Robert Dale Morgan, 50, sports business guru helped city land Super Bowls and Olympics

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By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In 1998, when Robert Dale Morgan was hired on as president and chief executive of the Atlanta 2000 Super Bowl Host Committee, he knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But as his career blossomed, similar opportunities seem to find him time and again.

Special Robert Dale Morgan helped bring Super Bowl XXVIII to Atlanta.

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Mr. Morgan was known in the Atlanta business community as one who helped local sports teams realize their power and influence as a unit, said Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

“He got a lot of those people around the table,” Mr. Williams said. “The pro teams, for example, they really sat down and talked with each other and said, ‘Hey, we’re not competing with each other, we’ve got to all build sports fans.'”

Though Mr. Morgan hadn’t lived in Atlanta since 2001, the work he did remains. He had a hand in the city’s largest sporting events between 1986 and 2002, including the SEC football championship game and the 2002 NCAA Final Four.

“I think he saw a vision of what Atlanta could be,” said Spurgeon Richardson, who served as Six Flags Over Georgia president and Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau president and chief executive. “While he was here, many people called Atlanta the sports capital of the world and Robert Dale did a lot to contribute to that.”

Robert Dale Morgan, of Houston, died Saturday at The Methodist Hospital in Houston from complications of glioblastoma. He was 50. A memorial service was held Thursday at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston. Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, Houston, was in charge.

Mr. Morgan came to Atlanta in 1986 as the assistant executive director of the Peach Bowl, now known as the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The position was a new one, created for the bowl and Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's sports marketing department. Within two years, Mr. Morgan, then 26, became executive director of the bowl game, a position he held until 1998.

In 1990, he added executive director of the Atlanta Sports Council to his resume and in that role, he was involved with the planning of Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 and the 1996 Summer Olympics. But in 1998 he was hired away by the Atlanta 2000 Super Bowl Host Committee as its executive director, leaving the Chamber for the temporary position without much hesitation, he said at the time.

“This is an awesome opportunity for me personally and it allows me to put a tremendous line on my resume, exposes me to another universe of contacts and helps me continue my career in sports at even a higher level than where I was,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a 1998 interview. “These kind of opportunities don't come by very often.”

But one did come again, this time in Houston. After leaving Atlanta in 2001 to serve as vice president of championship management for the PGA Tour, Mr. Morgan was offered a job in Houston as president of the 2004 Houston Super Bowl Host Committee.

“When I got a phone call saying, ‘How would you like to come here and run our Super Bowl?’ well, you don't get a chance to run one very often, let alone two,” Morgan said at the time.

Mr. Morgan is survived by his father and stepmother, Claude and Carol Morgan; and his mother, Patricia A. Stage.