KNOXVILLE — Stanley and Rholedia Morgan of Memphis are the University of Tennessee’s Volunteers of the Year.
The award is UT-Knoxville’s highest honor and is given to those “who bear the torch of enlightenment and shadow themselves to give light to others.”
UT Chancellor Loren Crabtree and President John Petersen presented it Tuesday at the annual banquet of the Chancellor’s Associates, a university support group.
Crabtree said the Morgans were honored for their continuing support of the university and serving as co-chairs of the Black Millennium Focus Committee. The committee helps raise funds for African American scholarships at all of UT’s undergraduate campuses.
In May, the Morgans held the first celebrity golf tournament to benefit the Alex Haley Endowment, which provides undergraduate scholarships.
Stanley and Rholedia are both UT graduates, and he was a four-year letterman on the Vol football team in the 1970s. He still holds the Vol record for career all-purpose yards.
Following his career at Tennessee, Stanley was the first-round draft pick of the New England Patriots and played 13 seasons with the NFL team. After retiring from football in 1988, the Morgans moved to Rholedia’s hometown of Memphis.
They are active in the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church and numerous volunteer activities, such as Make A Wish, Jack and Jill of America and the Salvation Army.
Rholedia is deeply involved in Dress for Success, a non-profit organization that provides professional clothes and other support services to women first entering the job market.