By Jarrod Ulrey, Press Pros Magazine for OHSAA.org
While growing up in Lima, Dennis “Denny” Morris quickly developed a love for competing in sports.
Morris, who played baseball throughout high school and also participated in football and basketball before graduating from Elida in 1975, went on to become a distinguished doctor.
He also found a way to combine those passions — through officiating — well enough that he was inducted as part of the 2026 OHSAA Circle of Champions class.
“I was on the team (in baseball) and played some,” Morris said “That’s probably why I got into officiating. I liked sports but I wasn’t very good, so I found another avenue.”
Known as Dr. Morris since graduating from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in 1985 who specialized in foot and ankle surgery, he became a distinguished football and basketball official at the prep and college levels.
The Circle of Champions honor is another in a list of accolades he's received in officiating.
A member of the OHSAA Officials Hall of Fame since 2009, Morris also was named to the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
“I guess (being named to the Circle of Champions is) a culmination of a lot of years,” Morris said. “You look at the people out there and the people that came before me—it's quite an honor to be selected and to be included with some of the greatest names in high school athletics.”
Morris, whose career included serving as the Chief Medical Officer at Lima Health System, earned his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University in 1979.
He began what has become a near five-decade career in officiating when he was 18.
In basketball, he has served as an OHSAA Rules Interpreter since 2005 and has been the Association’s Director of Officiating Development since 2010. He also has been an instructor at numerous OHSAA basketball officiating clinics.
In addition to serving on numerous committees and as an instructor at clinics, Morris was the Putnam County League Officials Basketball Assigner from 2002-17 in addition to being an officials observer for the OHSAA postseason in boys basketball.
He officiated the boys basketball state tournament in 2002, ’05 and ’07. Among the games he was on the court for included the 2002 Division II state championship game in which Cincinnati Roger Bacon defeated Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary 71-63—handing LeBron James the only postseason loss of his prep career.
“You’ve got to have the right temperament,” Morris said. “It’s not for everybody. It’s physical, it’s mental, and it’s a lot of emotions. You have to have a lot of people skills and manage. It’s probably harder at the lower levels than it is at the higher levels because you have less control and less knowledge.”
In football, Morris officiated at the prep level for more than four decades and then served as an official in the Mid-American Conference from 1997-2001.
He then moved to the Big Ten Conference in 2002 and is about to begin his 25th season in the B1G in the fall. Morris officiates games nearly every week and has officiated two Big Ten championship games and 24 postseason bowl games.
“So much has changed since I started (officiating football in the Big Ten) 25 years ago,” Morris said. “Back then, we didn’t have replay, and of course we only had 11 teams, so there’s been all the technology and the expansion, and now we go coast to coast. I don’t know how all of this NIL and transfer portal stuff is going to change things, but it’s certainly been a good ride and a lot of fun. I’ve done 24 postseason bowl games and was in the Mid-American Conference before the Big Ten, so I’ve been very fortunate.
“It’s challenging in new ways. You certainly have to keep up on the rules and the rule changes. Physically it becomes more difficult. I don’t get any younger, and they don’t get any slower.”
Morris, who has spent much of his adult life in Lima before recently moving to central Ohio to be closer to family, continues to help with administration for the OHSAA football playoffs and plans to continue participating in officiating collegiately for the indefinite future.
“I started (officiating) as soon as I was 18 and I’ve been at it ever since,” Morris said. “(Officiating is) a job. Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, it’s fun,’ but it’s a job and it means a lot to a lot of people. It’s very important.
"When I started, I was just hoping I’d be a high school official, and then I had a lot of opportunities and moved up. I’d sit there and wonder where did these guys come from, and now that I’m one of them, I wonder how in the world did I get here?”