Stew immortalized: USU HURD makes shirts to remember the legend
In light of the recent retirement announcement of Stew Morrill, head coach of the USU men’s basketball team, the Hurd is selling commemorative T-shirts for $8 on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. in front of the campus store.
“We hope we get a huge turnout,” said Dallin Laird, USUSA athletics and campus recreation vice president. “People love him as a coach.”
Morrill will be available to sign the shirts for the first 45 minutes to an hour.
“He has practice to get to, but he’s committed to signing autographs on the T-shirts,” Laird said. “It’ll enhance the value of the shirt.”
The shirt features a finger made of words representing Morrill’s USU career pointing upward. The back of the shirt was designed to look like a jersey, has his name with the number 17 for the number of years Morrill has spent coaching here.
“We thought it would be fun to get a memorable T-shirt that people can purchase and have a keepsake and a tribute to Stew at the same time,” Laird said.
The money from the shirt sales will be split between the campus store and the Hurd. The Hurd uses the money in its budget to plan game day activities such as tailgates and watch parties.
“It’ll be a great opportunity for the students to buy those because any money in the Hurd budget goes right back to the students with stuff we do at games,” Laird said. “So it allows the Hurd to do more activities throughout the year for students.”
Morrill has coached for 40 years, 29 of which he has spent as a head coach. This is his 17th season as head coach for USU.
“Stew Morrill is synonymous with Utah State Basketball,” said Scott Barnes, Utah State University vice president and director of athletics. “He will go down in Aggie history as the greatest coach to ever walk up and down the sidelines of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.”
Saturday’s 85-79 win over Fresno State made Morrill the eighth active NCAA Division I head coach to have 400 wins at his current institution.
“I feel very fortunate,” Morrill said. “As I look at this profession and all the things that go on in this profession, that’s mostly what comes to mind is I feel very fortunate to have done it as long as I’ve done it.”
In the 2007-08 season, he became the university’s all-time winningest coach and also holds the school record for the most games coached.
“To have had as many good players as I’ve had,” Morrill said, “as many good assistant coaches who have coached at three really fine universities, and to be able to walk away on my own terms — not a lot of guys get to say all those things. I feel like it’s been a really good ride.”
— olivia.webb@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @OliviaWebb77