2010 Crowley Award Winner
Richard Harris, Harrison
By Larry Sellers, Crowley Award Chair
A graduate of Flint Central High School, Dick Harris started teaching at his alma mater in 1969 he also coached football and baseball. In 1971 he moved to Mt. Pleasant high school and in 1973 he took the head football coaching job at Harrison. He spent 37 years at Harrison High School where he was the head football coach for 35 years, student government co-advisor for 22 years, coached girls track and announced boys basketball games.
Highlights of Coach Harris’ career at Harrison included four undefeated football teams, seven Jack Pine Conference Coach of the Year Awards, six state playoff appearances and five MHSFCA Regional Coach of the Year Awards.
Dick was a co-founder of the Jack Pine Conference Football Coaches Association patterning it after the state association. He has served the MHSFCA as a director and as President in 1983. Dick continues to be an active member of the Past Presidents’ Committee. He was inducted into the MHSFCA Hall of Fame in 2009.
A highly deserving recipient of the Jim Crowley Award, Dick Harris coached for all the right reasons. It was all about his athletes and students. He taught and coached with passion and dedicated his career to the development of outstanding young people in the Harrison community. Since his arrival in 1973, Dick has positively touched the lives of most everyone in Harrison. In a town where poverty and broken homes are not uncommon, Richard Harris has been a constant. He has been the father that kids didn’t have, the mentor that they needed and the role model that kids looked up to when times were tough.
The Harris family includes Dick’s wife of 37 years, Pat. They have two daughters, Suzanne, who is working on a masters in music education at Indiana University and Lisa, an esthetician in the Traverse City area.