Why I Give

Putting Young Women into the Competition

When Millersville University’s field hockey team won their first-ever NCAA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, last fall, one fan in Lancaster was especially thrilled by their victory.

“I didn’t get to play field hockey when I was at Millersville, but I love the game and I was so happy to hear that our team were champions,” says Lois Todd Morgan ’54, who graduated with a degree in elementary education.

In a way, Millersville University’s field hockey team are Morgan’s girls, even though she has never given them pointers on corners, demonstrated the proper dribbling technique or cheered them on from the stands. What she has done is to establish the first endowed scholarship for field hockey at Millersville University, giving these female athletes an opportunity to get into the academic game.

“I know that the cost of education has escalated in recent years, and this is my way of helping young women compete educationally,” says Morgan, who has supported both the Athletics Academic Support Program and the Impact Fund over the years.

It seems that Morgan cares deeply about athletics and education, and the field hockey scholarship will support both causes that are close to her heart. It also gives her a chance to relive her own days as a field hockey player in high school.

Back in the late 1940s, Morgan played field hockey at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster. She was a center halfback who helped her team win a local championship. When she went to Millersville, she had to give up her favorite sport so she could pursue her studies and work part-time at Lancaster Newspapers in the classified advertising department. She would have loved to compete in sports at Millersville, but her busy schedule didn’t give her time.

“I enjoyed field hockey, softball, basketball and gymnastics,” says Morgan. “I think that students do well when they balance mind and body.”

Back in 2012, Morgan established another endowed scholarship known as the Lois T. Morgan ’54 Student-Athlete Endowed Scholarship, which awards educational funds to one or more student-athletes from both men’s and women’s sports. As she points out, deep down she will always be a student-athlete herself.

Morgan grew up in Manheim Township and was always interested in sports. She met her husband, Milton K. Morgan Jr., when the two were in seventh grade. They even “went steady” for about two weeks in eighth grade. They both went off to college—she to Millersville and he to Penn State. When they saw each other again at a high school get-together, something clicked and they began dating in earnest. They got married in their junior year of college and moved to Ohio after graduation, where Milton worked for General Motors.

Morgan became a busy full-time mom with four youngsters, including twins. In 1958, the Morgans moved back to Lancaster, and once the children were older, Lois Morgan was able to pursue teaching as a substitute teacher, noting that “I wanted to be there for my children.”

Over the years, her family has grown to 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. In 2007, Morgan became an author, writing her own self-published autobiography. It all began when her youngest grandson was working on a school assignment on the psychology of aging. He asked her what life was like growing up in southern Lancaster County, when her grandfather drove cattle from Atglen to the New Danville Pike. She began putting together her memoirs and adding photographs until she had a detailed life history that would stand as a legacy to her family.

“It kind of snowballed,” says Morgan. “But it was therapeutic after Milt’s death.” Her husband died in 2011 after nearly 59 years of marriage.

An educator at heart, she loves sharing her stories with family members and young friends. And she loves watching Millersville’s student-athletes reach for the stars.

“I really enjoyed meeting Coach Shelly Behrens. She did a wonderful job with her field hockey team, and I hope to get to a few games this fall when they try for another championship,” says Morgan.