By RAY QUIROGA
editor@sbnewspaper.com
The scorching heat, which resulted in a few attendees collapsing, did little to discourage the public from converging upon Bobby Morrow Stadium, the home of the Mighty Greyhounds, for the unveiling of a Historical Marker posthumously honoring the stadium’s namesake, Bobby Morrow, a San Benito High School Track & Field star who went on to win three gold medals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne Australia.
“We thought we were fast, but Bobby Morrow was faster,” said Greyhound teammate Jim Helms who went on to coach for the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. “He beat our time by a whole second.”
Helms was one of a number of luminaries who spoke about Morrow, who passed away in 2020. Audience members at Saturday morning’s event and speakers included family members, former classmates, teammates, friends, dignitaries, and members of the San Benito Historical Society (SBHS), who made the event possible by apply for the marker and their diligence.
SBHS Co-Founder and current board member Sandra Tumberlinson addressed the audience, saying, “Even if didn’t know of Bobby personally, we all grew up knowing of him. We all heard stories about Bobby’s speed, so when I read that he chased jackrabbits on his father’s farm, I thought, ‘Well no wonder he was so fast.’”
As others did on this morning, Tumberlinson went on to recognize Morrow’s character, sharing stories of how Morrow went out of his way to provide water to a young lady working on a field on a particularly hot day, while others, such as Helm, highlighted Morrow’s humble and soft-spoken nature.
At the event’s conclusion, current SBCISD Board of Trustees President, Orlando “Papas” Lopez said it was the highlight of his tenure as a trustee and board president to be asked to share a few words at Morrow’s wake. Abilene Christian University, where Morrow attended and ran track, later asked Lopez for a copy of his speech so it could be posted on the university’s website.
Another former teammate of Morrow’s who approached the NEWS to say a few words after Saturday’s event concluded, described Morrow as a true gentleman. Army Veteran and San Benito High School Class of 1955 graduate Juan S. Martinez played for the Greyhound Varsity Football Team at the halfback position alongside Morrow. Martinez said that the future Olympian was genuinely shy, but what he lacked in words, he made up for on the field. “Let me tell you, he didn’t talk much, he was kind of shy, but he did his talking on the football field. We were always chasing him. Once he broke that line, he was gone,” Martinez remarked.
As previously reported in the NEWS, by his sophomore year as a Greyhound, the school shop built starting blocks for the track team, and his father drove the family tractor to Greyhound Stadium and leveled and smoothed the dirt track before afternoon practice.
Morrow, the middle of three children, was born on October 15, 1935 in Rangerville, TX to Bob Floyd and Mattie Lucille Morrow, who lived in a simple, white clapboard house and owned and operated a cotton farm alongside his four Morrow uncles. After graduating in 1954 from SBHS, Bobby chose Abilene Christian College because of his Christian upbringing.
“He was tall and beautifully muscled but slender,” recalls Abilene Christian College Coach Oliver Jackson in a 2000 “Sports Illustrated” article. “He could run a 220 with a root beer float on his head and never spill a drop.”
“Bobby is a born sprinter,” Jackson told reporters. “All you had to do was take one look at him even as a junior in high school, and you couldn’t miss it. He’s big (6 feet 1.5 inches, 175 pounds). He has long legs. He’s got terrific power in his thighs, and he’s got leg speed as well as a big stride.”
“He was poetry,” Jackson said. “He had the size and tremendous power in his legs. He just didn’t have any flaws, not by the time he was a junior, anyway. He could float. About the last quarter of the race, he’d turn it on… and he’s gone.”
Morrow donated his three gold medals to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and Abilene Christian University to be examples for others to follow.
Jackson added, “You couldn’t ever tell what Bobby was going to say or do because he was very quiet and didn’t say much. He was not a real enthusiastic type of guy – except when the gun fired. He was pretty enthusiastic when the gun fired.”
“Whatever success I have had is due to being so perfectly relaxed that I can feel my jaw muscles wiggle,” he was quoted as saying in an article by David Wallechinsky in, “The Complete Book of the Olympics” (1984).
“Texas Monthly” later called him the, “Fastest Nice Christian Boy in the World.”
Coach Jackson said Morrow was, “Strong in character. He didn’t ever try to take credit for the winning that we had. He always talked about the other guys on the relay. Bobby was always complimenting them. After the race, they would hug each other. It was a real team effort.”
When, at the close of the hundreds of speeches he made over the next four years at service clubs, athletic banquets, alumni meetings, church camps, and youth rallies, Morrow said, “I sincerely believe that my greatest race, the Christian race, is the most important of them all and is yet to be won.”
Recent Comments