Lawrence High’s 1979 state-championship football team gathered for a 25-year reunion a couple of years ago, and when coach Bill Freeman looked at the autographs of all the players in attendance, one stood out.

“John Morris?” Freeman asked. “Who’s John Morris?”

An assistant answered, “Uh, coach, that’s Moose.”

Some nicknames fit so well, it’s easy to forget the person’s real name.

John “Moose” Morris, the center on that team and then for Haskell Indian Nations University, now is assistant golf pro at Eagle Bend. With a nickname like that, surely he must win a lot of long-distance driving contests, right?

Wrong.

Moose has a peaceful game. Accuracy and consistency are its strengths. Any one drive doesn’t leave his playing partners talking about it, other than to say it’s remarkably similar to the other 13 during the round: Smack-dab in the middle of the fairway.

He doesn’t try to hit it as hard as the football players he used to coach as defensive coordinator at Haskell. He doesn’t try to Tim Leatherman the golf ball.

“In my 14 years at Haskell I’d have to say the best athlete was Tim Leatherman,” Morris said. “He was a quarterback from Tulsa Hale. He was 6-foot-2, 205 pounds and could run like the wind. I played him on defense three times. Three plays and he knocked out three people. I mean knocked them out cold. We couldn’t risk using him on defense. He was our gun.”

Morris grew up next to Haskell, was the football ball boy, and played junior high, high school, and junior-college football games at his favorite stadium, where he also coached.

Morris joined golf page architect Jason Walker and me for a few holes of lessons. He showed the 6-foot-5 Walker why he was topping the ball, and the improvement was immediate. (See tip of the week below).

Six years ago, Morris left Haskell – where he was an assistant football coach and also coached women’s basketball, track and golf – to become an assistant to soon-departing head pro Jim Kane. Morris said he was a 12 handicap then, and since has reduced it to 0.9.

Morris neither is as long off the tee nor as remarkable a putter as Alvamar’s Alex Eichman. Still, he shoots close to par rounds because three-putts, duffs, and penalty strokes are not in his vocabulary. In terms of giving hope to late starters, Morris is an even better example than Eichman, who took up the game at 14. Morris didn’t start playing until he was 22.

“I went to Northeastern State in Oklahoma, and they had a couple of big boys who benched about 550,” he said, explaining why he gave up football. “They threw me around, so I kind of had enough of that. There’s not much use for a 210-pound center, not even snapping punts.”

Morris, now 44, was looking for something to do, so when his brother called and suggested a $2.50 round of golf, he gave it a shot, fell in love with the game, and it hasn’t stopped loving him back since.

Depending on the time of year, a golfer can see blue heron, Canadian geese, coyotes, deer, eagles, hawks, muskrats, quail, red foxes, woodpeckers, and one friendly Moose at Eagle Bend.