coast Conference probed the coaching allegation, and one week after the game, Stanford officials telegrammed Morris a public apology: “We regret the unfortunate publicity which has developed in this matter and any reflection which may have been cast on your integrity.”

Also, filmed evidence indicated that in the two culminating plays, while the torso of Stanford’s ball carrier reached the endzone, his knees had first hit turf shy of the goal. Thus, as per collegiate rules, Morris rightly denied Stanford a winning score.

For more than two decades, this man with the boyish first name officiated countless basketball and football games, including Rose Bowls in 1925, 1935, 1936 and 1939, and served as a judge at Longacres horse races. So it was natural that he came to embrace a high-profile opportunity to ensure the integrity of local records and elections.

In 1937, Morris was appointed King County’s chief deputy auditor, then auditor in 1941. Elected to the post in 1942, he was re-elected every four years thereafter until, ill, he retired in 1969.

Fittingly, the city playfield east of Morris’ alma mater, Broadway High School (today’s Seattle Central College), where he played sports himself, was named for him posthumously in 1980.

All this is worth remembering given that the 89th annual Seattle Sports Star of the Year banquet clocks in this Feb. 15 at The Westin downtown. The award series, launched by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and originally dubbed Man of the Year, began in March 1936.

Who won the first award? None of the 11 nominated athletes and coaches, but rather someone devoted to keeping their games trustworthy — Bobby Morris.

 

WEB EXTRAS

Thanks to Dave Eskenazi, Heather and Joe Levy and especially Marilyn Morris Campbell and her grandson Bobby Morris for their invaluable help with this installment!

To see Clay Eals’ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

You also will find 2 related links, 22 additional photos and, in chronological order, 61 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com and Washington Digital Newspapers, that were helpful in the preparation of this column.

Two related web pages:

• Bobby Morris profile at SportsPressNW.org
• Sports Star of the Year banquet of the Seattle Sports Commission