Chris Morrison was named Hope International University Athletic Director in 2024.
Morrison's career as an educator and coach began at Bishop Amat High School where he taught Economics while serving as the head women's basketball coach. He then moved to St. Anthony High School where he taught a range of subjects including Study Skills, Health, PE, and Algebra while chairing the Physical Education Department. Later he broke into college basketball coaching as he served as an Assistant Men's Basketball Coach at Cerritos College and Cal State Los Angeles.
His career then turned toward administration when he joined Warren High School as their Varsity Basketball Coach. Morrison then served as the Athletic Director at St. Pius X - St. Matthias Academy before going on to be the Athletic Director at St. Anthony High School. During his time at St. Pius Morrison led the creation of a new football team and turned a poor-performing athletic department into a legitimate challenger in several sports. Morrison also managed the development of multi-million dollar sports complexes to help build the community and provide students with state of the art resources to excel in sports and academics. While at St. Anthony High School the Saints reached the CIF title game in football in 2021, the softball program made school history with a CIF State SoCal Regional Championship and the boys basketball team continued to be one of the top programs in Long Beach. He then continued that work during his next job as Athletic Director at Verbum Dei Jesuit High School.
As an accomplished athlete Morrison's career also took him overseas to play professional basketball in Australia and Finland. He played four years for the Sun Coast Clippers in Australia leading them to a championship in 1997 while being the only player to average a triple double in the league's history. He then went on to play four years for Hi Tech Finland and Joensee Kataja Basket where he was named the league's Player of the Year three times and was selected to the all-star team three times. He also earned All-Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference honors at Western Washington in 1995 after leading the team in scoring and he was a first-team All-CIF guard at St. Anthony's, where he was also named to the All-Los Angeles Times team and to the Long Beach Press Telegram's Dream Team.
Morrison becomes the eighth full time Athletic Director in Hope International University's athletic history. Morrison earned a Bachelor of Arts in Management of Sports Programs at Western Washington University and would later go on to receive a Master's of Education from National University.
As for the new job Morrison says, "I am excited to lead the Royals team and I look forward to building on the legacy and success that now retired Athletic Director John Turek started over a decade ago."
Morrison lives in Long Beach with his wife Maria and they have a daughter, Mia and a son, Christopher Jr.
