Southwestern Oklahoma State Athletics

Harris led the Southwestern golf teams to the 1933 and 1934 Collegiate Conference Championship. Harris and his teammates beat the reigning national champion, the University of Oklahoma, in a dual meet at Twin Hills Golf Course in Oklahoma City that year. Harris would later teach at Cheyenne, Guthrie and Stillwater High Schools before taking over at Oklahoma A&M in 1947. Harris spent 27 years at OSU where he consistently had the Cowboys ranked among the top five national golf programs, winning numerous Missouri Valley and Big 8 Championships. His 1963 team won the NCAA Division I Men’s Championship, and he also coached two individual national champions. More than 40 of Harris’ players went on to professional careers, while 27 garnered All-American honors.

As a professional, he won 152 tournaments. His impact as a player and coach is still felt in the golfing community, where an award is given in his honor for the high school or college coach who best embodies the spirit of teaching and community involvement. He was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of American Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.