Quick Facts
Biography
Shea Brian Morenz (born January 22, 1974) is a former American football and baseball player, and the current CEO at Stratfor Global Intelligence.
Longhorn career
Coming out of San Angelo Central High in 1992, Morenz was one of the top high school quarterbacks in the nation. However, he was never able to fulfill the expectations.
In 1992, he tore ligaments in his right ankle in a non-football relate injury. He was "messing around", carrying a friend down stairs, and fell down. He missed the rest of the season.
Morenz was the starting quarterback for Texas in 1993 and most of 1994. In 1993, as a redshirt freshman, Morenz led Texas to a 5-5-1 record and a 3rd-place finish in the Southwest Conference in what was seen as a rebuilding year.
Morenz entered the 1994 season as the starter of a nationally ranked team, and led the Longhorns to wins in each of the first three games, taking Texas as high as #15 in the rankings. But after Morenz was injured during a loss to Colorado, James Brown took over the quarterback duties for the Oklahoma game the following week and led the Longhorns to a come-from-behind win. Morenz reclaimed the starting position the next week against Rice. Playing in front of a national audience on ESPN due to the baseball strike, the Rice Owls upset Texas, ending a 28-game losing streak, the sixth longest single-opponent winning streak in college football history. Starting the next week, Morenz shared the starting duties with Brown. In the 4th quarter of the Texas A&M, which Texas lost, Morenz suffered a shoulder injury and left the game. Though he recovered from that injury before the end of the season, he never took a snap for Texas again and finished with a career record of 9-9-1. But that season, in part because of Morenz, Texas won a share of the Southwest Conference Championship and went to and won the Sun Bowl, their first bowl game victory since 1987.
While at Texas, he carried a 3.2 GPA, got a degree in Finance and was on the Academic All-Southwest Conference list in 1994.
Records
- UT – Victories by a freshman quarterback (5), tied Bobby Lane, surpassed by Major Applewhite in 1998
- UT – Passing yards by a freshman, game (347), surpassed by Applewhite in 1998
- UT – Passing yards by a freshman, season (2,341), surpassed by Applewhite in 1998
- UT – Touchdown passes by a freshman, season (13), surpassed by Applewhite in 1998
- UT – Attempts by a freshman, game (47)
- UT – Attempts, game (47), tied by Applewhite in 1997, surpassed by Chris Simms in 2002
- UT – Attempts by a freshman, season (335)
- UT – Completions, season (183), surpassed by James Brown in 1996
- UT – Fastest to 1,000 yards in a single season (5 games), tied Bret Stafford and Peter Gardere, surpassed by Brown in 1995
- UT – Most consecutive passes without an interception (72), surpassed by Brown in 1995
Bold means still active
Baseball
Morenz had more success playing baseball than football. He had first been drafted in 1992 in the 6th round by the Toronto Blue Jays but passed to play college football instead. He was First Team All Southwest Conference in both 1994 and 1995 and in 1994 made the All Southwest Conference Tournament Team. He led the team in hits, RBI, doubles and home runs in various years and he played outfield on the Longhorn's 1993 College World Series team, alongside Peter Gardere whom he had backed up on the football field that fall, that finished tied for 6th. In 1994, the team went to the regional championship and in 1995 to the Midwest II Regional.
Morenz left the University of Texas after being drafted by the New York Yankees in the first round (27th overall) of the Amateur Draft in 1995. He was considered to have high potential at the time.
Morenz played five years of professional baseball for seven different minor league teams. He made it as far as playing 13 games of Triple A in Las Vegas for the San Diego Padres organization in 1998, but never made it to the Majors. His baseball career ended after playing Double A ball in Mobile, Alabama for the Padres in 1999.
Records
- UT – Hit by pitch, career (20), tied Jeff Conway, tied by Wylie Campbell in 1996, surpassed by Jeff Ontiveros in 2002
Professional life
After baseball, Morenz got his MBA at Michigan and went into banking. He spent ten years at Goldman Sachs, becoming Managing Director in the Investment Management Division and Region Head for Private Wealth Management for the Southwest Region. He is currently President and CEO of Stratfor Global Intelligence.
Shea is a distant relative of hockey great Howie Morenz.