Abe Morris, former PRCA bull rider, plans to start a cookie business
Move over Little Debbie and Famous Amos, Abe Morris is entering the cookie-baking arena. The former Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bull rider has been baking his famous cookies for 25 years. Now, instead of just giving them away or selling them one batch at a time, he’s ready to take his Cowboy Chute Out Cookies to the next level.
Although he hasn’t quit his full-time government job in the health administration for the Department of Veteran Affairs in Denver, he is working with the Small Business Administration to develop a plan and taking classes.
But, at the moment, he is one-man cookie baking operation.
“I will officially launch the business sometime in the next few months and bring others on board to facilitate baking, packaging and shipping of the fresh cookies,” said Morris, who qualified for the Mountain States Circuit Finals Rodeo eight times and the National Circuit Finals Rodeo twice and was inducted into the Salem County Sports Hall of Fame in New Jersey where he grew up.
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Morris specializes in chocolate chip cookies, with or without pecans.
His cookies have been enjoyed by a lot of celebrities in the rodeo world. “Hadley loved them,” Morris said referring to the late Hadley Barrett, a legendary rodeo announcer inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1999.
Morris also baked cookies for Frank Thompson, the PRCA world champion steer wrestler in 2000 and is the arena director for Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyo.
Jeff Medders and Butch Knowles also are familiar with Morris’s cookies. Medders operates Geronimo Productions out of Tulsa, Okla., and is a sports broadcaster for rodeos. Medders was awarded the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame’s 2016 Western Heritage Award. Knowles, a saddle bronc rider, was the 1987 National Finals Rodeo bronc riding average champion.
“Every time I go to rodeos I give them out,” said Morris, who is the author of two books “My Cowboy Hat Still Fits” and “Justin: A Father’s Fight for His Son.”
He also has been a licensed health and life insurance agent for more than 25 years, which is where he learned marketing and sales. He will use those skills in his cookie operation.
“I learned a lot over the years from my former manager and mentor Dave Menard the CEO of CORE Financial Services in Fort Collins, Colo., whom I’d highly recommend to the ranching, farming and rural community for any future financial services or needs,” Morris said.
Morris also worked as a televsion broadcast commnentator with Prime Sports and FOX Sports Networks and he is a motivational speaker.
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He also brought some cookies to the Rutgers Food Innovation Center in New Jersey.
“I took my cookies there and gave them to some of the staff members,” he said. “They are like man these things are really good.”
Gary Wood, retired Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bull rider from Cheyenne, Wyo., met and befriended Morris when they rodeoed together back in the 1980s.
Wood had nothing but good things to say about Morris’s cookies.
“I buy them whenever I can, I guess I’m kind of a cookie monster,” Wood said. “His are the best as far as I’m concerned.”
He said he buys a batch of cookies from Morris whenever he can.
“He deserves to make some money on those (cookies),” he said.
Morris’s coworkers also are fans of his cookies.
“In my opinion, Abe’s cookies are the best that I have tasted,” said Michael Bingham, who also works at the VA. “His cookies are perfectly moist, chewy and flavorful. It is rare to come across a cookie that is prepared with the perfect blend of ingredients and baked perfectly.”
But if you want to know what those ingredients are, that won’t happen.
“Nobody knows the recipe and the only one who has watched me make them is my son,” Morris said.
Co-worker LaWanda Jones said his cookies are so good her husband, who only eats his own cooking, likes them.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” Jones said after looking in the freezer for some of Morris’s cookies and they were gone, having been eaten by her husband.
“His cookies are excellent. My grandkids just love them,” she said.
Morris is working on a website http://www.cowboychuteoutcookies.com, but in the meantime, you can find him at http://www.abemorris.com.
“I don’t know if I will make it or not but I’ll still bake them anyway,” he said. ❖
