Jack Morris loved the game of basketball from the time he was a kid growing up in Georgia. The 84-year-old Korean War veteran always wanted to be a college coach, but life got in the way.
Spoiler alert: Life will do that. You zig when it zags enough times and one day you look up and the things you wanted to do become the things you wish you had done. No harm, no foul, just life.
But sometimes you catch a second wind, and someone comes along and, for just a little while, you get to live your dream. For Morris, that someone was Wofford College men's basketball coach Mike Young.
Young knows a great deal about making basketball dreams come true. He's done it for countless kids in a 26-year Wofford career (the last 13 as head coach) that includes three NCAA tournament appearances.
On Tuesday, Veterans Day, Young and his staff breezed into Eden Terrace, where Morris now lives, and delivered his dream. When the Terriers host Ohio Valley on Nov. 25, Morris will sit on the bench as an honorary coach.
"It's going to be an exciting day," Morris said. "I love the game. I lived to play basketball."
Young said he's looking forward to the game as much as Morris.
"It's going to be a special day for him and a special day for me," Young said. "We're going to have a good time with it."
Morris was a forward at Hiram (Ga.) High School in the late 1940s. Although he had several college offers, he went to work to help support his family after graduating in 1949.
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