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Texas Tech football QB Behren Morton carries name for two families
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- Texas Tech football QB Behren Morton carries name for two families
The nurse didn't want to mess up the first name, so she played it safe and called out the last.
Maybe she betrayed a hint of uncertainty a moment before when she'd checked the chart and seen the little boy's first name: Behren.
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"Everybody always wants to know why it's spelled that way, and a lot of people can't pronounce it," Suni Morton said recently, remembering the trip to the doctor's office. "It's really not that hard to pronounce, but it does throw people for a loop."
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Behren Morton grew up to be a starting quarterback for the Texas Tech football team , throwing for 8,852 yards and 71 touchdowns over the past five seasons. Behren Morton 's middle name is Bascom, a family name that's been passed down through generations. Suni and her husband, longtime area high-school coach James Morton, wanted another B to go with it.
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"We both kind of, I think, had the thought together like, 'Well, Jerry Behrens has been very instrumental in both of our lives," James Morton said, "and we could name him Behren."
He's in the homestretch of his college career now with Texas Tech getting ready to play Oregon in the Orange Bowl, a quarterfinal in the College Football Playoff bracket. Texas Tech's 12-win season, its Big 12 championship, the Orange Bowl and the CFP are program firsts.
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Meet Jerry Behrens, a former college football player and Behren Morton's namesake
Jerry Behrens would be tickled pink to see the Red Raiders ' quarterback carrying his name along the way. His family sure is.
"We are just beyond proud of Behren and all that he's accomplished and all that he's worked for," said Jara DuBose, Jerry's daughter. "He has put in so much time and effort to be where he is. I mean, it means the world to us.
"My dad adored him and his family and was just so honored to be in the position to be his godfather and his namesake. We'd give anything for him to still be here, to be a part of this."
Former coach Jerry Behrens is pictured at left with Behren Morton, who grew up to be a Texas Tech quarterback, and then-Monterey coach James Morton.
The former Jara Behrens played on Hall of Fame coach Joe Lombard's first Canyon High School state-tournament team in 1989. Now she works as a physical therapist.
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"When I go into homes and see Texas Tech decorations and that kind of thing, I'm like, 'Do you follow the football team?' " she said. "And then I go on to tell the story."
Jerry Behrens was a lineman from 1958-62 at the school in Canyon then known as West Texas State, now West Texas A&M. After college, he coached at Amarillo's Crockett Junior High and Tascosa High School, then at Odessa Permian from 1964-71 and back at West Texas State from 1971-77. After coaching, he became a regional sales representative for Herff Jones, a company that specializes in class rings, graduation paraphernalia and awards.
The WT Hall of Champions inductee never lost his love for sports, for other coaches and for his alma mater. He had a lot in common with James Morton, another West Texas State player who went into coaching.
Jerry Behrens is shown during his days as a lineman at West Texas State. He played for the Buffaloes from 1958-62.
Jerry Behrens helped James Morton through personal tragedy and coaching career
James Morton's first wife, Megan, died unexpectedly in November 1991. A pathologist, though not certain, believed her death was related to a heart-valve condition. She was 27. All of a sudden, James Morton was a single father with a broken heart, 1-year-old daughter McKayla and the time demands of his coaching job in Friona.
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"Obviously, it was really tough," he said. "It was totally unexpected and kind of blindsided you. Friona was just such an awesome community. I think what really helped me a lot was McKayla, because it was like what you teach kids in athletics — all that stuff about tough times are going to hit and how you respond to them, and a lot of those kinds of lessons. It was like, 'Big boy, it's time for you to walk the talk and live the lesson.' "
Of the many people who helped Morton through the emotional fog, Jerry Behrens did so from a mentoring side.
"He was there for me during some tough times when I was in Friona," James Morton said, "and was always there and kind of helped me early on as a coach. He was an old hard-nosed ball coach. He was an O-line guy, so he was just a guy I kind of gravitated to and always knew I could pick up some wisdom."
A lot of people gravitated to Behrens. Years before she knew James, Suni did, too. She was a WT student and a bank teller then, working the commercial drive-through line. Jerry Behrens and his wife, Delores, came through frequently. Shortly after Megan Morton passed away, the Behrens shared their despair with Suni. She expressed sympathy, but, then, she hadn't actually known the Mortons.
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A few years later, she would. Frank Belcher, who had been her high-school basketball coach in Groom and was now principal at Friona, called her desperately needing someone at mid-year after a junior-high basketball coach had resigned. He called again at the end of the year.
"I said, 'I'm not interested in taking the job,' " she said, " 'but I will meet this guy that you want me to meet.' "
Move ahead to April 1, 1995, when James and Suni had their first date.
"Then we dropped McKayla off at Jerry Behrens' house," Suni said. "I said, 'Hey, I know these people. They're my friends.' I had made really good friends with Jara Behrens, the daughter. He said, 'Well, they're my friends, too.' "
Jerry Behrens
Jerry Behrens' job with Herff Jones took him all over the Golden Spread.
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"You could go anywhere in the Panhandle probably, and they would know who he was," DuBose said. "And he would remember them. He could remember people. He could remember kids. He could remember stats, games, and just really connect with everybody. So he kept that coaching-player mentality through his career with Herff Jones."
After Suni graduated college, she worked as an elementary school teacher in a tiny town up next to the Oklahoma border. When Herff Jones rounds took him to Follett, Behrens would drop into the classroom to catch up with the young woman he knew from the bank.
He wanted to know how Suni was doing. James Morton was interested, too.
"He was going up there to sell rings, so he would put in a good word for me also," Morton said. "I was calling to get scouting reports from him. He said, 'She'll be the best-dressed girl in Follett every day.'
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" 'Well,' " Morton said, deadpan, "'that's pretty high rankings, Jerry.' "
A traveling man who followed James Morton's teams everywhere
Suni Morton calls the story of the families' relationship and her son's first name "pretty surreal to me."
"The reason for (naming him) Behren was very strong," she said, "because there's just a strong tie to the Behrens, James being on the side of football — Jerry Behrens was his father (figure) coaching — and then just the strong relationship I developed at the bank with them.
"And I'm still very close to his daughter, and McKall, our middle daughter, is going to be in Jara's daughter's wedding pretty soon. So we've got a really big, strong tie to them."
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Jerry Behrens was 76 when he died in February 2016. Delores Behrens was 82 when she passed away in January 2020. Next July will be the Mortons' 30th wedding anniversary. After Friona, Morton coached at Monterey, Midland Lee and back in his hometown of Eastland, where Behren graduated. Morton retired from coaching in April 2023 with a record of 206-148-1 and 20 playoff appearances.
Jerry Behrens and his wife saw a whole bunch of those games. After the Mortons married, Behrens — with his love for football and his loyalty for people — followed James's teams all over. The white Chevy Tahoe would show up in the parking lot at whichever stadium on Friday night, and Jerry would work his way down to the sideline.
"They went to every football game that James was coaching in," Suni said, "up until almost the time that they passed. They really shouldn't even have been driving."
At least in a couple of households, then, there's a poignancy to this historic Texas Tech football season. No one would have loved being there to pull for Behren more than the Behrens. Jara DuBose will never forget when the Mortons told Jerry they wanted to name their son after him.
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"My dad was over the moon, ecstatic and honored," she said.
"I was thinking the other day — I tell this to Suni and James — I can't imagine the miles and the extremes they would go to if they were still around during this season of football with Behren. They'd get tickled: 'Oh, my goodness. I'm not sure we could handle them.' It's a really sweet story, really sweet."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football QB Behren Morton carries name for two families
