Maynard Morrison (American football)

Maynard Morrison

Morrison from 1932 Michiganensian
Michigan Wolverines
Position	Center, Fullback
Career history
College	Michigan (1929–1931)
Career highlights and awards
All-American (1931)

Maynard Davis "Doc" Morrison (May 28, 1909 – June 2, 2006) was an All-American football fullback and center for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1929 to 1931. Michigan football coach Harry Kipke ranked Morrison as the finest linebacker he ever saw. "No one ever got past him," Kipke said. In 1931, he was chosen by Grantland Rice and the NEA Service as a first-team All-American at center and helped lead Michigan to a Big Ten Conference championship.

As a sophomore in 1929, Morrison was already a significant contributor at the fullback position. When Morrison finished his freshman year, he "was rated the outstanding fullback prospect in Michigan history." In the fall of 1929, Morrison missed five games at the beginning of the season due to injury. Then, against Illinois, he was placed in the lineup at tackle and became "the individual star of the Wolverines by a wide, handsome and undisputed margin." On defense, he was taken out of the line and played at defensive fullback, and when an Illinois back found a hole in the line, Grantland Rice wrote that “Morrison usually picked him up bodily and hurled him back into the breach in the wall.” And occasionally, "he was content with merely smacking the ball carriers against the ground as they had never been smacked before." After the Illinois game, Coach Kipke said of Morrison, "That boy will develop into the finest defensive back in Michigan’s history. His injured knee isn't entirely well, and when it is he will add more speed to his play."

At the end of the 1929 season, Coach Kipke touted Morrison as the best back to wear the Michigan uniform in 15 years: "Coach Harry Kipke says Maynard Morrison . . . is the nearest approach to Johnny Maulbetsch the Wolverines have seen in the last 15 years. Morrison is a husky sophomore of more than 200 pounds and hits the line with all the force and power that made Maulbetsch famous as a line smasher. Morrison suffered early season injuries that kept him from play during the first month but he is expected to show his stuff in the closing games." He scored a touchdown in a 14–12 victory over Harvard, as he "hurled his 210 pound bulk through the Crimson forward wall for a touchdown." After a scoreless tie with Iowa, the Associated Press reported that Morrison “was responsible for most of the Wolverine’s first downs.”