Morgan was born on June 13, 1934, in Hyden, Kentucky, as one of seven children to parents William and Mae Morgan.[1] He spent his early life living with his family in a two-room log cabin that had no electricity or running water until it was burnt down when sparks jumped from a wood fire.[2] During the early 1940s, Morgan and his family moved to Dayton, Ohio, where his father worked at a Delco Electronics factory.[2]
Basketball career
Morgan attended Stivers High School in Dayton and led the team to a No. 1 state ranking in the early 1950s.[1][3] Morgan opted to play for the Louisville Cardinals over offers from the Kentucky Wildcats and his hometown Dayton Flyers.[3][4] He scored 1,105 points in four seasons played with the Cardinals.[3] The Cardinals won the 1956 National Invitation Tournament when they defeated the Dayton Flyers.[2]
Morgan resigned from Stebbins in 1966 so he could pursue a longtime dream and became a race horse trainer which he had first become interested in when he worked as an usher at the Churchill Downs racetrack in 1953.[3][2] Morgan was one of the most successful Thoroughbred trainers in the Midwest and won over 300 stakes races to make him the winningest stakes trainer in Ohio.[3][2] His horses amassed 1,993 total wins and made earnings of $20.7 million from 1967 to 2008.[3] Morgan served as president of the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, and a trustee in the Thoroughbred's Horsemen's Health Fund from 1998 until his death.[3]
Honors
Morgan was inducted into the Louisville Cardinals Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981,[5] the Stivers Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006,[4] and the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.[6] He had his No. 12 jersey honored by the Louisville Cardinals and it hangs in the rafters of Freedom Hall.[3][4]
Morgan survived a serious heart attack in 1993 and continued working despite being recommended to retire by a doctor.[2]
Morgan died at the age of 85 from a suspected heart attack in Dayton on September 29, 2019.[3] He was buried in his family's plot at Deerfield Cemetery in South Lebanon, Ohio.[2]
