Former Pitt track star, the football team’s first strength and conditioning coach (1980-89 and 1997-2002), Charles “Buddy” Morris is now at the University of Buffalo.
In two stints as the University of Pittsburgh’s strength coordinator, Morris, 45, worked with future Hall of Famer Dan Marino, former Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Ruben Brown and 12 other NFL first-round picks. Former Pitt wide receiver Antonio Bryant once said it was Morris who inspired him to win the Biletnikoff Award in 2000. Morris has a picture from running back Kevin Barlow signed, “To my stepfather.”
In 2002, when then-Cleveland Browns coach Butch Davis attached high priority to improving the team’s strength and speed through a more rigorous offseason conditioning program, he chose Morris to lead the way. In the two years prior to hiring Morris, the Browns led the NFL in number of players on injured reserve, a figure that was sliced significantly with Morris in the fold.
“He has different alternatives and different ways of getting the best out of his athletes,” Brown said. “He’ll make sure they’ll have the best-conditioned team out there. Whatever talent is there, he’s going to raise the level 10 percent or more.”
It was at Pitt where Morris became noted for unconventional and at times peculiar training methods. He’s had players pushing trucks and cars and chopping down trees as a means of conditioning.
A former sprinter and four-year letterman in track and field at Pitt, Morris once assisted in the conditioning of Roger Kingdom, the 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles. UB may represent his biggest challenge yet.
Well worth reading the full piece. Lots of good stuff, especially the loyalty he has built up from former Pitt players.
He competed in track at Pitt and stumbled into his passion four years later in 1980, when there were only a handful of strength and conditioning coaches. Then-Pitt football coach Jackie Sherrill called Morris to see if he wanted to work in the weight room, and Morris agreed. Sherrill tossed Morris the keys to the room, and the recently graduated Morris was the first strength and conditioning coach at Pitt.
“Back in the day in 1980, everyone was just winging it,” Morris said. “There was no research, no formal strength programs.”
By his own admission, it wasn’t a difficult job. Pitt was one of the jewels of the East back then with the likes of Marino, Jimbo Covert and Hugh Green. Morris worked at Pitt from 1980 to ’89 but left the program when his daughter, Kara, was diagnosed with auto-immune chronic active hepatitis and was placed on a list for a liver transplant.
He found a job running a sports medicine program in Sharon, Pa., but missed college athletics. Morris returned to Pitt in 1997, and the program had slipped from its elite status. The strength training equipment was lacking, so Morris asked for more and was told it wasn’t in the budget.
“Can I get my own money?” Morris asked.
Donations came in quickly from former players, and Morris raised more than $100,000. He received a blank check from former lineman Mark Stepnoski with a note that read, “Merry Christmas. Enjoy shopping.”
Now, he’s going to try and work with Buffalo. Good luck.
