Morris: An expert on the playing field

By DAVID PIERCE

NEA Town Courier

It’s often said art is where you look for it.

Shown is Morris’s 1/24 scale model of Hendon Hooker’s sprint car. Hooker was a racer that Morris idolized as a youth roaming the dirt tracks in the Blytheville and Osceola area.

Would you see it gazing at stenciled yard line numbers on the field of Reynolds Razorback Stadium? Could you see it in the perfectly-lined batter’s box on one of the 10 fields at the Blytheville Sportsplex? Or how about finding it in a Blytheville High School decal adorned on a maroon football helmet?

Maybe not your average Joe, but there’s someone who certainly would. Larry Morris sees it in all those places.

Why? Because that’s his artistic talent showing in all of it.

Larry Morris stenciled and painted Blytheville High School’s football field but did work for Gosnell and Osceola, too, before those schools transitioned to artificial turf.

Many know Morris as the long time groundskeeper at the Blytheville Sportsplex. It’s likely that two generations have stood on his freshly-mowed fields or fielded a grounder off the infield dirt at the sportsplex.

Yes, his expertise is in field maintenance, but art is his passion.

Wanna try to talk to him about his work? Just trust that Morris would rather be checking the moisture content of the dirt on the pitcher’s mound than having a conversation where he is the topic.

Larry Morris is the longtime curator of the Blytheville Sportsplex and for 22 years he has worked tirelessly in the upkeep of the 10 fields. His work never seems to end and you’ll find him putting in long hours to perfect the playing fields.

“Too long,” Morris replied about his 22-year tenure as the sportsplex’s caretaker.

“Why?” he continues answering a question with a question. “I was born to do it.”

Yep, born to do it. A twin, Morris calls his brother the “mathematical genius”. Morris, himself, found his niche in art. One of his latest works is a near life-size painting of BHS alum Demekko Clark toting a football on Haley Field in the mid-2010s.

Morris’s canvas isn’t limited to a wall though. In fact, his canvas is more than likely a playing field where he’s emblazoned high school logos across the 50-yard lines for just about every local high school. His designs and painting once could be found on the field of Memphis’s Liberty Bowl and if the sportsplex hosted a youth baseball tournament, there was Morris’s depiction of the Little League logo behind homeplate.

Oh yeah, Morris art has been displayed across Arkansas, into Missouri and Memphis.

If you press, Morris will open up about his talent, not just with field art but field maintenance.

He’s always preferred the outdoors and has never shied from a hard day’s work. He started young, working days for his dad’s fencing business. Then evenings, he transitioned to the area dirt tracks which hosted sprint car races. His dad was co-owner of the Blytheville track and there he met driver Hooker Hood whom he called one of his racing idols.

That’s where he says, “I began to understand the dirt,” describing the perfect mix of sand, clay, and silt and determining just the right amount of moisture where it doesn’t dust up or become muddy.

Working with his uncle’s landscaping business allowed him to understand agronomy – the study of plant and soil maintenance - and he further educated himself by borrowing his uncle’s books on the subject.

“Didn’t need to spend $100,000 on an education when everything I needed to know was in that text,” he says. “All I had to do was take the time to read.”

Morris become so enamored with field maintenance, that he would hop the fence at Blytheville’s Junior Babe Ruth park after dark just to practice the craft. When John Singleton complimented his work, the path was paved for him to become the sportsplex’s groundskeeper.

And considering the condition of the sportsplex’s baseball and softball fields over the two decades, others have taken notice of Morris’s exemplary work.

“Everything you see here is because of him,” said Blytheville Baseball Softball Association board member Seth Wyatt, who could probably be described as Morris’s biggest cheerleader. “We need to brag on you. You deserve it.”

Wyatt, also Public Facilities Director, thrusts Morris into the spotlight, continually praising the time and effort Morris puts into the complex.

Morris is reluctant to acknowledge any of it, choosing instead to point out weeds which need to eradicated, a garbage can that needs to be painted or a fence that needs a minor repair. Yep, he’s his own worst critic.

He almost refuses to breathe a sigh of relief because in his eyes there’s always work to be done. And to him there isn’t quite enough time to squeeze it all in.

His hours extend beyond one’s typical work day. He’s normally at the complex at 4:30 a.m. and during baseball-softball season that day stretches sometimes until midnight.

“There’s just a whole lot that goes into the care of the fields,” he explains of his long hours. “Just like tonight if it had come a hard rain after the fields had been played on, yeah, it would have been a very long night for me.”

Obviously, he’s had many early days and late nights in his tenure but even though he may hint at retirement, the love he has for what he does keeps him coming back day after day.

He concedes that the upkeep of 10 fields is difficult and calls himself an “idiot” for even trying. Yep, Morris can be too harsh on himself, too.

The Blytheville native is always chasing perfection and in his eyes he just can’t catch it.

Had things gone just a tad different, Morris would have likely been doing this on a bigger stage.

In the mid-90s, Morris accompanied his father to the Liberty Bowl where he became fascinated with the field, the artistry and it piqued his interest.

So what does he do?

Morris picks up the phone and calls the Liberty Bowl offices.

“I just asked if there was any way I could come down and watch them paint the field,” he recalls.

The person on the other end of the line suggested Morris just come in and act like he belonged.

And to Memphis he went and once there he looked on as three near retirement-aged workers prepped the field, laid out stencils and began to paint.

Unbeknownst to Morris, there was a fourth person scheduled to be there to evaluate the job as well. And those three workers assumed it was Morris.

“You just gonna stand there and watch,” barked one of the grounds crew remembers Morris, “or you going to help?”

Help he did. In fact, all three were so impressed with his painting skills, ‘Arkansas’, as they came to call him, got himself a job.

“Right place, right time,” said Morris simply.

He became acclaimed for his work on the Liberty Bowl field which played host to the Memphis Tigers, the annual postseason bowl game of the same name and the Memphis Maniacs, a then-XFL team. And toss in some time, too, with the Memphis Redbirds organization. Not to mention his yard line stencils are still used on the field of Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“I’d work on them a little bit during off hours here,” he said of 6x3 foot stencils. “Stand up in the bleachers and look down on them. Did that until I got them the way I wanted.”

He’s earned a reputation as meticulous. “I definitely wasn’t a weak link,” he said bordering on giving himself a compliment.

Morris has many influences in his career, including George Toma, the ‘nitty gritty dirt man’ who’s worked the fields of every Super Bowl since 1967. Another was Randy Knowles who led Morris to equipment-managing gigs with the Maniacs, followed by some time with Arkansas State University. It was then, his interest in the helmet designs began to grow. In fact, he has a nice collection of multiple team’s helmets, including an assortment of his favored Blytheville Chickasaws.

Yet, Morris’s mother Patsy became ill and required constant care. Forced with a decision, he unselfishly chose to return full-time to Blytheville to be by her side.

“It was the right thing to do,” explained Morris who shrugs off any thought of what might have been. “She needed me and it just so happened that (Sportsplex) opened up and been here ever since.”

He steals time away from his grounds keeping duties to continue his art which includes working on sprint car models, sketching and logo design. In fact, his current project is collaborating with Chickasaw head football coach Jett Howard on a new helmet design for this year’s squad.

“It’s a work in progress,” said Morris not quite ready to reveal the work.

Howard, who is entering his second season at the BHS football helm, admits during his Chickasaw playing days he never knew Morris’s name or face but only as “someone who did really great work on (Haley) field.”

But the two became acquainted when Howard returned to his alma mater to coach.

“Now, we’re bouncing ideas off one another,” said Howard. “He has such a vast knowledge and background. I certainly trust his creative process.

“(Morris) is so detailed and he’s never quite satisfied,” continued the head coach. “He’s making continuous tweaks trying to achieve that perfection.”

There’s really no shortage of compliments for Morris and his work. Just don’t expect him to stop and pat his himself on the back. Because he has plenty of work to do and the day’s never quite long enough.