Athletic Director

Classy Runback

When Arkansas high schools Yellville-Summit and Cave City met last month, the atmosphere was anything but joyful. A week before the game, a truck carrying five Yellville-Summit players swerved to avoid an obstruction and tumbled off the road. One died and four were injured.

At Cave City, newly transferred Thamail Morgan carried some baggage into the game, too. At his previous school, he was an all-star on both offense and defense. In a state playoff game, he had 15 tackles, a sack, and two forced fumbles on defense and 145 yards receiving and two touchdowns on offense.

Then he violated a school rule that banned him from athletics for a year. Overnight, feelers from Arkansas, Florida State, Mississippi evaporated. He was forced to transfer to Cave City.

Before the game, both teams met at midfield for a moment of remembrance for the Yellville-Summit player who died, and both teams wore his number on their helmets.

Cave City was highly favored and jumped to a quick 21-0 first-quarter lead. Yellville-Summit clearly wasn’t into it. Cave City coach Jon Bradley and his players wanted to win but they felt bad doing it. They didn’t want to run up the score, so Bradley started substituting his kids.

With time running down in the last quarter and Cave City leading 34-16, Yellville-Summit kicked off one last time. Receiving the ball was Thamail Morgan.

“Before the game, we talked about being classy,” Morgan told Luke Matheson at arkansasvarsity.com. “[Yellville-Summit] told us they did not want us to feel sorry for them and did not want us to back off because of what happened. They are some really cool cats, and I wish them the best of luck with their healing process and the rest of the season.”

Breaking tackles, Morgan streaked from sideline to sideline and broke into the clear. Then, just before he crossed the goal line, he stopped, took a step back, and kneeled down, ending the game.

Maybe those big-school feelers will return once more when Morgan’s display of character gets out. Coach Bradley, who took a chance on him, said he’s had many talks with the young man, but none were about his behavior. “He’s not a discipline problem. He’s too good of an athlete and too good of a young man. He’s showing people he’s doing the right thing.”