by Chilor
Mon. Sept. 26, 2022
I don’t know if Mr. Morrison, as we all referred to him behind the Technical field where a few teams practiced football in the evenings after work and school, if he played competitive football in his younger days. But I’m sure I saw him geared up in his shorts on one occasion when I happened to be around to witness a Technical Sports Day football game featuring the teachers against the students. And in later years, long after he had retired, I encountered a very lively “black sticks” game being hosted downstairs of his home in the Lake Independence area.
I didn’t attend Technical; I graduated from SJC in the early ‘70s. But football brought me to Technical. After Charger football team folded around 1979, and the Belprint boys were joined by their Plaza affiliate Noel “Flying Fargo” Ferguson (R.I.P.), the former Charger goalie, Noel soon enticed a few of us Charger stalwarts to join him at Belprint. I later learned from Belprint originals Gilroy “Coro” Usher (R.I.P.) and Egbert “Chana” Kisling that as former students at Technical or its affiliated ITVET, they had approached principal Owen Morrison for permission to practice on the Technical field in the evenings. Mr. Morrison had agreed, on condition that the boys conducted themselves well. He even allowed the use of a vacant classroom whenever they needed it for a team meeting in the night after practice. So, for a few years of playing 1st division amateur football with Belprint and then Milpros, I was a regular at Technical on most weekday evenings.
It may have seemed a small gesture to some, but providing a home to a sports team which comprised of players who were not attending the institution was a much appreciated benefit to the footballers. At one time all of three teams were practicing “back a Technical” at the same time, the senior Milpros and junior Independence Milpros sharing the big field facing St. Joseph’s primary, and another set of youths using the then open area behind the main building to the west. That space has since been taken up with the construction of another school building.
The legendary Belprint, Milpros and later Coke Milpros teams could not have achieved as much as they did without being blessed with a home field, which they sometimes called “Universidad”. Thanks to the open minds and hearts of the whole Technical faculty under their down-to-earth leader and principal, Owen Morrison. R.I.P.
Our sincere condolences to all his relatives, friends and members of his Technical family!