Morgan Clark

Anyone who has participated in track and field locally over the past 40-plus years likely got their start from Morgan Clark- literally.

Clark has fired the starter’s pistol at area meets for 43 years. He taught and coached at the grade school and high school levels for 34 years and also gave his time serving as a basketball and football referee.

For 29 years, he coached the defensive line and special teams as an assistant with the University of Windsor Lancers’ football team.

For all he has given back to his community, Clark is the 2025 winner of the Bob Turner Award given annually by the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame. The Turner Award is given to a member of Windsor and Essex County who has provided years of dedicated service to athletics, promoting participation, continuous improvement and to the all-around development and well-being of athletes.

Clark has done all that in spades.

A gifted athlete himself, Clark starred in football and basketball at Patterson Collegiate. He was offered a football scholarship to the University of Michigan and a contract by the Edmonton Eskimos as a Grade 12 student. He opted for the University of Western Ontario where he played defensive end and won two Yates Cups in the late 50s. He played three-plus seasons in the Canadian Football League before injuries forced him to retire. Coaching and teaching became his new passions. He was honoured as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union’s volunteer assistant coach of the year in 1988 and was inducted into the University of Windsor’s Alumni Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.