Working as an assistant coach and automobile salesman after graduation in 1934 (with degrees in economics and sociology),[4] Morris began training as a decathlon athlete in hopes of competing in the 1936 Olympics.

[3] In the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in 1936, Morris scored a new world record of 7,880 points, earning him Newsweek's sobriquet "the nation's new Iron Man."

Morris' success at the 1936 Olympics resulted in a brief flurry of fame, including a New York City ticker-tape parade and a statewide Colorado celebration.

Reviews for the film cited both the silliness of the production and the exaggerated acting of the theatrically untrained Morris (though Variety called him "a highly acceptable Tarzan").

[citation needed] Morris played four games with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) in 1940 before injury curtailed this new career,[7][9] then worked as an insurance agent.

[11][12] At age 61 in 1974, Morris died of congestive heart failure "and other complications" at the veterans' hospital in Palo Alto, California,[13] and was buried in Skylawn Memorial Park in nearby San Mateo.