By Jim Moyes
LocalSportsJournal.com

Muskegon has lost one of its great ones with the passing of Jim Morse.

A legendary football star, first at Muskegon St. Mary’s and later at Notre Dame, Morse was much more than a Hall of Fame athlete, he was one of the most generous, humble, and well-liked personas this city has ever known.

Following a brief illness, Morse passed away at the age of 87 Thursday evening, Sept. 28, just days before his 88th birthday on Oct. 5.

An easy choice in a recent story written by Scott Decamp as one of the top 25 football players in Greater Muskegon history, Jim scored a total of 343 points during his legendary career at St. Mary’s. And he accumulated these points in just 26 games, long before today’s traditional nine-game schedule and possible lengthy playoff run.

Morse scored a total of 50 touchdowns and most of these TDs weren’t your short goal line plunges.  He ‘averaged’ an astounding 27 yards for each TD scored.

He has one record that I believe surely must stand today, more than 70 years after his high school career ended in the Fall of 1952.  He intercepted a pass in a 1951 game against Bay St. St. Joseph and returned it 104 yards.

Jim Morse was elected captain for Notre Dame during his time playing for the Fighting Irish.

And what a career Jim had for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Jim’s long-time friend and Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame, Paul Hornung, called Morse his go-to player for the Irish offense.  Among his accomplishments at Notre Dame was a record-breaking feat that still ranks with the best performance in NCAA college history. 

Against USC in his sophomore year in a 23-17 Irish victory, Morse ran for 179 yards, caught a pair of passes and scored two touchdowns.  He exceeded even that accomplishment the following year against those same USC Trojans. Morse caught five passes for 208 yards, an average of 41 yards per completion that, I believe nearly 70 years later, stands as an NCAA record.

And how well respected was Morse for his leadership attributes?  Can there possibly be a greater honor than being elected captain for Notre Dame football, of one of the most iconic football programs in our nation’s history?  Morse always felt being named captain of the 1956 Notre Team was one of his proudest achievements.

In today’s era of specialization, Jim was a three-sport star of gigantic proportion. Jim was also a basketball standout who led St. Mary’s to a state runner-up finish at the 1953 basketball Class C state finals.

In a bit of irony that surely had to ask the question “What if” —the 1953 St. Mary’s starting five of Morse, Mike Kanitz, Howie Meloche, Pat Donovan and Bob Kurant were favorites to win the Class C state title, but lost a heart breaker to Saginaw St. Mary 59-57.  Later that evening Muskegon St. Joseph, a team that lost TWICE to Muskegon St. Mary’s during the regular season, won the Class D title in overtime over Detroit All Saints.  With that win by St. Joseph, and the two-point loss by St. Mary’s, it was the St. Joseph team that was inducted into the Greater Muskegon Hall of Fame this past summer.

Morse was also a baseball whiz, who for a few years during his high school and college days, played on a Home Furnace City League team that was the best the area in the middle 1950s.

Morse stands with his family during a ceremony at Muskegon Catholic. Photo/Tim Reilly

In sports, Morse left a huge legacy, but it was his numerous acts of benevolence that will also never to be forgotten by many.  And he surely wasn’t alone throughout his highly accomplished lifetime.  Jim married his high school sweetheart, the former Leah Ray Seymour in 1954 and together they raised seven children. Jim always said it was Leah Ray who was the rock of the family.  Jim and Leah Ray had been inseparable for nearly 70 incredible years with a gazillion memorable accomplishments. 

Jim Morse surely wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  Jim could have been the poster child with his rags-to-riches riches story. He was primarily raised by his grandmother and often had to hitchhike to school at St. Mary’s.  He would supplement his scanty income in his childhood days by selling newspapers on a corner in downtown Muskegon.

Morse makes a cut during a game for Notre Dame.

One of Jim’s first endeavors into the business world was having his own sports show at a local radio station, long before sports shows on radio and television became popular.  Jim told me he earned his money for his show by getting sponsorship from local businesses.  From those sport show segments on WTRU, he spiraled quickly up the ladder in radio and TV. By the middle 1960s Jim was the play-by-play voice of Notre Dame football as well as performing numerous roles in television for the CBS Network. A common work week for Morse would be to call a Saturday Notre Dame game on the radio and then quickly hop on an airplane to work as an analyst the following day for an NFL game.

Locally, Jim began his climb to his incredible success in business as the General Manager of Wagoner Transportation Company, owned by my stepfather Harold ‘Red’ Wagoner. From there it was all uphill for Morse in the world of business.  With Jim, the voice of Notre Dame football and the Irish loaded with talent, he became one of the first agents in NFL history by representing Fighting Irish icons like Nick Eddy and Alan Page in procuring lucrative NFL contracts.  Jim then invested wisely in numerous entities.  With a tireless work ethic, Morse made millions by making sound business investments in various entities ranging from purchasing radio stations, hotels, outlet shopping malls and, of course, private jet airplanes of which he was particularly proud. One could often find Jim working from his office at the Muskegon County Airport well into his 80s and shortly before he passed away.

I could write in perpetuity of the incredible generosity of Jim and Leah Ray over the years.  He never forgot his roots, especially when it came to his education he received here in Muskegon at the parochial level as well at Notre Dame.  I should add that many of his donations came with his request that his contribution came from an ‘anonymous’ source, and trust me, there were many.

Among his numerous acts of benevolence was the James and Leah Rae Center for Academic Services, a facility at Notre Dame that serves athletes as well as all students in their First Year of Studies. And if you are one of the many millions who watch a Notre Dame home football game, keep in mind that it was Jim Morse who provided the funds for installment of the Field Turf in 2014.  Among the long list of gifts to Notre Dame is the Morse Family Scholarship Fund, which supports about 12 students annually; funding for football and baseball scholarships; an endowed fellowship for MBA students; as well as a significant donation to create the Morse Recruiting Lounge in the Guglielmo football complex.

The list of his benevolence to Muskegon Catholic also was vast and varied as Jim and Leah Ray have spent so much in keeping up the high standards at MCC.  As a longtime football buff, I well remember Jim footing the bill for the MCC football team to fly up to Marquette for a state football semifinal game in 2006.

Long ago, Jim long was inducted into the Greater Muskegon Sports Hall of Fame and was indeed a proud father when his son Bobby joined his Dad as a member in 1998.  

In 2004, he was honored by Notre Dame with perhaps Notre Dame’s highest award, the Edward W. “Moose” Krause Distinguished Service Award.

Jim was so good to others and I count myself as being so fortunate to have known Jim and Leah Ray for many wonderful years.  I will never forget the incredible generous offer Jim proposed to me back in 1965.  I was scheduled for discharge from my service duty while stationed in Vietnam very early into the USA conflict.  Jim knew I was an enormous sports fan and he invited me to join him in the booth while he called the Notre Dame-MSU game in 1965.  I was scheduled for discharge on Nov. 18, but I was delayed in leaving Vietnam much to my dismay and was unable to take advantage of this overwhelming offer. I listened to Jim’s call of that game on a radio in a barber shop in Oakland, Calif.  There was no way I was going to inform the others listening to that same game that I was invited to be in the booth with Jim as they surely would have thought I was off my rocker.

In the first few years broadcasting high school football games here in Muskegon, my sidekick on the radio was George Seymour, Leah Ray’s younger brother. George absolutely idolized his brother-in-law, and why not?

Muskegon may never again see the likes of a Jim Morse. Thanks for the memories, Jim.