Irish great, FieldTurf donor, Jim Morse dies at age 87

Jim Morse, a former University of Notre Dame football captain, an Irish radio network analyst, and the 2004 winner of the Moose Krause Distinguished Service Award, died Thursday at the age of 87. 

A generous university benefactor, Morse has been financially active in campus projects dating all the way back to the 1960s. 

Most recently, in 2014, Morse personally donated about $10 million to replace the old grass turf at Notre Dame Stadium with the safer and more modern FieldTurf, a move celebrated by Irish head coach Brian Kelly at the time because of safety concerns for his players with the old and pocked grass field deteriorating fast. 

A running back on the 1954-56 Irish teams, Morse became so frustrated with the dangerous conditions of the natural turf at the stadium that he became ready to pony up to spruce it up.

A highly successful businessman out of Muskegon, Mich., Morse couldn’t have been prouder when he came to town to survey his finished investment nine years ago. 

“It’s perfect,” said Morse, who brought a football with him on his “field trip” so he could test out the new FieldTurf surface with a game of toss and catch. “It is absolutely gorgeous.”

A three-year starter for the Irish, Morse shared a locker room with a Who’s Who of Irish greats, including quarterback Ralph Guglielmi, fullback Don Schaefer, offensive guard Al Ecuyer, two-way standout Jim Mense, and 1956 Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornung — a classmate of Morse’s.

“There were just a whole lot of great football players when I was there,” Morse recalled in a 2021 interview with Blue & Gold Illustrated. “You kind of take it for granted at the time, especially at a place like Notre Dame. But looking back now, you realize how blessed you were to play with some of these greats.”

A successful private investor, Morse dabbled in everything from mobile home parks and outlet malls to radio stations and aviation. 

“But I always was smart enough to find somebody good to run my businesses so I didn’t have to run them myself,” Morse joked. 

Morse’s long list of gifts to Notre Dame includes the Morse Family Scholarship Fund, which supports about 12 students annually; funding for football and baseball scholarships; an endowed fellowship for MBA students; and a significant donation to create the Morse Recruiting Lounge in the Guglielmino football complex, a second-floor space that features banners to recognize Notre Dame’s 11 consensus national football titles.

“I think it is important to give back,” Morse explained. “And I think it is particularly important to give back and help some of these kids that otherwise would not be able to go to Notre Dame because of the cost.”

Memories and records

Morse never won a Heisman Trophy or became an All-American, but his place in Irish football lore will forever remain strong.

During an era when the forward pass was more of a novelty than any reliability, Morse remains one of only three Irish running backs to catch passes for more than 900 yards in a career, an incredible accomplishment with just 52 career receptions. 

Morris was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the 13th round of the 1957 NFL Draft.

And while his NFL career never blossomed, his careers as a media personality, businessman, trucking executive, investor and even briefly as a sports agent did, to varying degrees.

“It’s clear the kids I represented (as an agent) were bigger, stronger and faster than when I played,” Morse said with a laugh. “But to bring them back to Earth, I liked to tell the kids they were bigger, stronger, faster and dumber!”

And that was Jim Morse — funny, smart, interesting, successful, involved, caring and forever wired to give back to the school he dearly loved.