Y L I M
FA BUSINESS When Holly Dierks Morrison, LA'76, thinks of her childhood at the Drake Relays, she remembers the all-day task of assembling the Relays program with her father, former sports information director for Drake University, Paul Morrison, JO'39. Runners would qualify at the last minute and coaches would call in their times. That left one day, the Sunday before Relays, to manually type, proof, and edit the program before sending it to the printer. “There would be rows of people typing,” Dierks said. “As kids, we would run food to people, sort entries, and help to proofread. My dad would sometimes be there until two or three in the morning.”
When Dierks’ older sister Jenine, LA'62 moved away from Des Moines, the Relays became a de facto family reunion for Dierks’ family. While Mary and Paul worked the races, the rest of the family attended Relays and Saturday night was always celebrated with a family dinner. Tragically, Mary lost her life to cancer in her early 30s. As a testament to her resolve, she worked her last Relays while breathing with the assistance of an oxygen tank. “My sister really loved sports,” Dierks said. “In addition to working as an official, she kept statistics at basketball games. She worked on press row. My sister was kind of a mini of my dad.”
For Dierks, family is inextricable from the Relays. After all, her father was known as Mr. Drake. They lived just blocks from campus, so Holly, her mother Pauline Morrison, and her sister, Mary Morrison, LA'73, were always in Drake Stadium or at the Fieldhouse cheering on the Bulldogs with their husband and father. Morrison was responsible for selling Relays tickets, so Dierks would help out in the ticket office on Saturdays. During the Relays, Dierks and her sister Mary would run the steps of Drake Stadium hundreds of times to communicate results from the judges to the press box. Her sister, born into the Relays, became a race official in her early 20s. The Morrison connections to the Relays even predated Paul Morrison. Morrison’s parents, Marion Morrison, LA'06 and Leonta Star-Zinger, LA'06 met as Drake freshmen in 1902. Dierks has a photo of her grandfather Marion announcing race results into a megaphone, not an electric one, at one of the first Relays. TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Jim Dierks (husband), Bob Steele (brother-in-law), Jenine Steele (sister). MIDDLE ROW: Holly Dierks, LA'76, Emerson Dierks (grandson), Abby Grassmeyer (daughter, AS'10, GR'17), Jeff Grassmeyer (son-in-law, AS'10, ED'14, GR'14, '17). BOTTOM ROW: Justin Dierks (son), Grayson Dierks (grandson), Stacia Dierks (daughter-in-law). 20
BLUE | SPRING 2022