There were very few things that longtime statistician Jim Morrissey held closer to his heart than Mount Carmel sports.
I was fortunate to know about two of them.
One was his wife, Carol. He absolutely adored her, and she supported him in every way, shape and form.
I know this because I saw them together many times, and shared many conversations over the years at one of our favorite local establishments.
You could just feel the love.
The other was his grandson, Keegan. If you think Jim was good with numbers regarding football or basketball statistics, he was always ready for me with how many days until the due date for his son Jay and daughter-in-law Katie’s baby.
Keegan was born on Aug. 10, 2021. Jim and Carol showed me many pictures.
“He never called Keegan by his name,” Jay said. “He was just known as his ‘Little Man.’ That’s what he’d call him. Whenever he’d come over, it was something special.
“I had so many people the past couple of weeks tell me how they’d see him and he’d talk about and show them pictures of his grandson doing this or doing that. Most of his conversations he had with people over the last year was about him.”
Morrissey, 64, died on Aug. 21. Needless to say, the world lost a wonderful husband, a great dad and a doting grandfather.
The Mount Carmel community, meanwhile, has lost one of its most loyal, dependable, ardent benefactors.
Morrissey, a 1975 graduate, was a volunteer statistician for the school since 1986. For several years, he kept stats for the JV teams in football and basketball and was a spotter for head statistician Frank Kiszka at the varsity level.
Former Mount Carmel coach Frank Lenti said Kiszka and Morrissey were the perfect sideline duo.
“I think there was a lot of well-earned adoration there,” Lenti said. “It’s funny. When Jim first started out, because he was young, Frank would ride him like Secretariat. ‘I want you to do this and I want you to do that. This is how we do it.’
“Jim was a willing participant. He loved it.”
When Kiszka died in 2005, Morrissey took over as the head statistician and keeper of the incredibly informative Mount Carmel football media guide.
He also inherited the towel.
“After Frank passed away, we were going through stuff in his desk and cleaning it out,” Lenti said. “Jimmy just kind of picked up the towel. When there was cold weather, he always had the towel wrapped around his neck, underneath his Mount Carmel football coaching jacket, just like Frank did.”
Becoming another Kiszka was impossible. Frank was positively, absolutely one of a kind.
But I’ll tell you what. Jim Morrissey did his job masterfully. He left a positive impression on everyone who knew him. He was a Mount Carmel man through and through.
Caravan athletic director Dan LaCount called him “an OG,” an original in his own right.
“Jim was incredible in his dedication to the school,” LaCount said. “He was one of those guys who just cared for the kids and cared for the coaches. And he had his own way of doing things.
“He kept all of our records on the sideline with his pen and pencil. He wasn’t digital. He was the first guy here on Saturday morning, opening the doors and putting a pot of coffee on for the coaches. Then he’d sit and do his stats. He’d close up the coaches office after the guys left.”
Mount Carmel gave Morrissey a nice scoreboard salute before last Friday’s game against St. Rita. Jay Morrissey, who was with his dad on the sidelines for many games over the years, was there. He plans to remain at Mount Carmel as a volunteer helper on the sidelines.
The apple didn’t fall far from this tree.
