It's about time. It's a pity he couldn't play today. But time moves on...

BlueGoldNews.com Wrote:Harris To The Hall
By http://BlueGoldNews.com
Posted: Apr 30, 2009


Major Harris

West Virginia University's Major Harris was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday afternoon.

Harris, who finished third in balloting for the Heisman Trophy in 1989, is one of 16 players in this year's class. He will be introduced this winter at an event in New York City, then inducted next year at the Hall's location in South Bend, Ind.

A three-year starter at quarterback, Major Harris became the first player in NCAA history to rush for more than 2,000 and pass for more than 5,000 yards in a career.

As a freshman, Harris led the Mountaineers to the 1987 Sun Bowl. The following season, the quarterback led West Virginia to an undefeated season and a match-up versus Notre Dame for the national championship in the 1988 Fiesta Bowl. He accounted for 20 touchdowns that season while earning ECAC Player of the Year honors and finishing fifth in Heisman Trophy voting.

During his junior campaign, Harris threw for 17 touchdowns and ran for six while setting school records for most total offense and quarterback rushing yards. He was voted a First Team All-America, named the ECAC Player of the Year and finished third in Heisman voting.

Drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1990, Harris spent several seasons playing in the Canadian Football League, Arena Football League and other semi-pro leagues.

Here's the story from ESPN...

ESPN Wrote:Harris, Toretta, MacPherson elected to Hall of Fame
Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett
April 30, 2009 1:12 PM

Two players and a coach with Big East ties have been elected to the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame.

West Virginia quarterback Major Harris (1987-89), Miami quarterback Gino Torretta (1989-92) and Syrause coach Dick MacPherson (1981-90) were among the 18 inductees announced this afternoon.

A three-year starter at quarterback, Harris became the first player in NCAA history to rush for more than 2,000 yards and pass for more than 5,000 yards in a career. As a sophomore, he led West Virginia to an undefeated season and a match-up versus Notre Dame for the national championship in the 1988 Fiesta Bowl while finishing fifth in Heisman Trophy voting.

Torretta won the Heisman in 1992 was the Big East player of the year in 1991 and 1992. He currently holds the conference record for lowest career percentage of interceptions (1.94), passing yards in a single-game (485) and longest passing play (99) yards, also an NCAA record. Miami was 26-2 with him as a starter.

MacPherson was the national coach of the year in 1987, guiding the Orange to an 11-0-1 record and a No. 4 national ranking. He ranks third all-time at Syracuse for wins (66) and most seasons coached (10). During his tenure as head coach, the Orange went to five bowl games, and he coached two collegiate Hall of Fame players (Tim Greene and Don McPherson) and eight All-Americans.

Another inductee with eastern football ties was Penn St. RB Curt Warner.

Congrats to the Maj...I have no idea why it took so long for Harris. Its also a mystery to me why another WVU great, Darryl Talley, still hasn't gotten the call

Quote:Another inductee with eastern football ties was Penn St. RB Curt Warnerp

-- He was way before my time, but I have heard the high school legends about Warner....with that being said, in my area they aren't too many nice things to say about a WV kid who picked Penn St over the Mountaineers.

Jackson

I remember Warner when he played at Pineville. He was a horse...

MSNsportsNET Wrote:The Hall Calls
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
April 30, 2009

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT | PHOTO GALLERY


Major Harris will become the 11th player/coach affiliated with West Virginia University to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
WVU Sports Communications photo

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Don Nehlen had to make a very difficult decision in the spring of 1987: start strong-armed quarterback Browning Nagle or go with Major Harris – a run-first-throw-second option guy from Pittsburgh that nobody else wanted.

Nehlen didn’t have a crystal ball, but he had a hunch and he decided to go with Harris while encouraging Nagle to transfer to a school that threw the ball more. Nagle went on to have an outstanding college career at Louisville and was eventually a No. 1 draft pick. Harris, of course, led West Virginia to the 1989 national championship game and became one of the all-time greats in Mountaineer history.

Today, Harris is one of college football’s all-time greats.

Harris and 15 others were announced this afternoon as the newest members of the College Football Hall of Fame. They will be introduced this winter in New York City and will be officially inducted next fall in South Bend, Ind.

“That is great,” said Nehlen. “No. 1 it’s terrific that he is being honored. People don’t realize what a great award that is until you go to that banquet. He has joined the elite of the elite.”

Harris was one of the game’s innovating players in the late 1980s leading the Mountaineers to the national championship game against Notre Dame and bowl appearances in 1987 and 1989. At a time when the drop-back, pro-style passing game was in vogue, Harris was a dual-threat quarterback who burned college defenses with his arm and his feet.

“He was ahead of his time,” Nehlen admitted. “We ran a lot of option football but in the spread offenses today he would be sensational because he is so strong.”

Harris passed for 1,915 yards and 14 touchdowns and ran for 610 yards and six TDs as a sophomore in 1988, leading West Virginia to an 11-0 record and a meeting against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl for the 1989 national championship.

A year later, Harris helped WVU to a Gator Bowl appearance against Clemson by passing for 2,058 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushing for 936 yards and six scores. In 34 career games, Harris accumulated 7,334 yards of offense and averaged 7.2 yards per play.

“That ’88 team was the best football team that I had ever been around or ever coached,” Nehlen said. “We not only won, we blew people away.”

West Virginia won easily that year because it had a quarterback in Harris that teams simply could not defend.

“We did a lot with him because he could do a lot and he never got hurt,” Nehlen explained. “That’s the big thing. When you’ve got a quarterback and he’s carrying the ball 12-15 times a game and 240-pound linebackers are cracking him, it makes you nervous.”

Harris was a two-time ECAC player of the year in 1988 and 1989, and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1988. He was only the second player in FBS history to pass for more than 5,000 yards and rush for more than 2,000 during his career.

Nehlen said it is remarkable what Harris achieved because West Virginia was about the only school that recruited Harris out of Pittsburgh’s Hill District.

“Arizona State, I believe, was the only other school to offer Maj a scholarship and he was right in Pitt’s backyard,” Nehlen recalled. “What a story.”

Nehlen once had Harris at camp and it was then that Nehlen came to realize what a special athlete Harris was.

“I watched him and I saw the strength he had and how quick he could get away from people,” Nehlen remembered. “They had a devil of a time touching him because we were just playing two-hand touch and I said, ‘If they can’t touch this guy, how are the going to tackle him?’”

What made Harris so special to his teammates and to all West Virginians was his infectious personality. Harris once collected seven write-in votes during the 1988 West Virginia gubernatorial election.

“When you get around him he always grins and smiles,” Nehlen said. “He makes you feel good because he’s just a fun-type guy."

“That’s the way he played football, too. Football to Maj was a real game. He liked to compete. Football players today lift and run and do all those things and Major’s great workout was to go over to the gym and play a pickup game of basketball. He wanted to compete.”

Major left school a year early in 1990 to pursue a professional career that eventually fizzled out in the Arena Football League.

“He made a mistake going out early and he knows that,” Nehlen said. “I knew it at the time. But he came back and he got his degree and that speaks highly of Major.”

Today, Nehlen is still amazed at how easily recognizable Major Harris is and the weight his name still carries more than 20 years after he last played at West Virginia.

“The thing about Major Harris that is really amazing is his name. The press and the media just loved him,” Nehlen said. “I’m sure those people who voted went through that list and saw Major Harris and said, ‘I’m voting for him.’"

“He has such a name even to this day.”

Harris joins Nehlen and nine others with West Virginia University ties in the College Football Hall of Fame. Nehlen was inducted in 2005.

Former WVU coach Bobby Bowden was inducted last year.

Others affiliated with WVU in the College Football Hall of Fame include: Bruce Bosley, Sam Huff, Earle “Greasy” Neale, Ira Errett Rodgers, Ben Schwartzwalder, Clarence Spears, Joe Stydahar and Fielding Yost.

Below is a link to the entire class of 2009:


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story...FHeadlines

Well deserved honor. Billy "Spook" Murphy should also be in.

Congrats!

Great honor for Major Harris... well-earned, well-deserved, and many congratulations...

Jackson.. didn't Major Harris play in that ECU-West Virginia shootout in Greenville back in '86...? If not, who was the QB that broke my heart that night...?

For those that don't remember how good Major Harris was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZFzdjjN5o

Quote:Jackson.. didn't Major Harris play in that ECU-West Virginia shootout in Greenville back in '86...? If not, who was the QB that broke my heart that night...?

-- No sir, Harris played as a true freshman at WVU in 1987. As a kid, I vivdly remember him breaking Louisville's heart in 1989. As for 1986, I honestly don't know who was the QB that day at ECU? Its too late for Hostetler and too early for Harris. Kevin White maybe?

Jackson

I was at the Sun Bowl game with blowing snow (you could not see the yard markers) where Major Harris led West Virginia against Oklahoma State, the third and unmentioned bowl in the above article. Oklahoma State tackled the West Virginia ball carrier on about the two or three yard line on the last play of the game to allow the Cowboys to stop West Virginia and escape with the victory.

The refreshment stands sold out of hot coffee by the end of the first quarter, it was so cold.

I am not sure but I think Major Harris could have played another year of college football which many were urging him to do. If I recall correctly and I do get things mixed up, some were making the argument he needed another year of college ball in order to have a better chance of making it in NFL. Not sure on these points so someone can correct/clarify.

1987 Sun Bowl: Oklahoma State 35, West Virginia 33
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Sun_Bowl

That was one hell of a game. Oklahoma State had a couple of good players too. Guys named Thurmond Thomas and Barry Sanders, and Sanders was sitting on the bench for most of the game...