Trains and basketball make fora wonderful life forEasom graduate Tommy Morrison

said proudly.

At that time, basketball players had to provide their own shoes, Chuck Taylor All-Stars that cost $8.50. Morrison’s mother worked hard to provide for him and his two sisters, and Morrison said he knew she didn’t have extra for the shoes. “I couldn’t ask her for the money.”

He declined his chance to play for Easom then. Instead, he found a broken-down lawn mower someone had tossed away. Morrison fixed it up and spent the summer before his freshman year at Easom cutting lawns to earn his own money. “The first thing I bought were those Chuck Taylors.” tying the school scoring record. Overall he scored 1,690 career points and at the time held the school record for season and career scoring. Morrison held the school’s single scoring record of 48 for 21 years. He also finished his career with 773 rebounds. Morrison was a two-time First Team All –AIC honoree and was inducted to the university’s Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2003. Morrison was a 2022 Trailblazer Honoree of the UAM African-American Alumni Association.

As a freshman at the school, Morrison started ahead of some seniors. By his sophomore year, Easom’s Coach Self had moved on to coach Newport High School in Arkansas and convinced Easom’s best player Johnny Taylor to move to Arkansas with him to play there. That year, Self’s Arkansas team came to play a holiday tournament in North Mississippi, and Easom lost to Self’s team by one point.

“My senior year, they came back. We beat them, Johnny Taylor and Coach Self,” Morrison said, but the Arkansas team complained that Easom had cheated so they asked for a rematch.

“I don’t think I could have had better treatment at any other place,” he said. “I loved playing the game of basketball.”

Today, Morrison enjoys watching his great-nephew Wendell Carter Jr., who went to Duke University, play for the Orlando Magic. “I see him on TVevery chance I get.”

Morrison considered going to coaching and teaching when he graduated from the university, but in interviewing for his first job he realized he could make more money working for the railroad industry. He was hired by the Missouri & Pacific Railroad. For 35 years, he drove trains along his route from North Little Rock to New Orleans. “I had as much fun as playing basketball. It was a challenge like basketball.”

By Lucy Weber

Tommy Morrison, Easom High Class of 1967, knows he’s been blessed in his life.

Morrison earned an athletic scholarship to play the sport he loved at Arkansas A&M College (now the University of Arkansas at Monticello). He retired in 2013 after 35 years working as a railroad engineer, a job he loved. Now, the 74-year-old works with youth at a Little Rock community center, teaching and working with students on the basketball court—another choice that fills his heart with joy.

“I’ve enjoyed my life. I have been truly blessed,” he said, adding that he is proud to have an endowed scholarship in his and his mother’s name, Annie Morrison, to help student athletes at his alma mater. His name and his mother’s name will live on at the college for generations helping young athletes, he said.

Morrison earned his childhood nickname Skippy because “I think instead of walking, I skipped everywhere. I was happy.”

One of the places he skipped was to a house on the corner of the next street over, the home of his friend Micah, the son of his second-grade teacher, to learn to play basketball. “He asked me to come play so I skipped away to shoot at his goal over the carport. You had to keep it from hitting the car or you lost.”

That is how a stellar basketball career began.

Morrison tried out for the Easom team as an eighthgrader. “I made the cut according to Coach Ray Self,” he

Since it was a non-sanctioned game to be played in Arkansas, Easom couldn’t use a school bus to travel. The teams piled into three or four parents’cars to make the trip. Once in Newport, everyone was so welcoming and provided lunch for them, Morrison said. “We had a lovely time, and we beat them worse that night in their own gym.”

The Pirates of Newport used the same tune for their school fight song as the Yellow Jackets of Easom did, Morrison said. “The more their band played that song, the better we played.”

Morrison said, besides his own high school teammates, he is still friends with the guys on the Newport team all these years later.

During his senior season, the team had a really good winning record, Morrison said. “That was our best year. That’s how I got my scholarship.”

The basketball coach from Arkansas A&M came to Corinth to see Morrison, who played at 6 feet, one inch and weighed 168 pounds. “I could stand underneath the goal and jump right up and dunk it,” he said.

After showing the A&M coach his free throws and layups, Morrison asked if the coach would like to see him make that dunking move. “’Show me’he said, and after that he wanted to meet my mother. He offered me a scholarship right there. That was the only coach who came to my high school and came to my house. I was impressed.”

When Morrison arrived at the Monticello college, he was the first African American to earn an athletic scholarship, and one of only eight African American students on campus his freshman year. That first year, he started out as the sixth man, but an ankle injury to the man playing ahead of him pushed Morrison into the starting line-up. “I started the rest of that season and for the next three years.”

He scored 36 points that freshman year in one game,

After he retired as an engineer, a former teammate got Morrison involved in working with youth, helping with math and reading and, of course, helping them learn basketball skills. “I’m still getting the best of it all,” he said.

Due to COV-19, the community-wide revitalization project had to be put on hold, but we are excited that it will resume. Mark your calendar for the following Saturday community cleanup dates: April 15th, May 20th, and June 17th. We will meet at the Black History Museum on 109 Meigg St. at 8 a.m-12 Noon. Please join us in this effort to "Make Corinth AGreat Place To Live."

Take pride in where you reside. For more information, please call Jerry W. Porter at (662) 643-6842.