Ken Morrison – Athlete/Builder

Ken Morrison’s outstanding hockey career set him up to become an exceptional coach and mentor not only in the sport of hockey, but also in senior high school basketball. As a result, he is inducted both as an athlete and a builder. As an athlete Morrison played right wing for the Prince Albert Raiders from 1982 to 1985. He was a key contributor to the organization’s development to win the Memorial Cup in 1985, a season in which Morrison scored 51 goals and 108 points in the regular season. He was one of 6 players who was with the Raiders from the beginning of their inaugural season in the WHL through 3 seasons to the Memorial Cup Championship in ‘85. In the following 1985-86 season, Morrison was traded to the Kamloops Blazers where he put up 150 points including 83 goals (1st in goals scored, 3rd in the league in points), then another 37 playoff points (2nd in the league), leading the Blazers to the WHL Championship Title- his 2nd straight trip to the Memorial Cup. Morrison won the WHL’s Most Gentlemanly-Like Player Award and was named a WHL 1st Team All-Star for the West Division in ’85-86. Morrison would finish his WHL career with 179 goals, 212 assists for 391 points in 268 games played. Morrison would take his scoring prowess to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Hockey team for the next 4 seasons. In his first season, in 1987, he helped lead the Huskies to a Canada West Championship and to the National Championship final game. He has the Huskie record for most points in a season – 69 on 40 goals and 29 assists in 1988. He holds the Huskie record for most goals in a season at 40 and most career goals at 116. He is 1 point shy of holding the Huskie all-time leading scorer record, however, he played one full season less than the player who holds it. Morrison was a 2 time Canada West All- Star and 2 time All-Canadian while playing with the Huskies. He was also named to the Huskie’s All- Millennium Team in 2000. Hockey Canada took notice of Morrison and he was on Team Canada in 1987 that won the gold medal at the Spengler Cup Tournament in Davos, Switzerland. Canada beat Russia in the final in a shootout and Morrison scored one of the shoot-out goals for Canada. Morrison completed his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry at the U of S and began a 3 year professional hockey career overseas. He played two seasons of professional hockey for Aalborg and one with Herning in the Danish Elite League from 1990-93. Morrison worked on his second degree, a Bachelor of Education degree, while home between hockey seasons and completed it in ’93. After his playing career concluded, Morrison became an educator and taught the senior sciences at Birch Hills School for 10 years and 1 year at Carlton before becoming an administrator at Carlton. As part of his first teaching job in Birch Hills, Morrison was asked to coach the Senior Girls Basketball team and developed a passion for a game that he never played. He led his team, 8 out of 10 seasons, to the provincial final fours (HOOPLA) where they won provincial gold in 2001, and numerous silver and bronze medals. Morrison then went on to coach the Carlton Crusaders Senior Girls basketball teams for 7 seasons, qualifying for the Provincial Hoopla tournament in all 7 and winning the Small Cities Championship in 2005 and a 4A Provincial Championship in 2010 along with some silver and bronze finishes. He also was recognized as SHSAA Male Coach of the year in 2009. After 17 years of coaching basketball, hockey remained a strong passion and he got the opportunity to coach with the Prince Albert Mintos in 2011 as an assistant. Morrison had also coached IP, Atom and Novice hockey teams in Prince Albert for 7 years while coaching basketball. After just one year as head coach, Morrison led the Prince Albert Mintos to the 2014 Telus Cup Championship with an historic 4-3 overtime win over the Chateauguay Grenadiers of Quebec in a game that went into the third overtime in Moose Jaw. Inducted as both an athlete and builder into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame: Ken Morrison.