EDMONTON – The work begins now for new Elks President and CEO Chris Morris.
A former offensive lineman by trade, Morris understands better than most how a group of people can work together to achieve something special. He’s helped protect Edmonton legends such as Ricky Ray and Damon Allen, but now it’s his turn to ‘quarterback’ the Double E franchise.
“If I could think of one job in the world that I would covet more than anything else, it would be to come here right now at this time when this organization is in need and in some possible way be able to help,” Morris said in his introductory press conference on Thursday. “I am humbled beyond belief to be here, I am excited to be here, and I’m really ready to get to work for this thing.”
The now 56-year-old cut his teeth with the Edmonton franchise for 14 seasons, winning three Grey Cup championships in the process. Now at the executive level, his primary goal is to add a few more rings to the collection.
“When you talk about what we’re going to do going forward, I think you have got to start talking about what you’re going to build,” Morris said. “The first thing we need to build here is a championship level football team.”
Chris Morris (#60) hoists the Grey Cup with teammates AJ Gass (#77) and Jason Maas (#12)
Morris is attuned to the high-level of professionalism and work ethic that the organization was renowned for during his tenure as a player. The Scarborough, Ontario never missed the playoffs with the Green and Gold and it’s a standard he’s aiming to set as the leader of the organization. Morris comes with a pedigree, having already demonstrated his ability to reform a program as the leader of the University of Golden Bears football program over the last 12 years.
Morris took over a winless Bears team and slowly rebuilt the organization on and off the field, including building a camp system that generated roughly $30,000 a year when he took over, to over $860,000 when he departed. By all important metrics, Morris believes he left the University of Alberta better than what he found it.
“We had a 97 per cent graduation rate, roughly half our team was Academic All-Canadians, and we were in the top 10 (in U-Sports),” Morris said about his successes at the University level. “We had a million things going from a cultural standpoint with our kids that made them connect to something special. We were one of the best teams in the country as well.”
The Elks President now has a similar task ahead of him. The Green and Gold have matched their longest post-season drought in franchise history with four consecutive seasons of missing out on November football — matching the 1962 to 1965 Double E squads. Those 60s squads were turned around and built into a Canadian Football juggernaut when they brought in a former junior football coordinator in Norm Kimball. The future Canadian Football League Hall of Famer brought stability back to a franchise that sorely needed it, and it is Morris’s turn to do the same.
“As an organization, we will know what our jobs are and we will value each other,” Morris said. “This will not be a culture of disposable people where people come and go on a regular basis. We will build continuity here. We need to reconnect with our fan base.”
Back with the EE.
3 x Grey Cup champion Chris Morris named Elks President & CEO
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— Edmonton Elks (@GoElks) October 30, 2024
THE NEXT STEPS
One of the major priorities for Morris is to find the person who will lead the Green and Gold’s football operations.
“The first piece of work we have here is to get our football operations team in place,” Morris said. “Geroy (Simon) and Jarious (Jackson), they’ve done a wonderful job resurrecting what was an awful season to start the year. They will be strongly considered moving forward. However, we owe this city and we owe everyone associated with Elks football to find the best football mind to take over our franchise. This might be Geroy, but we are going to look and we are going to have an intensive search to make sure we identify and find the person that’s right for us.”
“The number one thing we’re going to base that decision on is the core values I just talked to you about. We are going to do it right. We are going to bring consistency back to here.”
Simon and Jackson helped right the ship of an organization that began the season winless and drifting in a sea of playoff irrelevancy. The Elks finished the season with the league’s best offence under Jackson’s guidance and finished the year with a 7-4 record over their final 11 games.
Interim General Manager Geroy Simon celebrates after the Elks record their first win under his tenure
The pair will be given every opportunity to prove they can be a part of Morris’s cultural overhaul, but the EE President is set to turn over every stone to make sure his first stamp on the franchise is a lasting one.
“We have some limitations around who we can talk to until the Grey Cup takes place, by the time the Grey Cup takes place on the 17th, there might only be one or two people left that we want to talk to,” Morris said. “The 24th is the deadline that I’m setting for myself to have a general manager in place for this team.”
“Once we have a general manager, that person will be very much in charge of finding our staff. The only limitation will be that we will build our staff on the same core values.”