Ian "Scotty" Morrison (born April 22, 1930) is a Canadian former

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

referee and vice-president, and the former president and chairman of the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

. Morrison played junior hockey in Quebec and then became a referee, working in junior and senior amateur leagues. He moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

to work in the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...

, and from there was hired by the NHL at the age of 24, at that time the youngest referee in league history. Morrison left the NHL in 1955 and became referee-in-chief of the Western Hockey League, while also working games as a referee. He also worked in sales, and in that job was transferred to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1964. In June 1965, Morrison returned to the NHL as referee-in-chief. His title became vice-president of officiating in 1981. In 1986, Morrison became the NHL's vice-president of project development, assigned to the Hockey Hall of Fame where he was made president. He served in that role until 1991 when he became chairman of the Hall, while his NHL vice-president title was dropped in 1992. Morrison led the Hall of Fame through its relocation from the grounds of

Exhibition Place Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments ...

to its present site in downtown Toronto, and retired in 1998. Morrison was inducted into the

in the builders' category in 1999. He received the

Wayne Gretzky International Award The Wayne Gretzky International Award is a lifetime achievement award given by the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. It was established in 1999, to honor international individuals who have made major contributions to the growth and advancement o ...

in 2001. He became a

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

trustee in 2002.

Personal

Morrison's son, Perry, was one of 84 workers to die aboard the oil-drilling rig

Ocean Ranger ''Ocean Ranger'' was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil o ...

when it sank with no survivors off the coast of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

in 1982. Morrison is well known in Haliburton, Ontario for his community service. He chaired an annual hockey tournament for many years called the Scotty Morrison Charity Hockey Tournament, which raised over $700,000 for Community Care Haliburton County. In 2016, he was awarded a Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers at the Pinestone by the local Haliburton community.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Scotty 1930 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Canadian ice hockey officials Canadian people of Scottish descent Hockey Hall of Fame employees Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Montreal National Hockey League executives National Hockey League officials