John Michael Morgan is a steadfast student who has lived in several places before finding their educational home at OU. Morgan was born in California and lived there for fourteen years. When his father retired from Intel, his family moved to Idaho, which is where he lived before moving to Oklahoma. Morgan credits his father’s job for his love of gaming.
“I would say that what really got me into competitive gaming would be my dad. I didn’t know CSGO existed until I went [to] LANfest that Intel [hosts],” said Morgan. “[Also,] the drive to always beat my older brother at video games. He’s better at most traditional sports than me, so it was one thing I could beat him in.”
As a family, they loved to play Age of Empires and Call of Duty together. These experiences led him to build an understanding of his future goals and attracted him to OU’s Sports Business program at the Price College of Business.
Morgan is graduating with a Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Sports Business and an eSports certificate. Morgan served OU Esports and Co-Curricular as the Competition Lead. He originally came into contact with OU ECCI by becoming a remote Valorant Coach.
Morgan considers himself a non-traditional student because he spent time in the workforce while his wife finished her degree before he returned to school. After COVID, Morgan began researching colleges to see if there were any opportunities to get a scholarship based on his background in CSGO.
He started his search in August, knowing he wouldn’t further his education until the following year. The head coach for the Valorant roster asked if he’d like to coach remotely. The original plan was for him to have ownership of the B team. After a month, he began coaching the varsity roster. He did this for a full year remotely until his wife’s graduation.
“When I first toured OU and was deciding on if I was actually going to come out here, I talked with Mike (Moog) a little bit beforehand, and he outlined what I wanted to do and how I could get there.At the end of the day, I want to be in eSports. I want to be a director of some sorts, kind of like what Mike does running a program. It’s what I’ve found out is my passion,” Morgan said.
After enrolling at OU, he coached for another half semester before they opened the Competition Lead position.
“I did come here with the expectations to grow as myself and learn on how to run a program other than just coaching eSports.”
Morgan is grateful for the opportunities OU ECCI has brought him. Last summer, he went to the Red Bull headquarters to speak on eSports and how Red Bull can help our team. This experience allowed him to create connections and contextualize that eSports is bigger than people think. During this time, he also met the people at Riot Games, where he learned about the back end of eSports and the amount of people that put work into it and sustain eSports.
Morgan is currently waiting to hear back for an eSports Director role. He has a hunger for developing others through the field.
“I think it’s cool to think that kids in my lifetime are going to be on [an] eSports scholarships at some point. Being able to be that person that could give that scholarship to a kid that doesn’t come from a lot of money, I think that’s kind of the exciting part and the part that makes me most excited for, like, the career,” said Morgan.
