Terry Morrison has died at the age of 70 after it was confirmed the former New Zealand rugby winger suffered a heart attack while surfing on the Sunshine Coast on Christmas Eve.
His widow, Jacqueline Morrison, said the couple had joined friends to surf and stand-up paddle-board close to their home in southern Queensland, Australia, when tragedy struck.
The group were on their way back to the shore when Morrison suffered the heart attack, with friends and paramedics unable to revive him despite their best efforts to perform CPR.
“My beautiful friend, husband and Alex’s dad. He was doing what he loved the most, surfing with his mates,” Jacqueline wrote on Facebook.
“After catching ‘the last wave in’ for coffee, he had a heart attack and fell into the ocean.
“I am eternally grateful to Mark, Rick, Paul, Phil and Brenden for their efforts to save their friend’s [life].”
Morrison represented Otago at the provincial level before he played for the All Blacks on four occasions, although his only capped appearance came as a substitute during a 16-10 defeat to England at Eden Park in 1973.
Although his New Zealand career proved short-lived, Morrison was also renowned for his athletics career, where he was crowned national champion in the 200 metres in 1976.
Widow Jacqueline also told Stuff : “He was where he loved to be, and he was excited because it was Christmas Eve and our son Alex was coming up to have Christmas with us, so everything was really good.
“He was an avid snapper fisherman. He was in his element, he would dive for scallops, and get mussels and fish for snapper, and it was really beautiful.”
Remarkably, she went on to say Morrison only stopped playing rugby around 24 years ago—when he would have been roughly 46—after an opponent broke his leg in a tackle.
“He was alright about it. Terry never worried about anything, he could do anything," Jacqueline added.
Former Auckland and New Zealand star Sir Bryan Williams was a team-mate of Morrison's when the latter won his sole All Blacks cap in 1973, as well as playing alongside one another for amateur side Ponsonby.
Williams commended his old friend's sporting achievements after learning of Morrison's death: "When you represent New Zealand in two sports you have certainly achieved a great deal. He was a New Zealand athletics champion and an All Black – that is pretty special."
The 71-year-old also lauded Morrison's special abilities on the rugby pitch, despite failing to add to his All Blacks cap tally: "He would run around everyone and score at the other end.
"This one game we [Ponsonby] played the Pretoria Police in Pretoria in 1975; it was a really tough match, a really rugged match with lots of fisticuffs and that sort of thing. I remember giving him the ball on our 22' and he just blitzed everyone and scored at the other end under the bar."
In addition to his sporting achievements, Morrison had a successful career in marketing and worked as a consultant in Australia alongside brands such as NZ Kiwifruit and Dairywhip.
A biography on the Matamata College website also detailed his rugby products company, Silver Fern Australia, "supplied all the training and field equipment for the 2003 Rugby World Cup."
Williams also told Stuff Morrison became renowned as 'The Flash', owing to the "big long mane of blonde hair" that would trail behind him as he ran: "He was magnificent in full flight.”
