Behind the Mic: Q&A with John Morris

For more than 30 years, John Morris, B.A. ’80, has been the voice and heart of Baylor Athletics, integrating his passion for storytelling into every broadcast. 

In a November announcement, Morris was named the recipient of the 2024 NFF Chris Schenkel Award by the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame and was honored at the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner in Las Vegas in December.

In a recent episode of the Sic ’Em Podcast, Morris found himself on the other side of the microphone, sharing insights about his career at Baylor University and the honor of receiving the national award recognizing his “long, distinguished careers broadcasting college football with direct ties to a specific university.” 

The following is an excerpt from the episode, featuring “J-Mo” alongside temporary co-host, Jerry Hill, director of sports journalism with Baylor Athletics. 

Q | You’re a native of Kentucky, from Danville. Where was your interest in broadcasting first piqued?

“I was fairly young when I had some interest in broadcasting. In Danville, there was a guy in our church named Steve Bertram who I owe a lot to. He’s a Hall of Fame broadcaster in Kentucky and still doing games for Boyle County High School, the four-time defending state champs. He ran the local radio station. Small town, small station. But he did everything, and he let me hang around him and made me feel like I was helping when I’m sure I was just in his way. I think that’s where I really got the bug. I thought broadcasting was cool. I liked sports all along and then you mix the two together ­— couldn’t be anything better.” 

Q | What did you major in at Baylor, and how did that shape your career path? 

“I graduated from Baylor in December of 1980 as a communications major. It was radio and TV at the time. And then it changed to radio, TV, film and telecommunications. Now it’s film and digital media. I see so many students who think they know what they want to do, and they get here and they say, ‘Nah, I’m not crazy about that. I’ll try something else.’ There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s kind of the norm. But for me, it was radio and TV, and I never really wavered from that. I got good experience at KWBU, which was the campus radio station. After that I spent 15 years working at KWTX TV, and it was great, obviously covering Baylor a lot. So I wasn’t working for Baylor, but I was covering Baylor a lot. And that goes back to 1980.” 

Q | How do you balance your demanding career with family life? 

“I try to create a good work-life balance. And it takes work sometimes. Mack Rhoades, Baylor’s athletics director, is totally supportive of that. He’ll tell us, ‘Get out of here. Why are you here? You need to be at home.’ And I appreciate that, and I try to make that work. My wife, Terri, and I — we’ve been married for 40 years, and our kids are out of the house. So if I’m off doing a game and she’s not there, she’s home by herself. I work at that and can always do better. But the work-life balance, I think, is really important. So when I’m away from Baylor, away from sports, it’s Hallmark movies or whatever she wants to watch at home or whatever she wants to do. And then, we make the most of the summer months when the schedule is really slow.” 

Q | What has been your most memorable moment in your career at Baylor? 

“Going through the down times and dark times really makes you appreciate the good times, the wins, the big wins. You’ve got to say that a national championship for men’s basketball is at the top of the list. What Coach Scott Drew inherited when he came here and what he built here, and culminating with his first national championship — maybe more to come. And there are so many other games. Off the top of my head, 50-7 over Texas in 1989 was huge — it was the first Baylor win in Austin in 38 years. The 2004 A&M overtime win — we lost, I think 19 times straight to A&M, and we won that, with a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Shawn Bell to Dominique Ziegler in overtime. That was very, very memorable. It’s the worst radio call of all time, but Baylor people knew something good had happened, the way J.J. Joe and I were screaming. And others in other sports, like baseball, the regional at Rice coming from seven runs down. The World Series comeback against Tulane was huge. Women’s Final Four, that first win in 2005. So many of those memorable games.”

Q | You have had many mentors throughout your career, including the venerable “Voice of the Baylor Bears” Frank Fallon. What is the best piece of advice you have received, and how has mentorship shaped your journey? 

“There couldn’t be a better learning experience than working alongside Frank. He’s a great broadcaster, number one, but also a great representative of Baylor. And what a gentleman, the way he carried himself. I just learned all those things from him, and it was great. I was still at the TV station, and then doing the games with him on the weekends, and it was fun.” 

Q | You have said you don’t see yourself as the Voice of the Bears, but you are to a lot of people. Is that a burden to be the Voice of the Bears?

“Not a burden at all. It’s an honor. Frank Fallon will always be The Voice of the Baylor Bears to me. It’s a responsibility, the way I look at it. Living up to Frank’s standards and Baylor’s standards is something we try to do every broadcast. I feel like in this role, I represent Baylor. I’m a Baylor grad, and I’m so proud of Baylor, so I want it to be the very best that it can be. So I would say it is a real honor and a responsibility that I don’t take lightly at all.” 

Q | Baylor is now the only school that has two winners of the Chris Schenkel Award, with the other winner being Frank. What does it mean to you to receive this award? 

“It is a team award, I would say, for our broadcast team through the years. It’s a team award for Baylor, because Baylor set the bar as the first school to have two recipients of the Schenkel Award. It is very humbling to be on that list of people that have won this award. But again, it’s a great tribute to Baylor. And anything that I can share with Frank Fallon is a real win.” 

The Sic ’Em Podcast is a weekly long-form, story-telling podcast that brings in-depth interviews with current and former student-athletes and coaches, bringing you closer than ever to the biggest names in Baylor athletics. Hosted by John Morris, the Sic ’Em Podcast is produced in partnership with Sport & Story, the content team behind Baylor+.