GRAND FORKS — Roger Morton was a teacher and coach at East Grand Forks Sacred Heart for 37 years but he doesn’t pause for a moment when he’s asked if he remembers 1986 Sacred Heart alum Jon Absey.
Absey, who had a long career as a mascot including 25 years as the Utah Jazz bear, died late last week of pancreatic cancer in Salt Lake City. He was 58.
Absey was a mascot innovator, developing a legendary reputation for high-risk stadium antics like taking a sled down steep stairs, jumping through a hoop of fire or rappelling from the rafters.
The career path didn’t shock anyone at Sacred Heart.
“When he played basketball for me, we used to have the old light bulbs in the gym and change them with scaffold,” Morton said. “These bulbs would burn out regularly. We’d finish practice and I’d say, ‘Jon, you’ve got to change bulbs.’
“He’d get the biggest grin on his face. He went up without think about it. Right from the get-go, I knew he was going to be bouncing off the walls during school. He wasn’t a bad kid but he really struggled to control himself.”
Sacred Heart homecoming was always a chance for Absey shenanigans, former Sacred Heart hall of fame coach Mike Marek recalls.
“He could get on the ladder to decorate and be in the rafters and goof around,” Marek said. “He left his signature up there a few times. You could tell he was oblivious to danger.”
After stints in semi-pro basketball in Fargo, Winnipeg and Sioux Falls, Absey debuted as the Utah Jazz bear in 1994.
“The Jazz bear was the character, but Jon was its creator. He was its personality,” long-time friend of Absey, Andy Chudd, told ABC4 TV in Utah. “He gave humanity to the bear, and I just can’t say enough good things about him.”
Absey was Mascot of the Year in the NBA five times. He was set to be inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2026.
At a TED Talk in Fargo in 2023, Absey said the mascot life has produced 13 surgeries and 25 torn ligaments, tendons or muscles.
“I had a blessed career, there isn’t anything out there that would have been anything better,” Absey said in 2023. “I was able to do and see things that nobody will ever be able to do or see. I was just a kid from East Grand Forks who didn’t understand heights.”
Morton and Marek remember Absey had a special relationship with Sacred Heart administrator Sister Basil LeDuc.
“Fox and the hound kind of thing,” Marek said. “She brought the best out in him and he in her.”
Said Morton: “He’d walk down the hallway and run up the wall and do a back flip. (Sister Basil) would try to get him to calm down but that was just him. You couldn’t stop him. You had to lasso him in the gym. You didn’t know what he’d do.”
Morton remained in contact with Absey through the years.
“When I’d text or call, I’d ask him what he was doing and a lot of time he was at a charity event,” Morton said. “The biggest thing was he had the biggest heart of anyone I have come across.”
Absey performed at more than 1,200 NBA games, and it was estimated he raised more than $2 million for charity.
“(Charity) enriched his life,” Marek said. “He had a philanthropic heart. He did a lot of great things for the nameless and faceless.”
Miller has covered sports at the Grand Forks Herald since 2004 and was the state sportswriter of the year in 2019 (NSMA, NDAPSSA), 2022 (NSMA, NDAPSSA), 2024 (NDAPSSA) and 2025 (NDAPSSA).
His primary beat is UND football but also reports on a variety of UND sports and local preps.
He can be reached at (701) 780-1121, tmiller@gfherald.com or on Twitter at @tommillergf.