Bringing Everyone Out To The Game – Morris Glimcher says Goodbye
June 23, 2016 by admin
Filed under Canadian Sport Features
Move over Brett Favre, Jeff Gordon and Cal Ripken Jr. — Morris Glimcher is the ultimate iron man.
Glimcher, affectionately referred to as Mo, is the executive director of the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association and has been since 1975. However, on June 30, his consecutive games served streak will end, as Mo is calling it a career.
“It’s been fun, a passion and a great career without a doubt,” Glimcher said.
Glimcher, 62, grew up in the North End, where his dad had a grocery store at the corner of Cathedral Avenue and Aikins Street. His start in sport came in Grade 11 with the St. John’s High School varsity boys basketball team. Not as a player mind you, but as the student manager.
“The basketball coach at the school was Bill Wedlake,” Glimcher said. “My best friend was trying out for the team and I was waiting for him, just hanging around. I guess I got to talking to Wedlake and he said ‘Be the manager.’ I really didn’t know anything about basketball, but I figured OK, I’ll get involved.”
Glimcher was the Tigers’ student manager for two seasons. After graduation, on a reference from Wedlake, Glimcher became the manager of the Junior Bisons basketball team at the University of Manitoba. He followed that up with a year at the former provincial sports administrative centre, and in 1975, he was hired as the executive director of the MHSAA.
“It’s kind of fitting because one of our sayings is ‘High school athletics is the other half of education,’ and high school athletics got me my job, literally,” Glimcher said.
It’s a job that’s taken Glimcher across, up and down the province, with the MHSAA overseeing 50 provincial championships in 11 sports. Glimcher said travelling to and meeting the people in rural Manitoba has been highly rewarding.
“Being a Winnipeg boy, I thought that rural was Brandon,” Glimcher said. “I remember my first zone meeting was in Hartney, Manitoba, just west of Souris. I’m going out there and I’m not asking myself ‘Where is Hartney?’ but ‘What’s a Hartney?’
“When I got there, the guys were great. We went out for drinks after the meeting, just a really neat bunch of people. They didn’t know me, but they certainly welcomed me.
“You get to know the people, and all over there are great people, but especially in the rural areas, just because they have so much pride in what they do. I pride myself on the fact that it is the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association, not the Winnipeg.”
Glimcher recalled a time when Nike approached the MHSAA with the intention of giving shoes to the boys on the varsity AAAA basketball championship team.
“I said ‘What about the girls? And, what about the A, AA and AAA? “They said ‘No, we’re not interested. I said, ‘Well, I can’t do it then, they all have to be equal.’ What we ended up doing was the MVP of each of those championships got a pair of shoes and the all-stars got T-shirts,” Glimcher said.
“To me, whether you live in a big town or small town, you’re still a high school athlete that is working hard. Nobody realizes how far the rural kids travel on buses and things like that. It’s a long way for a single game, whereas in Winnipeg, if you’re going from St. John’s to Sisler, it’s 10 minutes.”
His commitment to country kids and coaches is just one MHSAA achievement Glimcher takes pride in.
As far as career triumphs, Glimcher lists expanding the MHSAA’s classifications (AAAA to A), the awarding of championship banners, a cross mentoring program where high school athletes speak to Grade 5 students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and working with corporate sponsors to better recognize athletes and coaches.
“We’ve got a lot more scholarships and recognitions like athlete of the week and athlete of the year,” Glimcher said. “There’s never enough (recognition). For a high school athlete that might be the furthest they go, so that certificate is pretty special, to be able to say ‘I was athlete of the week.’”
Glimcher himself sponsors a scholarship for an unsung role he’s very familiar with.
“I sponsor a scholarship for student managers. One thousand dollars every year,” Glimcher said. “That’s one of those areas that goes unrecognized and we do these things for the athletes, I thought ‘Why not a manager?’ I proudly sponsor that award.”
Glimcher’s commitment to high school sport in Manitoba hasn’t gone unnoticed.
In 2012, he was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame as a builder. In 2003, Glimcher received a citation from the National Federation of State High School Associations, the only Canadian to be recognized by the American organization.
Glimcher is also a two-time winner of the Good Guy Award from the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, receiving the honour in 1988 and 2013.
In good guy fashion, Glimcher credits his longevity in the job to the people around him, especially the coaches.
“They commit so many hours, but they don’t get paid for it and a lot of times they don’t get time off,” Glimcher said.
“I think that’s what excited me about (the job), just the really passionate people I met.”
Glimcher, who will be replaced as MHSAA executive director by Chad Falk, said he’s retiring while he has his health (he battles with Crohn’s disease) and to travel. In fact, he’s heading overseas in September.
He’s taking some time off, but Glimcher isn’t done with Manitoba high school sport.
“I’ve given my life to it so I’m not going to walk away totally,” Glimcher said. “I’ll help out for sure. Not 10 hours a day, but I’ll still stay involved and be a resource if they want me.”
Glimcher “one of my best friends” says Wedlake
Bill Wedlake remembers his first meeting with Morris Glimcher like it was yesterday.
“It was 1969, my first year of teaching at St. John’s High School,” said Wedlake, who would go on to be athletic director at the University of Winnipeg.
“I was conducting practices for the varsity boys basketball team and this kid was sitting there every day waiting for his friend. Eventually he got on my nerves, so I asked him ‘Do you want to be a manager?’
“That was the start. I’ve apologized for that many times.”
Of course, Wedlake is just kidding about apologizing. Wedlake, 70, a teacher and coach at St. John’s for 16 years, was the one who referred Glimcher to the U of M’s Junior Bisons basketball team, which led
Glimcher to the executive director position at the MHSAA.
Also, Wedlake told The Times he considers Mo “one of my best friends.”
Wedlake said he’s very proud of what his friend has contributed to high school sport in Manitoba.
“I think the major thing he accomplished as the executive director is he brought all of the different factions associated with high school sport to the table,” said Wedlake, who currently serves at the executive director of the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference.
“He brought in the superintendents, he brought in school trustees, he brought in principals, he had teachers, he had coaches, and he brought them all to the table. They were all working together to try and make the product better and in many situations that wouldn’t have happened. It didn’t happen before him.”
Wedlake also admires Glimcher’s commitment to the province as a whole.
“He’s done a great job bringing the rural schools in so they don’t feel they’re left out,” Wedlake said. “In some sports they consider themselves as suffering from what is called ‘Perimeter-itis’, but he has them all at the table.”
A lifelong sport supporter himself, Wedlake said he respects Glimcher’s stick-to-itiveness, as well the poise he displayed in his position.
“In his second year (at St. John’s) we had to have a conversation about him maybe overstepping his bounds,” said Wedlake with a laugh. “He became quite a well-known figure at St. John’s because a lot of teachers took offence to some of the things he said and did and the fact he’d walk into the staff room as if he was a teacher. He was taking over the joint.
“Moving on to the MHSAA, most people were saying ‘Who is this guy?’ and now 40 years later they’re glad he stayed.”
