CSUN’s Morris, Anguished Over Brother’s Death, Cleared to Play

The past three weeks have been numbing, agonizing and worrisome for Cal State Northridge basketball guard James Morris.

After learning of the death of his brother Ernest, 19, in mid-January, Morris suffered health problems of his own.

Morris, who still does not know the cause of his brother’s death, experienced chest pains and a high temperature while warming up for a game Jan. 27 against host Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His condition, an inflammation of the sac around the heart, had sidelined him for nine days, but Wednesday he was cleared to play Saturday at Cal State Sacramento.

Coach Pete Cassidy believes that Morris’ condition partially might have been induced by stress over his brother’s death. Morris does not believe there is a correlation.

Five days after returning from a trip to Louisiana to comfort his family, Morris was rushed to the emergency room at Sinai Samaritan Medical Center in Milwaukee.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Morris said. “I would never think some thing could be wrong with me. I always pride myself on being in good condition.”

Still, Morris could not help but think of his brother, Ernest (Sam) Morris, the second half of “the Bowlick Brothers.”

“That was the name they called us because I would bowl people over and he’d come in and get his licks in,” Morris said, recalling the days the brothers spent tussling on a playground in Tallulah, La.

The brothers spent their summers together in Tallulah. The sons of different fathers, they were raised by their mother, Essie Morris, in New Orleans and their maternal grandmother, Ophelia Madison, in Tallulah.

Two years ago, Ernest moved to Minneapolis to live with his father and lost contact with Morris.

“I had been trying to figure out where he was,” Morris said. “I called his number and they said he left. I couldn’t get his new number and no one in my family knew where he was.”

When Morris learned of his brother’s death, he initially considered quitting school and returning to Louisiana.

The night before his journey home, he scored 16 points in 14 minutes in an upset of Montana State. “During the game, my mind wandered,” Morris said. “Maybe I could have kept in touch, talked (Ernest) into moving back home. The circumstances could have been different.

“It’s hard when you haven’t seen him in a long time and you find out something happened to him and you have no answers. There’s so much mystery surrounding it. At first, they said it was (a drug) overdose.”

But Morris didn’t believe it.

“He didn’t drink or use drugs,” Morris said. “He was never in trouble.”

Then, Morris was told by his sister that his brother had been poisoned.

However, he still is waiting for concrete answers--where, how and why his brother died. He doesn’t even know the date of his brother’s death.

“I definitely felt helpless and actually very angry,” Morris said. “There’s no way you can have a situation like that and no one knows anything.”

Compounding matters is his mother’s battle with cancer.

“To see a lady who used to be 180 pounds drop to 110 and then have this happen to my brother, there is so much pain involved,” Morris said.

Publicly, Morris has veiled his feelings, with one small exception.

When Morris played basketball in the Navy, Ernest wanted him to write his nickname “Sam” on his shoes.

At the time, Morris didn’t like the idea. Now he figures it is an appropriate tribute.

“He’ll always be a part of me,” Morris said.