By Chris Schumerth
With the return of the NCAA Men’s Final Four approaching, about 650 local residents came together to honor one of the men whose vision over several decades was responsible for much of the top-notch, sports-hosting town that Indianapolis has become.
Indiana Sports Corp and Pacers Sports & Entertainment collaborated to put on the first Jim Morris Day of Service, which resulted in volunteers completing service projects at a range of sites throughout the city, including Riverside, Christian, and Garfield Parks, Gleaners Food Bank, Mass Ave., Crown Plaza, Horizon House, Groundwork Indy, Marian County Soil and Water, the Cultural Trail, and Municipal Gardens. The event was kicked off inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse and attracted a range of speakers that included Mayor Joe Hogsett, Pacers’ CEO Mel Raines, Indiana Sports Corp President Patrick Talty, Indiana University Indianapolis Chancellor Latha Ramchand, and NCAA President Charlie Baker. Morris’s wife of 59 years, Jackie, was in attendance.
“For (Jim Morris), every day was a day of service,” Baker said. “This community is filled with people who get what that means. It’s why we can have all three divisions plus the NIT happening here in less than ten days and know it will all go well because the culture of this community to deliver an event like that…it’s a real tribute in some respects to what Jim had in mind when he decided he was going to make this a sports town.”
As part of the festivities, President and CEO of Indianapolis Business Journal Nathan Feltman recognized the following ten Jim Morris “Be Better” award recipients: Charles Richardson, Seth Catron (Catron Property Group), Blake Roebuck (Indy Chamber), Marla Taylor (Taylor Advising), Akilah Darden (Darden Group), Mamon Powers (Powers & Sons Construction), Aaron Drake (Browning Real Estate Partners), Miriam Acevedo Davis (La Plaza), Tom Hanley (Nine13Sports), and Samantha Douglass (Far Eastside Community Council).
Service as a way of honoring Morris is no accidental choice. Service was Morris’ way of being, the economy out of which he operated, the air he breathed. Associated with his name are a seemingly-endless list of affiliations, all of them service-oriented: chief of staff to once-upon-a-time Indianapolis mayor Richard Lugar, former president of the Lilly Endowment, head of Indianapolis Water Company, vice chairman of Pacers Sports and Entertainment, member of Second Presbyterian Church, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, involved even in the formation of Indy Sports Corp. To listen to those who knew Morris is to encounter a man who was always scheming the next big sports event or association to bring to the city he loved and knew best.
Morris’s impact trickled down to individuals, too. Chris Gahl, Executive Vice President & Chief Business Officer at Visit Indy, was out with twenty coworkers spreading and filling in mulch on Mass Ave. for the Jim Morris Day of Service, and he recalled both a time when Morris provided him with a doctor referral after a cancer diagnosis and when he relied on Morris’s counsel through a challenging professional project that Gahl was working on.
“He was a big proponent of multi-generational mentorship,” Gahl said about Morris. “It was incumbent on him to mentor future generations and incumbent on me to reach down and do the same.”
From the work at Visit Indy, Gahl also possessed big-picture insight into why it’s so beneficial for Indianapolis to be hosting events like the upcoming Final Four. “When we bring visitors to the city,” he said, “whether it’s a major sporting event, international trade shows, meetings, leisure visitors from Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Austin, when they come and visit, they generate tourism-related tax that benefits city services and state services. In addition to that, they fill up our restaurants, museums, attractions, cafes, theaters with visitors and therefore help keep our residents working and earning a paycheck. We’re very proud that there are 80,000 men and women who depend on tourism for a paycheck and when major events come like the NCAA Final Four…simply put, more people earn pay checks, and it adds to the overall vibrancy of our economics here locally.”
Courtney Rissman, Senior Director of Events and Public Spaces, was another person who spent her workday making Mass Ave. look good, and part of the value she placed on the day’s service was her memory of working with Morris when the two of them overlapped with the Pacers. “It was always about ‘What can I do for you?’” she said. “’Who can I introduce you to? Who can I get you in the same room with to have a conversation about what you want to accomplish?’ That’s just who he was. He was the ultimate connector, and he just did so many special things with the gifts that he had. There will never be another Jim Morris.”