Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993 TAG: 9302230024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
1 PLAYER, 1 NIGHT, 127 POINTS
JOHNNY MORRIS is reliving his remarkable feat.Thirty-two years ago, Johnny Morris put on one of the most prolific scoring displays ever, throwing in 127 points in a basketball game that set a state high school record for individual scoring.
"It's still hard to believe," said Morris, now 50 and a physical education teacher at Kellam High School in Virginia Beach.
Bob Smith, Morris' coach at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, described his player's performance on Feb. 22, 1961, at Mary N. Smith High School in Accomac as "the greatest single-game effort I ever saw anywhere."
Norcom had conceded the Eastern District championship of the Virginia Interscholastic Association, a league of all-black schools that was disbanded in 1969, to rival Booker T. Washington of Norfolk.
The scoring race still was hot between Morris and Milt Mason of the Bookers. Smith told his players to look to Morris.
"You know kids," Morris said. "Somebody tells you to shoot the ball, you're not going to say no."
Morris, a 5-foot-11 1/2 guard, got 29 points in the first quarter of the 32-minute game. He matched that in the second quarter. At halftime, with Norcom ahead 69-19, 7-foot-2 center Mel Kellogg suggested seeing how far Morris could go.
"I asked them, `What do you think, fellas?' " Smith recalled. "They said, `Let him go.' "
In the second half, Morris scored all but one of his team's 70 points. The final score was 139-33.
Morris scored 57 field goals, a national record for a game, and his total is second in the nation to Danny Heater, who scored 135 points in a 1960 game for Burnsville, W.Va.
"It was just one of those games," Morris said. "I couldn't miss."
John Parsons, the losing coach for Mary N. Smith, remembered the game and a follow-up loss to the Bookers, 173-47.
Parsons said none of his players was over 6 feet, so Kellogg kept swatting down their shots and passing fast breaks to Morris.
"He was a good player," Parsons, now retired, said. "There was nothing we could do but hope and pray."
Morris went on to Norfolk State and got a tryout with the Baltimore Bullets before he was drafted into the Army. He began teaching when he got out of the service.
"The game didn't hit me as anything major-major," he said. "I was oblivious to any scoring records. I just played. When I found out it was a record, it felt nice, but it was nothing for me to do flips about, I guess."