He played for a coaching legend, put together a legendary coaching staff and created his own coaching legend and look.
Morris “Mo” Tipton died Monday in Georgetown, S.C., at the age of 75 after a short illness.
Phil Tipton, 62, who lives in Akron and was a coach at Cloverleaf, Leavittsburg LaBrae, Norwayne and an assistant for his brother at Archbishop Hoban, said his brother had football in the proper perspective.
“He told me when I was a young coach that it was better if you played great and lost the game than if you played bad and won the game,” Phil Tipton said. “He was a great person and he would listen to people and listen to his kids.
“He loved his coaches and his kids and they knew it. He was a real person. Anyone who knew him recognized one thing he always said and felt — ‘No pity parties.’ ”
Former University of Illinois and University of Florida coach Ron Zook said he owes his coaching career to Morris Tipton.
“I would do anything for him. I just talked to him six weeks ago and he sounded great,” Zook said. “He was a great guy who you thought would be around forever. I watched the way he treated people and that stuck with me. For him, it was about the kids and people.”
Zook was on Tipton’s staff when Orrville was undefeated for two years.
“He told me I would not be a good coach until I lost; that you learned adversity,” Zook said.
Orrville was Zook’s first coaching job, and he quickly learned a lesson in being prompt.
“I was just finishing up my degree at college and drove all night. I got to practice a few minutes late and he threw me a whistle and clipboard and said, ‘You’re late.’ I was thinking, ‘Do you know what I did to get here?’ Years later we laughed about it,” Zook said. “He taught me work ethic and how hard you have to work to be a good coach.”
That lesson translated to many of Tipton’s other assistants who went on to great success, including Thom McDaniels (Canton McKinley, Warren Harding and Jackson), Bob Packard (Baldwin-Wallace College), Bob Hallet (Heidelberg), Keith Wakefield (Perry, St. Vincent-St. Mary), Bob Ramsay and the man who suceeded him, Bill McMillan (131-73 from 1988-2005), who won the only state football title in Wayne County history in 1998.
Tipton was an all-conference two-way lineman at Ellet and was a first-team All-Metro League and all-district honoree for coach Joe Burks. He was a lineman at the University of Cincinnati, where he was a three-year starter for Sid Gillman, a future NFL hall of famer. Gillman went on to coach the San Diego Chargers and Houston Oilers.
Tipton’s coaching career began as an assistant for Bill Shunkwiler at Orrville. He took over the program in 1965 and stayed through 1987. He only had two losing seasons at Orrville and compiled a record of 168 wins, 69 losses and six ties. He was Ohio Coach of the Year in 1980 and 1984.
The Red Riders had many great years, winning 13 league titles, making six playoff appearances starting in 1980 and losing in both the 1983 and ’85 state championship games.
Tipton coached 31 All-Ohio honorees, including sons Scott, Eric and Clay and Mark Griggs, Tom Bolyard and James Bradley.
Besides being a physically big and vocal coach, one of his distinguished characteristics was wearing a big cowboy hat as he roamed the sidelines at Orrville.
“As I recall, that began when the Red Riders played Wooster and later it became a regular thing,” Phil Tipton said.
In addition to his impressive resume at Orrville, Tipton moved on to coach two seasons at Hoban and three at Coventry, where he coached former Kent State and current Pittsburgh Steelers defensive stalwart James Harrison.
His overall record was 203-84-6. Tipton also started the wrestling program at Orrville, where he racked up an impressive record of 44-4 in four years.
Tipton is in four halls of fame: the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, in which he was inducted in 2010; the Wayne County Sports Hall of Fame (1986), the Orrville Hall of Fame (1997) and the Ellet Hall of Fame (2008).
Tipton is survived by his wife of 53 years, the former Suzanne Huff, three brothers and two sisters, five children, 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Orrville Christian Church.
The family has requested contributions be made to the Orrville Athletic Booster Club, P.O. Box 341, Orrville, 44667.
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