03/10/1950 – 25/05/2025
Distinguished Scholar, Mentor, Colleague, Friend and Pioneer in Sport and Exercise Psychology
The Australian, and international, sport and exercise psychology community is mourning the recent loss of one of our pioneering founders, Emeritus Professor Tony Morris.
The impact Tony had upon our global community has been beautifully recognised by so many recent tributes and obituaries from colleagues across the world (see below). However, his pivotal work in advancing sport and exercise psychology research, training and practice in Australia, including the establishment of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) College of Sport and Exercise Psychologists (CoSEP), is a significant part of his legacy for us all.
Tony played a central role in establishing the graduate education and training model in applied sport psychology that led directly to registration as psychologists in Australia. In September 1990, a session on the future of sport psychology in Australia was organised by the APS Sport Psychology Interest Group (AUSPIN) at the APS Annual Conference. A Steering Committee was established, led by Tony as Coordinator, and at its first meeting it agreed to establish the new national body within the APS, which supported and guided the development of a formal proposal to establish a Board of Sport Psychologists within the APS. This proposal was approved by the APS in May 1991, and formally established in November 1991. The first National Committee was led by Tony as the inaugural Chair (1991-1995), and through his leadership helped solidify the profession and played a major role in enhancing the professional and academic status of sport psychology. He was recognised for his incredible work for the APS and profession more broadly via the APS Award of Distinction in 2006.
Alongside the frameworks and curricula Tony assisted in developing for teaching sport psychology at undergraduate and postgraduate level, the professional master and doctoral degrees in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology he established at Victoria University was seen as world-leading for more than 25 years. These graduate programs received substantial scientific scrutiny into their structure of first training students as general psychologists, and then a close second, as practitioners with expertise in working in sport, exercise, and health settings. There have been three peer-reviewed journal articles and several book chapters published on the courses, the staff’s and students’ experiences, and the career paths of graduates years after their formal education. Tony’s work on these courses has left an indelible mark on how future sport and exercise psychologists are trained around the world.
Tony also managed to headhunt some of the best and brightest sport psychologists in the world and convince them to move ‘down under’. This not only had life changing impacts on the individuals themselves, but meant that our profession and training programs were led by those at the very forefront of the field. This has left a lasting legacy regarding the quality of research, training and applied practice that hundreds of students who trained under Tony and his colleagues’ mentorship and guidance over the past 35+ years across the country.
Tony will be remembered for his extensive knowledge, his wit, his humanity, and the passion and care that he so easily gave to others. His investment in mentoring students and early career professionals, role modelling collegiality and collaboration, and always being ready with a kind (and often funny) encouraging word or two will always be remembered by so many.
One of Tony’s most heartfelt, vulnerable, witty, human, compassionate, and internally contradictory contributions to our literature is his book chapter, Should I Consult a Psychologist? An Autobiographical Account of Physical Inactivity in an Exercise and Sport Psychologist (Morris, 2015). For those interested in an intimate personal account of Tony, written by Tony himself, we would recommend what should be required reading for any student or professional involved in applied exercise psychology. Here is a brief excerpt to close this tribute to a really big, and really good, guy in our field:
As a person who researches and writes about the importance of increasing physical activity among the whole population, and especially among those with chronic conditions, I live with this message and promulgate it every day. So, the question arises, why don’t I do sufficient physical activity myself? In this chapter, I do not answer this question. If I knew the answer, surely, I would be active and there would be no chapter to write. My aim here is to describe my life and medical history, current health status, and physical activity experience dispassionately to highlight the disjunction between knowledge and behavior in one person who might be considered to represent rather an extreme case of such a disconnection. I hope that reflecting on this single case might lead those interested in addressing the issue of physical inactivity to generate new hypotheses to examine in the broader sedentary population.
Vale Tony.
References
Bond, J., & Morris, T. (2018, October 24). History of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology in Australia. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.137
Morris, T. (2015). Should I Consult a Psychologist? An Autobiographical Account of Physical Inactivity in an Exercise and Sport Psychologist. In M. B. Andersen & S. J. Hanrahan (Eds.). Doing exercise psychology (pp. 47-58). Human Kinetics.
Morris, T. (1995). Sport psychology in Australia: A profession established. Australian Psychologist, 30(2), 128–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050069508258917
Other Tributes
https://issponline.org/obituary-tony-morris-3-10-1950-25-5-2025-2/
https://www.drdevroy.com/professor-tony-morris/