{{Short description|American journalist (1889–1953)}} {{Infobox writer | name = Morgan Blake | image = | imagesize = | caption = | alttext = | birth_name = William Morgan Blake | birth_date = {{birth-date|February 1889}} | birth_place = Fayetteville, Tennessee, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=y|1953|7|26|1889|2}} | death_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | occupation = Sportswriter | alma_mater = Vanderbilt University | spouse = | children = }} '''William Morgan Blake''' (February, 1889 – July 26, 1953) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter in the South who in his 24 years on the job covered seven Rose Bowl games. He also taught the south's largest Sunday School class.<ref name=blake>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19510729&id=Mvs-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=TU0MAAAAIBAJ&pg=6469,2193207|work=The Tuscaloosa News|date=July 29, 1951|title=Morgan Blake, Columnist, Sports Writer To Retire}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19530728&id=xXYcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zmQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6482,4109968|title=Funeral Rites For Religious Writer Today|date=July 28, 1953|work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune}}</ref>
==Early years== A law graduate and member of Phi Kappa Psi from Vanderbilt University in 1911, he began newspaper work on the ''Nashville Tennessean''. He then switched to the ''Nashville Banner'' as a political writer, until eventually becoming a sports editor of the ''Atlanta Journal'' in 1916.<ref name=blake/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1pfjlqKhlMC&pg=PA202|title=Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1940s-1970s|author=Harold H. Martin|date=March 2011|page=202|isbn=9780820339061}}</ref> He was converted by Billy Sunday in 1922.<ref name="blake" />
==Sportswriter== Blake ranked Don Hutson led Alabama as the best football team he ever saw. He is one proposed originator of the "Golden Tornado" nickname for Georgia Tech.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=January 28, 2015|url=http://livinghistory.gatech.edu/new/traditions/tradition/tornado.html|title=Golden Tornadoes}}</ref> He is also one for the Georgia Bulldogs. He wrote a story about school nicknames for football teams and proposed: <blockquote>''The Georgia Bulldogs would sound good because there is a certain dignity about a bulldog, as well as ferocity.''<ref name=Blake>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgiadogs.com/ot/geo-traditions.html|title=Georgia Traditions from Georgiadogs.com|access-date=2007-03-29|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118124224/http://www.georgiadogs.com/ot/geo-traditions.html|archive-date=2013-01-18}}</ref></blockquote> Blake was known for his coverage of golfer Bobby Jones.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://research.library.gsu.edu/c.php?g=115699&p=753217|title=Personnel 1930-1939}}</ref> He retired in 1951.
==Agoga's Men's Bible Class== Teaching at the Agoga Men's Bible Class at the Baptist Tabernacle of Atlanta, his class frequently reached 2,000 and was rated as the largest in the south.<ref name=blake/> He also wrote religious news columns.
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|title=A Sports Editor Finds Christ|publisher=Hale Publishing Company|year=1952}}
==References== {{reflist}} {{Georgia Bulldogs football navbox}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Morgan}} Category:1889 births Category:1953 deaths Category:People from Fayetteville, Tennessee Category:Writers from Atlanta Category:Vanderbilt University Law School alumni Category:Sportswriters from Tennessee Category:20th-century American people