Local wide receiver Major Morgan shines for Hampden-Sydney football

By Ted Shockley

Major Morgan, the Accomack County native and former Broadwater Academy star, is having a standout senior season for the Hampden-Sydney College football team.

A senior captain who has been scouted by the Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks, Morgan through five games has 37 catches for 495 yards during what has been a difficult season so far for Hampton-Sydney. 

The Tigers are 1-4 with a homecoming matchup against visiting Bridgewater this weekend. 

As a junior, Morgan, who grew up near Onancock, caught 81 passes for 1,143 yards and 12 touchdowns, numbers that resonated around the state.

He was honored last year by the Touchdown Club of Richmond and named one of the state’s best football players. The club named him the state’s best receiver tight end at the small-college level.

Morgan has followed other Broadwater Academy receivers who have excelled at Hampden-Sydney, a Division III college — meaning it doesn’t offer athletic scholarships. 

Kyle Vance and Brian Rolander each were named first-team All-America receivers at the school. Being so honored is one of Morgan’s goals this year.

For an award-winning receiver, Morgan admits that he wasn’t a highly anticipated arrival on the Hampden-Sydney campus. “I showed up freshman year in camp and I was not the top recruit here by far,” he said.

He said he’d usually get one opportunity each practice to prove himself. 

“I kept getting one shot a day,” he said, “and I kept making it happen somehow.”

He ended up starting the last five games of his freshman year, hauling in 21 passes for 277 yards and three touchdowns. His breakout season happened as a sophomore, as he caught 56 passes for 778 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The son of Genevieve Walker and Durrett Morgan, both of the Eastern Shore, Morgan credits his football knowledge to longtime friend Mark Switzer and Noble Palmer, his high-school coach back at Broadwater.

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