Outside the Arena with...
Abe Morris By Georgia Akers
You hear the expression Renaissance man. The expression came about hundreds of years ago when the world was emerging from the Dark Ages and became more aware of thinking, philosophies, art, etc. Some examples of Renaissance men are Leonardo Da Vinci (painter, chemist, philosopher, engineering), Sir Winston Churchill (great military mind, novelist, historian, sportsman and painter) and Thomas Jefferson (president, horticulture, architecture, archaeology and founded a university) to name a few. Films that had Renaissance men were the James Bond, Captain America and Iron Man films. The characters all had a broad range of skills. The modern-day Renaissance Man reads books, he works out, he takes up a sport and is a sportsman, he takes classes, he becomes an entrepreneur, he travels, he earns a college degree, he is sociable, brave, is a gentleman and is humble.
Now I know you are wondering where I am going with this, but my interview is with Abe Morris, a former bull rider. The more I visited with him and heard his story, the term Renaissance man seemed to define him. We had some phone calls that went beyond the interview and hopefully I will be able to meet him at the PBR finals. Tell us about yourself. I was born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida and lived there for three years before moving to Woodstown, New Jersey. I lived in Woodstown and graduated from Woodstown High School in June 1974. My family consisted of three boys and three girls. I’m the oldest boy. My two younger brothers David and Reuben are now deceased. My father, the late Reverend Abraham J. Morris Sr., was a Baptist minister who had his own church for about 18 years. My mother Christine (deceased) worked for many years as a teacher’s aide at the Mary S. Shoemaker Elementary School in Woodstown, New Jersey. Our family grew up on a dairy farm in Woodstown. My father was the manager of the milk processing plant and so our family got all our dairy products for free. How did a kid living in New Jersey get into bull riding? I got involved in rodeo because of my first cousins Gene, David, Jimmy Lee and Willie Ed Walker. My father sent me to live with them for the entire summer before I ever went to kindergarten. My dad wanted them to toughen me up. Cowtown Rodeo in Woodstown was only about 150 yards from their home. They were already into riding horses and ponies and eventually convinced me to become a rodeo cowboy just like them.
Humps-Horns.com · 10 · June 2021
