Haywood Harris, long-time award-winning University of Tennessee SID until his retirement in 2000 and who now serves as UT athletics historian, is one of the most respected figures in the Sports Information field specifically and in college athletics in general. Below is a column about Harris, written by Tom Mattingly on Feb. 27th in the
Knoxville News Sentinel.
A renowned writer, Harris came to the University after stints at
The Charlotte Observer and
The Knoxville Journal. Harris served as UT Sports Information Director, Assistant Athletic Director and Associate Athletic Director of Media Relations. In 1982, I
nside Sports magazine listed him as one of the top five publicists in the nation. He was named to CoSIDA's Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the organization's top award, the Arch Ward Award, in 1991.
Being an accomplished writer, during his spare time he and long-time associate, Gus Manning, have co-authored a book entitled "Six Seasons Remembered; The National Championship Years of Tennessee Football."
Read online: Harris is a master at telling UT's story, by Tom Mattingly, Knoxville News Sentinel
Published Feb. 27, 2010
There’s nothing better than reading a well-told story, particularly about sports.
Willie Morris, the poet laureate of Mississippi, if there is such a term, once penned the following well-turned sentence: “There is a tradition in the South, as in other parts of America, that a story worth telling places a responsibility on the listener to tell it again, in another place.”
The storytellers of the American sporting scene are fascinating people. Morris is one. Around here, Marvin West, Ben Byrd, Russ Bebb and Lindsey Nelson are likewise something special. Their stories are worth telling, and retelling.
Roger Kahn holds a special place in the pantheon of the storytellers, if for only one work, the classic “Boys of Summer.” It is the story of the early 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers, from the days he covered their games to his revisiting several of them years later, long after their careers had ended.
Haywood Harris and David Housel, long-time sports information directors, are artisans of their craft with Tennessee and Auburn, respectively, each telling their school’s story with great purpose, passion, resolve, and verve. Each school’s history comes alive as they chronicle the great moments of two proud traditions. Tennessee and Auburn people can recall their most famous lines at a moment’s notice.
These guys can flat turn a phrase, whether with pen, pencil, or on their personal computer. Excitement jumps off the pages at every turn. There’s a lyrical quality to their prose.
Harris was once quoted in Sports Illustrated saying “dang” when an Ole Miss field goal in the 1969 game, Ole Miss 38, Tennessee 0, hit the crossbar and bounced across. Nothing more, just “dang.” That made his point. He didn’t need to say anything more. No wasted words for him, either orally or on the printed page.
There was a time in 2004-05 that Harris and I had offices deep in the bowels of Stokely Athletics Center, and that’s putting it mildly. There were all kinds of little surprises each day, including a passing acquaintance with assorted four-legged vermin that kept things interesting.
All would be well, until Harris’ voice, seemingly panic-stricken, came across the transom, with an urgent plea.
“This gosh-dang machine lost my copy,” he would say, wondering if he would ever see what he wrote again.
That was our call to action. One of us would immediately trot over to his workspace and hit “edit-undo,” and his copy would reappear as if by magic. He was always grateful.
Never, ever, did he say anything stronger than “gosh-dang,” even when there might have been a considerable amount of work at stake.
Harris’ fingers always tripped lightly over the computer keyboard, with exceptionally readable copy flowing like rushing waters.
Watching Harris in operation was an education in itself. During his time at Tennessee, he was a perfect “fit” for his position, using his experience as a journalist and an innate sense of interpersonal relations to deftly balance the needs of the media with those of the coaches and athletes he served.
His story comes down to his unswerving loyalty to his family, friends, and the University of Tennessee. While he was known as a “team player” in the best sense of the term, he also held strong opinions that he was not reluctant to share with anyone when necessary.
When the Vol football team flew to Nashville for the 1964 Vanderbilt game, Harris and Gus Manning met the team at the airport. They had gone over a day earlier to “advance” the trip, preparing the local media for the team’s arrival, with all kinds of pertinent facts about the contest to come.
The team bus was ready to head to the hotel, when one of the drivers announced the fan belt was broken, spoiling the clockwork precision so famous on Vol road trips.
Harris had to share the disconcerting news with head coach Doug Dickey. When he did so, Dickey asked, “Haywood, you did check the fan belt, didn’t you?”
He was rarely speechless, but that query did leave Harris stuck for an answer.
He had performed his assigned duties well, not ever thinking that checking the fan belt on the team bus might be one of them.
Here is the bottom line.
When Harris tells the stories of Tennessee athletics, thoughtful people appreciate what he writes.
When Harris talks, thoughtful people listen.
“When you write, you must listen for sounds,” Kahn recalled a colleague telling him in one of his early days at the New York Herald Tribune. “And there is a sound that one word makes and there is the sound that one word makes on another and there is the sound of silences between words.”
Harris definitely understands what Kahn was talking about.
Long live the great storytellers, particularly those who tell the story of the University of Tennessee and its people.
Tom Mattingly is the author of “The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006” (2006), now available in second edition at fine bookstores everywhere, and “Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years” (1998). His News Sentinel blog is called “The Vol Historian.” Send comments to tjmshm@comcast.net.