Kenny Morgan was a 1937 graduate of Emma Sansom High School in Gadsden, Alabama. He received his degree from Howard College and stayed in the Birmingham area until his death in 1964.
At Howard (now Samford), Morgan was named All-Dixie as a halfback in 1939 and was a team captain in three sports. He played football, baseball and basketball in high school and college.
Morgan got his first experience as a head football coach at Emma Sansom for the 1944 season. His team finished with a 8-1 record before he moved to Woodlawn the next year.
He served as the head football coach at Woodlawn from 1945-59, winning four city championships (1954, 1955, 1956 and 1958) and two State Championships (1955 and 1956). Morgan also coached three state baseball championship teams (1947, 1956 and 1959).
Morgans Colonels had a 27 game winning streak in the mid-1950s and made nine appearances in the Crippled Childrens Clinic game.
Morgan coached some of Birminghams greatest athletes ever, including Larry Daniel, Doyle Alexander, Vince Gibson and Tommy Lorino. He was a mentor to a young Bobby Bowden, the legendary coach of the Florida State Seminoles.
Morgan stepped down as the head football coahc at Woodlawn following the 1959 school year. He became athletic director of the Birmingham city schools later that summer where he served for five years.
Kenny Morgan was inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1996. His former players have an annual golf tournament in his honor with proceeds going to a scholarship each year at Samford University.
His career record was 82-58-6 in fifteen seasons as a head football coach in Alabama. He also served as the head coach for the North squad in the 1956 Alabama All-Star game in Tuscaloosa.
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