Capping a High Flying Career

Coach Jim Morris

Baseball coach Jim Morris retired after 25 winning seasons at the U.

Two national titles, 44 consecutive NCAA tournaments, 13 College World Series appearances, and numerous players drafted into the Major Leagues: Jim Morris’s career at the University of Miami is over the top. As the legendary Miami Hurricanes Baseball coach steps down, here’s a look at some of his major ’Canes accomplishments.

1993

New skipper at the helm: Morris—who led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to 12 straight winning seasons and four straight ACC titles—is named Miami’s eighth baseball coach.

1994

Off to a stellar start: Leading Miami to a 49-14 record and a College World Series berth, Morris is named coach of the year by Baseball America.

1999

Putting Miami back on top: Morris wins his first College World Series and Miami’s third, guiding the Hurricanes toward the title with a championship game victory over Florida State. He’s named national coach of the year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and the American Baseball Coaches Association.

2001

’Canes reign again:
The Hurricanes win the National Championship with a record-tying victory over Stanford in the College World Series finale. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and the American Baseball Coaches Association name Morris national coach of the year.

2008

Top skipper: As the Hurricanes capture the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division Regular Season and Tournament championships, reaching the College World Series, Morris is named ACC Coach of the Year.

An eye for talent: Three Miami Hurricanes are selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft; eight UM players are ultimately drafted.

2014

Conference champs:
Morris guides Miami to the 2014 ACC Regular Season Championship—winning a record-setting 24 conference games and tying the ACC’s all-time single-season win total.

2016

A grand slam milestone: Morris becomes just the sixth coach in the history of NCAA Division I Baseball to reach 1,500 career wins as the Hurricanes claim a victory over Louisville.

1K run: The Hurricanes defeat Clemson, propelling Morris to his 1,000th victory with the ’Canes.

Helping Women Student-Athletes Excel

To foster outstanding women student-athletes on the field and in life, Miami Athletics has launched the Building Women Champions campaign with an annual fundraising goal of $1 million.

Launched at the fourth annual Celebration of Women’s Athletics event in February, the initiative seeks to help women athletes play, earn, give back, and contribute to our scoreboards and our communities through mentoring programs, leadership development, and career coaching.
“At the University of Miami, we are committed to creating an environment that encourages our female student-athletes to raise the bar and be empowered as the leaders of tomorrow,” says Jennifer Strawley, deputy director of athletics, chief operating officer, and senior woman administrator.

Show the U’s female student-athletes that you’re on their team. Please visit buildingwomenchampions.com or call the Hurricane Club at 305-284-6699 to learn more.

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The Inside Story

Carol Soffer Football Indoor Practice Facility

Dominating defenses and high-powered offenses from opposing squads give college football teams enough to worry about week in and week out without the added concern of thunderstorms, lightning, and intense heat disrupting practice sessions.

That’s why most of the Elite Power Five schools, including the University of Miami, either have or are in the process of building an indoor practice venue. In fact, such sites are now the norm in college football, says Jesse Marks, A.B. ’05, M.S.Ed. ’08, senior associate athletic director for development.

Although UM’s planned 81,800-square-foot Carol Soffer Football Indoor Practice Facility won’t open until the fall of 2018, its interior blueprint is already creating a buzz. It includes a 20,000-square-foot football operations center with coaches’ offices, conference and meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art video center, and a recruiting suite; tributes to past Hurricane greats; and elaborate displays of UM’s storied football history.

“We’ve started with the external construction of the building,” Marks says. “But we still have needs to make this facility the best in the country. To make it the best we need to have proper branding, we need to have the most up-to-date technology and equipment, and we need to demonstrate what the U’s tradition is all about.”

As of deadline, over $32.1 million had been raised toward the $34 million overall goal for the facility. A Miami Athletics crowdfunding campaign (Give2IPF.com) aimed at outfitting the facility’s interior has raised over $160,000 since its September launch.

It was only a year ago that Miami Athletics announced the largest gift in its history that got the project off the ground. South Florida real estate developer and philanthropist Jeffrey Soffer and his siblings gave a lead gift of $14 million in honor of their mother, Carol, a passionate supporter of UM Athletics for more than 20 years.

Alumni, fans, and supporters were quick to open their wallets. Former UM players contributed significantly, donating nearly $2 million. Leading the way with a $1 million commitment were Hurricanes head football coach Mark Richt, B.B.A. ’82, and his wife, Katharyn.

Among the other Hurricane gridiron notables to support the project: Nose tackle Vince Wilfork, ’06, who was selected by the New England Patriots in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft and spent 13 seasons in the league; Bryant McKinnie, ’01, a longtime NFL offensive lineman who was an Outland Trophy winner at UM and a key player on the U’s 2001 national championship team; Alonzo Highsmith, B.B.A. ’87, a former NFL fullback who, as a college freshman, helped the ’Canes win the 1983 national championship; Ted Hendricks, ’72, a former NFL linebacker who played on four Super Bowl-winning teams and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990; and many others.

“Former players wanted to get behind this resurgence of support in our program,” says Marks. “This speaks to the importance of the U family and making sure our championship legacy continues.”

Ring of Honor ’17

The latest football legends to join the Hurricanes’ Ring of Honor were recognized in October for outstanding careers. All five inductees—Michael Irvin, B.B.A. ’88 (Dallas Cowboys); Ray Lewis, ’95 (Baltimore Ravens); Ed Reed, B.L.A. ’02 (Ravens, Houston Texans, New York Jets); Warren Sapp, ’94 (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders); and (posthumously) Sean Taylor, ’04 (Washington Redskins)—already belong to the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame; Irvin and Sapp are also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This class marks a total of 23 inductees since the Ring of Honor was established 20 years ago.

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A Momentum2 gift from T. Kendall “Ken” Hunt, B.B.A. ’65, will endow a full scholarship in perpetuity for the running back position on the UM Hurricanes football team.

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Cancer free, quarterback Jim Kelly returns to the U

Jim Kelly, B.B.A. takes charge at UM Homecoming 2014.

It was the game that put Miami Hurricanes football on the map—a November 1979 road matchup against powerful Penn State.

Making his first collegiate start at quarterback for Miami was Jim Kelly, a kid from East Brady, Pennsylvania, who grew up dreaming about playing for the Nittany Lions.

“I went into that week as the backup QB,” recalls Kelly, B.B.A. ’83, a four-year letterman at UM from 1979 to 1982. “Coach [Howard] Schnellenberger told me after the pregame meal that I was going to be the starter. I was shocked. But I knew it was an opportunity to show that I could play. Coach gave me that opportunity, and I made the best of it.”

Indeed.

In front of more than 77,000 fans packed inside Beaver Stadium, Kelly, who was so nervous before the game that he threw up, passed for 280 yards and three touchdowns to lead unranked Miami to a 26-10 victory over a Penn State squad replete with future NFL stars.

A few decades earlier, inside the Orange Bowl, he’s already Kelly Tough.

Kelly’s heroics continued. During the 1980 season, the 6-foot, 3-inch field general led Miami to its first bowl game in 14 years—a Peach Bowl victory over Virginia Tech in January 1981. He would go on to defeat Penn State again, knocking off the then-No. 1-ranked Nittany Lions 17-14 in the Orange Bowl on October 31, 1981.

Kelly concluded his Miami career with 406 completions, 5,233 passing yards, and 32 touchdowns.

“Jim Kelly is as much responsible for rescuing the University of Miami football program and athletic department as anyone,” says former teammate and current UM offensive line coach Art Kehoe, B.B.A. ’83. “So many people have been important to this program, but Jim Kelly was a guy who took us from being ready to drop football to being a national championship contender and having prominence again. He was such a tough guy and such a leader. He always wanted to fight and scrap.”

For the past year and a half, Kelly has battled a challenge unlike any of the stout and sturdy defenses he so expertly dismantled as the star quarterback of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills from 1986 to 1996 and of the USFL’s Houston Gamblers for two seasons before that.

In March 2013, the UM and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback was diagnosed with oral cancer and underwent surgery to remove part of his upper jawbone. But the cancer returned, and Kelly endured several rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. Now, he is declared cancer free—and “Kelly Tough,” a phrase he coined and has lived by.

Long before battling cancer, Kelly’s fortitude was tested—two plates and ten screws in his back, a plate and six screws in his neck, a double hernia.

But that all pales in comparison to the 2005 loss of his son, Hunter Kelly. Born on Valentine’s Day like his father, Hunter suffered from Krabbe disease, a rare degenerative disorder of the nervous system. In 1997 Kelly and his wife, Jill, established Hunter’s Hope Foundation, which has raised millions for research on Krabbe disease and other neurological disorders.

“To see a little boy fight and live to be 8 when he was given no more than 14 months to live, I can’t complain about anything I’m going through,” says Kelly. “It doesn’t compare.

“I admired his strength, his courage. He’s made me the man I am today. Each day I wake up, I know I probably wouldn’t have been able to fight this battle [against cancer] had it not been for a little boy named Hunter James Kelly.”

Kelly, who led the Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances, also credits the support of his wife and daughters, Erin and Camryn. “They’ve been there every step of the way,” he says.

Kelly served as grand marshal for UM’s 2014 Alumni Weekend and Homecoming festivities and as honorary captain at the Homecoming football game where UM beat the University of North Carolina 47-20.

—Robert C. Jones Jr.

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UM and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, B.B.A. ’83, will lead Alumni Weekend and Homecoming festivities.

Now declared cancer free, Jim Kelly will return to the University of Miami to help his ’Canes family celebrate Alumni Weekend and Homecoming, which takes place October 30 to November 2.

Kelly, a Buffalo Bills and Hurricanes legend, will serve as the Grand Marshal for the Alumni Weekend and Homecoming parade on the Coral Gables campus the evening of Friday, October 31. He will also serve as Honorary Captain at the Homecoming football game against the University of North Carolina the next day at Sun Life Stadium. #KellyTough

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