The blade of an ice hockey skate adds at least three inches of height. The team media guide usually adds another one or two. But when you stand 6 feet 6 inches tall barefoot you don’t really need any help promoting your size.
Welcome to the life of Boston University rookie Tom Morrow. Low doorways and compact cars need not apply.
‘He’s tall. He’s real tall,’ was all junior defenseman Bryan Miller could say when asked to describe the man who has become a fast favorite among the rowdy students in Section 8 after only three games at Walter Brown Arena. Just wait for the next quiet moment when No. 21 is on the ice. Listen closely, and you may hear a few voices yell simply, ‘Hey Morrow, you’re huge.’
Standing on the ice during a break between drills, one arm against the Walter Brown boards, the Afton, Minn.-native is an imposing figure, even at a media-guide-gifted, stand-on-the-scale-sopping-wet 210 lbs. His navy blue practice sweater is tucked into his scarlet pants, accentuating his skeleton-like figure that, from a distance, seems to take away some of the inherent intimidation that six and a half feet brings.
But don’t try to tell that to sophomore forward Brad Zancanaro, leaning against the glass to Morrow’s right. At (a generous) 5 foot 5, ‘Zanc,’ as his teammates call him, can do nothing but stare straight ahead. Right at Morrow’s waist.
‘It’s all in good fun,’ Morrow says of the ribbing he gets from his teammates about his size much of it from the diminutive Zancanaro. ‘Zanc gives everybody a hard time. Every once in a while they’ll give me a hard time. It’s been that way my whole life growing up it comes with the territory.’
That territory has changed for Morrow, who turned 20 one day after debuting his new home white jersey in a 5-2 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After a highly successful high school career, Morrow spent last season playing for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League.
After an all-star season in Iowa, he came to Boston with some big skates to fill, after the departure of defensemen Freddy Meyer, John Cronin and Mike Bussoli. And while the most obvious plan would have been to work the freshmen into the rotation smoothly, Parker said that he had faith that Morrow, along with the other two freshman defensemen, Kevin Schaeffer and Sean Sullivan, could step in and contribute right away.
It turned out to be something they have had to do in the season’s first month, after injuries to sophomores Jekabs Redlihs and Adam Dunlap have left Parker with only six healthy defensemen including the three rookies.
‘We think that these three guys are all very capable, and will not be like rookies out there. They’ve played a lot of hockey before they got here,’ Parker said before the season began. ‘There’s nothing like having experience on defense that would be nice but it’s also important to have talent, and these guys have skill.’
Miller was a little more blunt about his outlook for the fresh fish on the roster.
‘I expected a lot less from them right away,’ Miller said of the three first-year blueliners. ‘And they’re showing that they can play with this caliber of teams and succeed too.’
‘He’s holding his own just fine,’ Miller said of Morrow, who has been his steady defensive partner so far this season. ‘And he’s covering for me a lot, I’ll tell you that.’
Morrow, a 2003 NHL 5th round draftee of the Buffalo Sabres, has had his transition eased by an atmosphere surrounding the team that by all accounts is the most relaxed and tight-knit in recent memory.
‘You don’t get a ton of teams that you’ll play on in your life that are going to be this close,’ Morrow said. ‘Everyone jokes around, everyone has fun. It’s fun coming to the rink every day. It’s the best part of my day, hanging around with all the guys.’
The Terriers of 2002-2003 plagued all season by injuries, losses to weaker teams and outside distractions would not have participated in playful hockey-stick fencing matches in the middle of practice (like senior goalie Sean Fields and freshman forward Kenny Roche did last month) or celebrated goals in shooting drills with fist-pumps worthy of a two-minute minor for taunting (like junior defenseman Ryan Whitney has been seen doing on a regular basis). And they probably never turned the locker room into Walter Brown’s version of Lansdowne Street.
‘Morrow’s a pretty good dancer, he likes to dance a lot,’ Miller said, putting himself at risk for an ‘accidental’ elbow the next time he decides to skate past Morrow. ‘He puts on some pretty good shows in the locker room. People don’t know that side of him. It’s kind of funny watching a 6-foot-6 kid dance to rap music. He’s a pretty quiet kid around the rink, but off the ice, he’s the total opposite.
‘He’s actually kind of goofy,’ Miller added.
When he’s not doing his best Vanilla Ice-meets-Manute Bol impression, Morrow plays a little hockey on the side. And while his surprising size (his father is 6 foot 1 inch and his mother ‘significantly shorter than that,’ according to Tom’s father Brad) may be his most obvious trait, anyone who watches him play is more impressed by his speed. Watching the lanky Morrow skate laps at the end of practice is like watching Michael Jackson do his moonwalk it just looks too smooth to be possible.
After strong performances in his first two outings as a Terrier, Morrow had perhaps his best all-around game in BU’s Hockey East opener, a 6-4 win at Providence College on Oct. 24.
On one occasion, Morrow was taken out against the boards by a hit to the upper body. While a crosscheck to the chest of any average-sized player would look like nothing more than a little shove, Morrow’s high center of gravity caused him to take a spill. And when you fall from nearly seven feet off the ice, you get the attention of the official. The Friars were whistled for roughing on the play.
Morrow, who said he will spend a lot of time this season and even more in the offseason working with Strength and Conditioning Coach Walter Norton in an attempt to fill out his frame, said he is pleased with his time at BU so far, especially now that he has been able to contribute earlier and more often than may have been originally planned.
‘I didn’t know what to expect, so I’ve really enjoyed everything that’s been happening,’ Morrow said. ‘It’s better than what I could have expected and I had no idea coming into it what it was going to be like. I just love it so far, everything about it.’
Coming from Afton, a town just over half an hour west of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Morrow has hockey in his blood. That may explain a lack of desire to play basketball, a sport where his lanky frame may have been more naturally suited. And even though Afton is nearly 1,400 miles from Boston, there are a few Terrier-related memories floating through the small town in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Tom’s father Brad played hockey at the University of Minnesota in the mid-1970s. Brad Morrow’s Golden Gophers won the NCAA title in 1976, dropping the Terriers and second-year head coach Jack Parker by the score of 4-2 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Despite his allegiance to the Gophers (the Morrows are season ticket holders at Mariucci Arena), Brad says his son was never pressured to go to Minnesota or even stay close to home.
‘He wasn’t recruited that hard by anybody in state here, and BU was on the list of five or six schools that he was interested in,’ the elder Morrow said. ‘And it was one of the top ones he was interested in, so when they contacted him he became very interested.’
‘My dad was real happy that I wanted to come out here,’ Tom said. ‘He always thought that this was a really good program out here, but left the decision up to me. He hasn’t given me any grief about it at least not yet.’
Mr. Morrow confirmed that statement, but said he and his family will be waiting outside Mariucci in early January with a little more anticipation than usual when his son and the Terriers make their first road trip of 2004, to none other than the hockey capital of America.
And while Brad Morrow may have seemed taken aback by the thought of chiding his son for wearing colors other than maroon and gold, he may be hard-pressed to keep every sarcastic comment and subtle nudge locked away inside.
No self-respecting father would let that kind of chance to stick it to his son slip so easily through the cracks.