This book about Henry Harris is very timely here in the heart of another basketball season. This book was published last October. I just happened by accident to hear about it with the author being interviewed on the SEC Network. The author doesn't talk about himself so I know nothing about him but he seems to have done his homework.
The author begins the account of Harris's life with his last days in Milwaukee. So sad. It seems he got a job coaching at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Milwaukee with the Rudy Davalos and then Davalos left the scene. Davalos coached under Bill Lynn at Auburn and was Henry's primary recruiter out of high school.
Into the late 60's Auburn and Alabama were in a race to sign the first scholarship black athlete. Auburn beat Alabama to the punch. More should've been said about this history before now.
It's hard for me to remember the fall of 1968. I was totally unaware of what was happening in the life of Henry Harris as he came to Auburn's campus, the first black athlete in Auburn history. There was no way I could relate or even know about what he was going through.
Henry Harris was Auburn's Jackie Robinson. How he held up to the abuse he suffered is beyond me.
Years ago when I would drive to Meridian to work I would pass the exit sign off I-20-59 that said "Boligee" in Sumter County just before entering Mississippi and I would always remember that was where Henry Harris was from.
The town was almost totally black and growing up Henry might go days without seeing a white person. When he showed up at Auburn the fall of 1968 he had never sat in a classroom with a white person.
He was afraid the first time he played in Oxford, Mississippi, and you cannot blame him. Ole Miss was the Old South, front and center. Despite playing with abject fear, he scored 25 points and grabbled 12 rebounds as Auburn won the game. It was a courageous performance by an 18 yr. college freshman in a truly hostile and potentially dangerous environment. P. 99
The author is saying that Henry Harris was a civil right pioneer like Rosa Parks and others and should be recognized as such.
"What Harris was doing for two hours a night in basketball arenas were the latter steps of the civil rights movement. But unlike marchers or protesters, he was alone in this traveling American morality play." P. 109
"On campus, Harris essential lived on probation, racial probation, always watching himself, how he appeared, what he said. Author Ralph Ellison believed history had conditioned young black Americans for such challenges." P. 116
"The culture shock of a kid coming from the Black Belt to Auburn would have been huge."
Leah Rawls Atkins. "He would have been a lost ball in high weeds." P. 116-117
In the summer of '69 he would sleep with the light on in Sewell Hall.
Harris's second year in Sewell Hall James Owens, Auburn's first black football player, arrived. P. 121
Harris was forced to play forward his first year on the varsity because Auburn had Carl Shetler and John Mengelt set at the guard positions. He was playing out of position, plus Auburn was still running the Joel Eaves shuffle which did not suit his talents. That offense was as old-fashioned and right win as you could get. Coach Eaves won the SEC in 1960 without a player over 6'3". P. 132
On January 24, 1970, Auburn and Vanderbilt played the first integrated basketball in the SEC. P. 132
Harris had trouble scoring due the old-fashioned shuffle offense and John Mengelt. Mengelt was a self-centered hotdog who took every shot he could. Playing forward in the shuffle didn't get Harris the ball often enough. The idea is the constant motion shuffle offense was to get easy shots. In 1960 Auburn set an NCAA record with a shooting percentage of 51.2% field goal average. The problem is that this offense did not showcase athletic ability. That offense quickly disappeared as black players started to be allowed to play. P. 133
Bill Lynn, a disciple of Joel Eaves, was the basketball coach when I was there and hence he was Henry Harris's only coach. I thought he was a good coach. At the time I did not realize he was running an antiquated offense.
Henry Harris was strongly recruited by Villanova. By the end of his Auburn career, he had to have wondered what might have happened if he had gone there.
I can see why Gene Lorendo was never named to succeed Shug because of his potty mouth. P. 185
By his senior season Harris had adjusted to the Auburn shuffle as best he could. P. 188
But also into his senior year playing with a painful knee Harris was just trying to get his Auburn career over with and added to it the team was not doing well and Coach Lynn was on his way to getting fired. So sad to read about.
Only 3,328 people showed up for his final home game, but he received a rousing ovation when he left the game after fouling out. P. 197-198
In the fall of 1972 Jackie Robinson died. The great civil rights beacon was no more. The heart that burned so brightly on the basepaths of Brooklyn passed on. He was 53 but he looked like 73. P. 211
By the fall of 1972, the desegregation of the SEC was complete but not without growing pains that would persist throughout the decade. P. 215
Bear Bryant didn't recruit Condredge Holloway out of Huntsville because he didn't think Alabama people were ready for a black quarterback. Holloway went on to stardom at the U of Tennessee. Equally stunning, Alabama did not recruit John Stallworth out of Huntsville who played at Alabama A and M, and went on to a stellar career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. No SEC school recruited Walter Payton who played at Jackson State and may have been the greatest running back of all-time. James Owens, Auburn's first black football player, never got a chance at tailback, a position he would probably have excelled at. We'd rather have slow Terry Henley instead in 1972, ha, ha. P. 216
It is painful to read this book about athletic integration in the 60's and 70's.
It's a tough book to finish as it winds to its tragic ending.
"In the wide lens of the U.S. civil rights struggle, the role of sports has historically ignored or minimized. Just by showing up everyday, Henry Harris became part of the movement, part of a revolution in a nation founded on revolution." P. 298
Henry Harris had lived his life offstage, obscure and overlooked in the Black Belt. Then in 1968, he had stepped into the middle of a great American drama, only to disappear again when his part was done, dead at twenty-four. P. 298
Appropriate recognition of black athletic pioneers is a difficult thing for Deep South colleges. The potential of offending influential alumni and the embarrassment of shining the light of how it all begin can be too much. P. 299
If Auburn ever recognizes Harris it will not come from administration but from students, former teammates, and current or former athletes who found fame only after Henry Harris showed up at Auburn alone in 1968. P. 300
As of the writing of this book in the summer of 2019, there was no memory of Henry Harris on the Auburn campus he forever changed. His disappearance from history should matter, but apparently it doesn't to Auburn people.
Henry Harris is gone and forgotten. What a crying sorry shame. P. 303
No comments:
Post a Comment