Morton, McCrumbly, Morris—and Johnson

I am told that high school football in Texas these days has evolved. As in college and as in the pros, the game is now more about pitching and catching, tossing it around the old ball yard as Steve Spurrier once said. When I was a student five decades ago, passes were not common. To win, you mostly needed a good, solid running game. If you had a running back who could move the chains, get a key first down  and sometimes break loose for a long touchdown, you had a chance. Four predominated in Big D back then, and I would like to summarize what they did here.

Dickey Morton of Kimball High School was one year ahead of me, graduating in 1970. That means he played for the Knights in the 1967, 1968 and 1969 seasons. While not too big at 5′ 10″ and 175 pounds, he could really slice and dice a defense. As a punt and kick returner, he gave opposing coaches the shakes. Before his senior year, Morton was named a member of the “Super Team” of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. He chose to be a Razorback, and by the time he was through Morton had gained more yards (3,317) than any other running back in University of Arkansas history. In fact, he was the leading rusher in the history of the SWC, although he was later surpassed by 12 others.

Drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Morton was cut before training camp was over. He played one year of pro ball, however—with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL; he gained 158 yards, caught 19 passes and scored four touchdowns.

Morton was in the news in 2007, and for reasons that surely did not make his mama proud. Following a nine-month investigation, he was arrested on 10 counts of computer fraud and 11 counts of theft involving hay sales, farm equipment dealerships, and leases to oil and gas wells. A small-time version of Billie Sol Estes, Morton was accused of cheating more than 20 people in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma out of about $100,000. For reasons I am not entirely sure of, the charges were later dropped. Even so, I found a message board in which some aggrieved people called him a “scammer,” a “liar,” a “thief,” “bad news” and other unkind terms.

John Paul McCrumbly is often said to have been the Dallas Independent School District’s first black football player to “cross over,” as it were—to one of the city’s white schools, Woodrow Wilson. (This was when members of the all-black Prairie View Interscholastic League merged into the University Interscholastic League.) But his older brother, Donald Ray, preceded him there by a year. McCrumbly had torn it up at Long Junior High School, and it was much the same at Woodrow. In his junior season, the 6′ 1″ 230-pounder gained 1,400 yards and scored 19 touchdowns as the Wildcats reached the state semifinals. He, like Morton, got “Super Team” honors from Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. I can only surmise that poor grades caused him to spend two years at Tyler Junior College before moving on to Texas A&M, where he was strictly a linebacker.

The Buffalo Bills took him in the fifth round of the 1975 draft. McCrumbly made the team, took part in 13 games and started two. Why his career ended so swiftly, I do not know except to say that pro football is a very demanding field. You know what the acronym “NFL” stands for, right? Not For Long.

McCrumbly came back home and got a job as a security guard with DISD. That’s it.

Wayne Morris was a year younger than me, in the class of 1972. He attended South Oak Cliff and was a bonafide superstar with the Golden Bears. Oh, this guy could play. He was a tremendous running back—again, a member of Dave Campbell’s “Super Team.” Morris stayed in Dallas after graduation, matriculating at SMU. A starter right off the bat with the Mustangs, he gained 3,044 yards (5.0 yards per carry) and scored 17 TDs, but people expected more. Perhaps that was because Morris’s coach at SOC, Norman Jett, had rather hyperbolically predicted that he would win the Heisman Trophy “at least twice.”

Morris did far better in the pros than Morton or McCrumbly. He played seven seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and one with the San Diego Chargers, taking part in 120 games and starting 87 of those. He gained 3,387 yards and scored 38 touchdowns. Add to that 156 receptions and another five scores, and you have a quite respectable pro career. I have no information about what Morris has done after retiring, but he has been eligible to receive full benefits of the NFL pension plan since turning 55. An average person can live on that comfortably.

Having attended Hill Junior High School and Bryan Adams High School for five years with Blake Johnson, I obviously know him better than I do the other gentlemen. About the same size as Morton, he was a three-year (1968-70) starter on offense and defense for the Cougars. While Johnson got no attention from Dave Campbell, he did make all-district as a senior. I contend that the BA coach, Bob Cowsar, failed to inform college recruiters about his abilities. Johnson certainly was good enough to compete in Southwest Conference football as it existed in the early 1970s. He got a few offers and took the one from Tulane University.

It was the last year for college freshmen to be ineligible for varsity competition. Johnson was doing well with the Green Wave frosh on defense as a DB/linebacker. But he suffered a broken wrist that took a while to heal, and the coaches badgered him to return to head-knocking out on the field too quickly. Johnson considered his options and said no. His identity was more than just that of a jock. Perhaps you realize that Tulane is a very good school; a diploma from there is worth a lot. He focused on his architecture studies, graduated and worked at some prestigious firms, and later became an executive with Microsoft. Johnson has admitted to feeling some disappointment with his experience as a college football player, but not too much.