MURFREESBORO, N.C.—Franklin native Leslie Daniel “Danny” Morgan was among five inducted into the Jim Garrison Sports Hall of Fame at Chowan University on Nov. 6.

A former Chowan football and golf coach, Garrison — for whom the Hall of Fame is named — nominated Morgan.

“He could knock a ball out of sight,” the 77-year-old Garrison said Friday from his home in Wilmington, N.C.

The golf pro at Cypress Cove County Club in Franklin and the club’s seven-time men’s champion, Morgan is the third golfer in the history of the college to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“It was a complete surprise to me,” he said. “I’m very proud, very humbled and very honored all at the same time. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Other golfers in the Hall of Fame are Alec Phillips, who like Morgan graduated from Franklin High School, and Danny Rizzo. The trio belonged to the 1967 and 1968 golf teams, which made it to the Junior College National Championships both years.

Garrison, who was their coach at the two-year school, was pleased with Morgan’s induction.

“He was such a great athlete,” Garrison said. “He played on two great golf teams, who went onto the national championships in Miami and Roswell, N.M. He never met anybody he couldn’t befriend.”

As a sophomore, Morgan was the team’s top golfer, taking medals in the conference and district tournaments.

He began golfing 50 years ago at Cypress Cove. His radiologist father, who died in 1964, used to golf there.

“They were playing on a whole different level (than me), but as I got older, I played with him,” Morgan said.

From Chowan, he continued his education at Virginia Wesleyan College, where Morgan received a bachelor’s degree in history and political science.

After college, he was the purchasing manager for Amada Industries in Suffolk for 19 years. Morgan has been the pro at Cypress Cove for 14 years.

He also has been involved in several golf development leagues in Franklin, including the Junior Golf Program, YMCA Summer Golf Camp and Boys & Girls Club Summer Golf Camp. He works with Franklin and Southampton high schools and Southampton Academy.

Morgan met his wife, Sharon, in the bookstore at Chowan, where she was also a student.

“We dated for awhile at Chowan and met up again at Wesleyan,” Danny Morgan said. “She’s the love of my life and my best friend.”

Accompanying him to the Hall of Fame event were his wife of 39 years; brother, Tommy Morgan and his wife, Peggy; and neighbor, Pat Clark of Franklin.

Others inducted were football standout Stan Dixon, who played for two seasons during the mid-1970s; Alyson Barnes Faulconer, a volleyball player in the early 1980s who went on to East Carolina University and continued her playing career; Bobby Ray Smith, Chowan only men’s basketball player to play in the storied Big East Conference; and Martin Williams, who played football in the late 1980s and was an All-American defensive lineman in his sophomore season and the Conference Player of the Year.