By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
February is Black History Month and in celebration of the month, FightingIllini.com will be featuring a storytelling series of influential and impactful stories of African American student-athletes and coaches.
Tab Bennett: Trailblazer on Gridiron and Media
Tyra Perry: Big Ten's only African American Softball Head Coach
Believer: NFL Great Preston Pearson Starts with Humble Beginnings
Legacy: Jonelle Polk McCloud: Teaching Life Lessons Through Basketball
The Education of Morris Virgil
Govoner Vaughn: Illinois's Groundbreaking Star
Moe Gardner: Helping Scholars Study the African Diaspora
For fourteen years, only two classes stood between him and a cherished bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois.
It's oddly prophetic that one of those classes—Philosophy 102: Logic and Reasoning—aptly defines the challenging, yet inspiring life of 36-year-old Morris Jamal Virgil.
Last December, upon finishing two difficult online classes, the second recipient of the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Family Scholars Program degree completion scholarship officially became a college graduate. It's one of his greatest accomplishments.
"Going back to school was just something that I felt like I had to get done," Virgil said. "I've been through a lot in my life, so there were some things that I wanted to accomplish before my kids start getting older. I've got to do what I've got to do to reach my goals in life."
Admittedly, education has been demanding for Virgil from day one. The middle child of twelve was taken away from his mother at the age of five. Morris bounced from foster home to foster home and from school to school, attending four different middle schools in three years.
"I never got the base (education) when I was younger," he said, "so once I got to high school everything was extremely hard."
Born into a world of poverty and abuse in Chicago, Virgil finally got his life's big break in 1993. His case worker told him, "We found somebody that we think you're going to love," but the ten-year-old was understandably skeptical about the man who would eventually adopt him.
"My thought process was 'OK, here we go again,'" Virgil said. "I was thinking to myself, 'Another home?' But when I first met (Lloyd Winston of Urbana), he just treated me like I was everything. He was so giving. He made me feel like I had a father. That had always been a void in my life. I needed structure and I needed male bonding. Lloyd let me be a kid and showed me that I wasn't down and out, and that I had a lot of life to live."
Virgil was a gifted athlete and excelled at Urbana High School in his first five games as a freshman. Then came yet another roadblock: ineligibility due to poor grades.
"I had become the starting quarterback," Virgil said. "I had to prove to my coach that I would get good grades and not let my team down again. Finally, something clicked in my mind. If I'm going to do what I want to do, I've got to start focusing on my classes."
Virgil went on to set a plethora of records at Urbana in both football and track and field, earning consensus all-state honors. When he was recruited in 2001 by Illini head coach Ron Turner, Virgil's grades were in order but his test scores fell a bit short. There were no doubts about his athletic ability, but the question still remained: could he cut it academically at the University of Illinois? Thankfully, the UI freshman had UI academic advisor Kristin Kane on his side that first year.
"She was a big inspiration in making sure that we did what we were supposed to do," Virgil said. "I learned that going to class was half the battle. If you missed a class, you had two more hours tacked onto your study hall, so there was definitely an incentive to go to class. Kristin (now Associate Athletics Director for Academic Services and Student Development at Northwestern) always gave me the support that I needed and that was a key for me."
Morris Virgil scored a 69-yard touchdown in his 2002 collegiate debut against Arkansas State.
Virgil played running back during his first two seasons with the Illini, highlighted by a 131-yard rushing performance with three touchdowns against Arkansas State in his collegiate debut (2002).
He was moved to defense in 2004 and started 11 games at strong safety, ranking third on the team and twentieth among Big Ten players with 78 tackles. Virgil got five more starts his senior year.
After college, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Bears, then took his talents north of the border for three years with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
Virgil started his career as a fitness professional about 12 years ago and founded VFit Athlete in March of 2011. Today, his gym in Brownsburg, Indiana serves more than three hundred clients.
"My goal has been helping people to achieve a healthy lifestyle," he said. "I'm a people person and I connect well with them."
Morris and his wife, Jodi, have three children—sons Martez (9) and Marcus (6), and daughter Journey (1).
"I've told my sons that I made a lot of mistakes," Virgil said. "I'm not asking them to be perfect … just to do their best. I'm trying to instill some values into my boys that were instilled into me by Lloyd. There are a lot of things in life that a person has to manage."
With his sports management degree finally in hand, Virgil is now exploring a potential career as a high school football coach. He's positive that he can make a difference in young athletes' lives.
"For an athlete today—especially with all of the things they go through with social media—it's really hard to manage everything that has to get done. They need to know that they can make a difference in their communities."
For Morris Virgil, he'll never forget how the University of Illinois stood by him through good times and bad.
"I'm proud of what the University has helped me to become," he said. "It taught me how to be selfless, how to work hard, and it taught me perseverance. There was no such word as 'quit' at the University of Illinois. You worked your butt off, and when you got knocked down, you got right back up and went to work. I'll forever be grateful."
