Tales from Troy Morrell

Troy sent this:

Happy Labor day to all!

I will be at Rotary on Wed and am excited and looking forward to seeing everyone. I'm currently Laboring on our special teams today with my staff and making initial game plans to get our team ready for the Jayhawk Showcase vs Garden City.

It was a beautiful morning! Enjoy the rest of the day and I will see you Wed.

Troy Morrell

After Bernie noted:

I have not heard for sure but they were trying to get Troy Morrell for the program for the program this Wednesday. So--come and see if they were successful! Hope you can make it. Have a great Labor Day--I am --I am in Iowa with kids and grand kids.

Bernie Spradling



Have a great time Bernie! Troy always has a great tale of his award winning Butler Grizzlies. And I know he'll have the details for us on the athletes about this upcoming game:

Butler football game in Wichita on Sept. 12

Butler, Garden City to face off in Jayhawk Showcase at Cessna Stadium WICHITA, Kan. - After drawing nearly 13,000 fans to last year's Battle of the Champions game in Wichita in 2008, the Butler Grizzlies will once again play their home opener at Cessna Stadium, Butler athletic officials announced Monday. On Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 the back-to-back defending NJCAA champion and preseason No. 1 Grizzlies will face off against Jayhawk Conference rival Garden City, ranked No. 22 in the national preseason poll. Game time is 7 p.m. "We are very excited to be playing at Cessna Stadium again," Butler coach Troy Morrell (96-11 in nine seasons) said. "Last year was an awesome atmosphere and shows that the people in the Wichita area are hungry to see exciting, big-time college football action." The game is called the "Jayhawk Showcase." Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Blockbuster Video are the presenting sponsors. Other corporate sponsors include BG Products and Commerce Bank. Also that night, a pre-game tailgate party will be held in the area just south of Koch Arena. There will be activities for children, music and a hot dog feed. It is free for those with a game ticket. At halftime, the 1999 Butler football team will be inducted into the Grizzly Athletic Hall of Fame. That team, led by future NFL players Rudi Johnson and Shaun Smith, lost to Garden City in the regular season in overtime, but beat the Broncbusters in the championship game of the Jayhawk Conference playoffs before beating Dixie College (Utah) 49-35 in the Dixie Rotary Bowl in St. George, Utah to win their second-straight national title. James Shibest, the coach of that team who is now an assistant at the University of Mississippi, will be at the game, as will various members of the team. Butler and Garden are the last two teams to win outright Jayhawk Conference champions. The Grizzlies have won eight consecutive conference titles and 10 of the past 11, while Garden City was the Jayhawk champion in 2000 and 1997. Butler was 11-1 last year on its way to its sixth national championship. Garden City went 6-4 a year ago, playing two close games against Butler. The Grizzlies won 34-29 in Garden City in the regular season and then won 24-19 in the Region VI semifinals in El Dorado. Ticket prices are $8 for general admission and $15 for reserved seating. At the gate, general admission tickets are $10. Tickets are $5 for children under 12 and active military with proper identification. Butler students, faculty and staff are admitted free with a CURRENT (09-10) Butler ID.