Morris, Bill

 

Bill Morris, 2017

Recognized as one of the top 10 tennis players ever to come out of Lorain, Bill Morris began playing when he was 16 years old. He quickly excelled, with talent and hard work. Bill credits his Lorain High School tennis coach Thurm Riddle for instilling a love of the game, teaching him how to play tennis, and how to enjoy it.
Bill played varsity tennis in his junior and senior years. He graduated in 1979 after a successful run as
Lorain High’s No. 1 singles tennis player. As a senior, he captured the Buckeye Conference championship, losing only two matches the entire season, and he was honored by the Lorain Tennis Club as the most outstanding boys tennis player in Lorain.
Bill had offers to play college tennis for Kent State and Heidelberg, but he chose to pass up college to work and help his mother raise his two brothers and two sisters. Bill continued playing and winning tournaments in and around Lorain.
Between 1980 and 1983, he won singles championships three years in a row in the Lorain City Tennis Tournament. During that period, he also won two mens doubles championships and two mixed doubles championships.
In the Lorain International Doubles Tournament from 1980 to 1985, Bill won five championships with Zeke Fitzpatrick. He won three mixed championships with partners Celeste McConihe, Jessica Williams and Gloria Holtwick. Celeste and Gloria are also LSHOF enshrinees. During these years, Bill also won the mens singles championship twice and was runner-up once in the Lorain County Tennis Tournament.
In 1996, Bill was ranked first in the United States Tennis Association’s Northeast 35 & Over Doubles
category and fifth in the Singles category.
Bill resides in Lorain and is retired from the Lorain City Schools where he was employed for 31 years.