Out and About Kentucky Style: ‘Hillbilly’ Jim Morris

There might not be another man in America more focused and disciplined than Jim Morris. Let me explain.

Gary West is an author and News Journal columnist.

The name may not immediately resonate with you, but for those who followed high school basketball back in the late 60s and early 70s, Jim Morris was a 6-5 prolific record setting scorer for Bowling Green High School. Sports came easy for Jim, particularly basketball. However, his life away from the sport was a far different story.

With a single parent, raising two rambunctious boys, Jim Morris even at an early age, found a way to zero in on the positives in his life… and it was basketball.

Jim’s mom, Opal was on her own. Life was anything but easy for her. She had married in March 1953, but the union lasted only five months.

Born in Scottsville, later moving to Glasgow, Jim’s mother was always searching to better her life and that of her two boys, Jim and Dwight.

In 1968, the Morris family moved to Bowling Green. Jim was 15-years-old, and in the eighth grade.

“I saw my dad twice in my life,” Jim would later say.

Opal found comfort and support in her church and her music, and made an effort to expose her two boys to both.

By eight-years-old Jim had learned to play a guitar, and instead of buying Jim a bicycle when he was ten, Opal bought him his own guitar.

“I think she paid $50 for it,” Jim recalled. “It was a stretch for her, but it was so important for me to always have music in my life. She made payments on it and later we traded it in on a Fender. It cost $126 and I still have it.”

Later when he was 18 and out of high school he bought himself a bicycle.

Jim’s mother, in Bowling Green, began playing guitar for Otis Blanton and the Blue Star Ranger Band, a local group in high demand throughout South Central Kentucky.

Jim had seen what playing basketball could do to elevate a young boy’s status when he lived in Scottsville where Jim McDaniels became a star.

“In Bowling Green it gave me an identity,” he said. “People began to admire me, and I learned early I could out talk the bullies in my neighborhood.

“When I did anything – basketball or music – I had to be good at it. I became driven. Much of it came from being told I could never do anything because of our economic situation. I knew I was going to have to do it on my own because I had no father, older brothers or uncles to help me.”

For Jim Morris driven might be an understatement.

“Coach Don Webb at Bowling Green High understood my home situation,” Jim said. “When you have nothing in life and all you have to hang onto is basketball, that’s what I was hanging onto. One time Coach took me to Sears and bought me some clothes, shoes and overcoat for winter. I was growing so fast I didn’t have much. He even got me in the Lions Club eyeglass program for some new glasses.”

Jim had a record setting performance in the opening game of his senior year. Scoring 41 points and grabbing 19 rebounds, Bowling Green was headed to a 23-3 season record going into tournament play. As successful as his team was they could not shake away from nemesis, Franklin-Simpson, who they lost to in the finals of the District and again in the finals of the Regional.

Morris had numerous college offers, and did, in fact play at several of them before unexpectedly, in a crazy sort of way, while working out in a local gym was approached about taking a chance at professional wrestling.

Now at 6-7 and weighing close to 280 pounds, a former wrestler told him he could made some connections for him.

No one ever opened the door for him. He opened it himself. Anything he got, he earned.

Fast forward a few years and Jim Morris, through gut wrenching determination, became one of the most recognized names in the professional wrestling world… Hillbilly Jim.

Everybody knows Hillbilly Jim. It hadn’t been easy, but like basketball, he became focused. Driven would be a better word. To get to the Hillbilly Jim theme, he first went by several names, Big Jim and Harley Davidson among them. Injuries, lots of them, would have sent most to think about finding another profession. He became a WWE superstar, wrestling in Wrestlemanias and anything else he could do to enhance his image and outgoing personality in and out of the ring.

Hulk Hogan even credits Jim with exposing him to the needed theatrics in the middle of the ring so that everyone in the arena could see them.  “I learned from him,” Hogan said.

From an early age Jim could work a crowd.  As a 10-year-old he was often called on to testify at tent revivals in Scottsville.  Some even called him the little Preach-er.  “I remember the excitement I got from the crowd’s reaction.”

Being inducted into wrestling Hall of Fames throughout America has been icing on the cake for his career.  But, pause here to know that as good financially as pro wrestling was, it is not what defines him today.

“I knew wrestling wouldn’t be an end-all for me,” says Jim.  “It was only for a short time and I made the most of it.”

Jim had put his first love, music, on the shelf for a short time, concentrating on basketball and then weightlifting at a championship level.  Even while wrestling he stayed involved with his guitar enough to be a part of a wrestling record album.

The day finally came when Jim walked away from the WWE.

Music was back.  A sidebar is his association with Sirius radio and his Moon-shine Matinee two days on weekends.

Make no mistake, Hillbilly Jim was smart enough to prepare for life after wrestling.  Not falling in line with some of his wrestling friends, Jim had saved his money.  Not throwing it away on drugs, women, or cars, he could live anywhere he pleas-es, but chooses Bowling Green to make his home.

It’s here that Jim has decided to do something about his health.  To overcome several serious health issues he is using the same dogged determination to cre-ate a daily workout you may not believe.  And it’s not what you might think.

“I’m just trying to save my life,” Jim says.  “My goal with this program is live and feel well.

“In 2023, I did my program 365 days . . . did not take one day off.”

Jim totaled 2,400 hours.  Here is the breakdown of what he is now doing.

Therapy:  Two hours daily (730 hours).  Includes ice applications; pulse magnetic mat 30 minutes a day; massages with a thera-gun.  “This is intense for my shoul-der”; Circadian rhythm light bar, “The light resets my sleep pattern;” massage chair.

Cardio:  One hour daily walking, jogging or trotting, “No running.”

Workout:  Resistance training.  “Very little weights.  I don’t need weights like I once did”; stretching; flexibility and balance using a board.  (Total time therapy and cardio 855 hours)

Mind Workout:  Playing music and reading.  “Music is the only thing that affects every lobe of your brain.”  (two hours and 20-minutes a day total 815 hours).

“I work on all things that help me help myself,” says Jim, who at 71, recognizes the abuse his body has taken in an athletic career where the theme was “no pain, no gain.”

“I change it up when I need to.  You can’t do the same exercise program all your life.  If it hurts I back off.”

Jim Morris has reached a point that he has the time and financial resources to devote this much time to something so important . . . his life.  In no way is he bragging about such a focused, disciplined personal life saving ritual.

“If one person can pull one thing from this it will be worth sharing,” he concludes.  “It might save a life.”

There’s no excuse, get up, get out and get going!  Gary P. West can be reached at westgarypdeb@gmail.com.