Jamie Morris

James Walter Morris (born June 6, 1965) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL).

He played in the NFL for the Washington Redskins and New England Patriots and for the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Morris was a record-setting running back in college football for the Michigan Wolverines.

While attending the University of Michigan, he broke the school's all-time records for rushing yards in a season and in a career and for all-purpose yards in a career.

His career rushing total was once third in Big Ten Conference history.

He continues to hold the career receptions record for Michigan running backs.

He also still holds the all-time NFL record for most rushing attempts in a game with 45.

Morris is from Ayer, Massachusetts where he excelled in track and field in high school, winning the Massachusetts state title in the 200m as a sophomore.

Morris is the younger brother of Joe Morris who set the all-time rushing record at Syracuse University and went on to play for the New York Giants.

Jamie and Joe and two brothers and two sisters grew up in Ayer.

Their father, Earl Morris, a former Green Beret master sergeant in Vietnam, was a postmaster in Groton, Massachusetts.

Morris played college football at the University of Michigan from 1984 to 1987 and broke the school's all-time rushing records in yards gained in a season (1,703 yards) and a career (4,392 yards).

Though those records were broken 13 years later by Anthony Thomas, Morris still holds the U-M school record for all-purpose yards with 6,201.

In 1986, Morris suffered a knee injury in a game against Florida State.

He sat out a game and then came back to play against Ohio State.

While he recuperated Thomas Wilcher rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns against Wisconsin.

When Morris returned, he had the best game of his college career against the Buckeyes, gaining 210 yards rushing (302 all-purpose yards) to help the Wolverines win the game and advance to the Rose Bowl.

The Wolverines lost the 1987 Rose Bowl to Arizona State 22-15.

Morris also holds the record for the longest run in Outback Bowl history—a 77-yard touchdown run on January 2, 1988 in a 28-24 victory over Alabama.

Morris was named MVP of the game, then known as the Hall of Fame Bowl.

Morris' Top 10 game performances for the Wolverines are as follows:

Morris played at Michigan under head coach Bo Schembechler.

When Morris first arrived at Michigan, Schembechler told Morris (who stood five feet, seven inches) he was too short to play at running back.

Schembechler recalled: "I told Jamie when we recruited him he was too small to be a running back and we wanted him for running back kicks. I did, however, promise him the chance to try to be a running back for us. Good thing I did, isn't it?"

In his third game as a freshman, Schembechler put him in as the starting tailback, and he remained Michigan's starter at the position for four years.

When asked years later about Morris' career at Michigan, Schembechler said: "Here's a kid who I thought would be a very fine kick-return specialist, and he ended up becoming the all-time leading ground-gainer in Michigan history. What do you know about that?"

Morris was also the only player in Michigan history to lead the Wolverines in rushing for four years until Mike Hart did so from 2004–2007.

In addition to his rushing yards, he had 99 receptions for 756 yards and 51 kickoff returns for 1,027 yards.

He ranks fourth in U-M history in kickoff return yards.

He also still ranks third in U-M history in rushing yards in a season and career.

Morris was setting Michigan records during the same years Lorenzo White, the Big Ten's first 2,000-yard rusher, was totaling 4,887 yards for the Michigan State Spartans.

Neither reached Archie Griffin's 5,589 yard total.

Morris was a very versatile running back who was the first Michigan back to total over 30 receptions in a season and remains the only back to have done so twice.

He continues to hold the career receptions record for running backs with 99.

Morris also spoke at the memorial service held at Michigan Stadium after Schembechler's death in November 2006.

While the majority of the speeches focused on how Schembechler will be remembered, Morris spoke about the things he will miss in his coach's absence.

"I will miss having the conversations with him about the good old days," he said.

"Most importantly, I will miss hearing how much love and pride he had for Michigan - the school, the players and the fans."

Michigan career rushing yards leaders:

In a November 2007 interview with The Ann Arbor News, Morris recalled: "Once Coach Bo was chastising me, and (assistant coach Lloyd Carr) pointed out, 'Look at those younger players over there. He's not yelling at them, so he must think something about you.' And that held with me for a long time."