When it was announced earlier this month that Cliff Harris will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I thought back to the Saturdays spent watching him play college football and the Sundays spent watching him play professional football. Those games were a big part of my formative years. More than anything, though, I thought about men and women from towns such as Benton, Des Arc, Bearden and Glenwood. The men served their country during World War II, came home and finished college, got married and went to work. The women raised children and later doted on grandchildren while taking care of their husbands. They truly were the Greatest Generation.

Cliff, who starred in college at Ouachita Baptist University and in the pros for the Dallas Cowboys, will no doubt think of his parents when he receives pro football's greatest honor. His father, O.J. "Buddy" Harris, played with my father at Ouachita in the 1940s. O.J. was a linebacker and center. He went on to be a war hero during World War II, earning the P-38 Flying Cross after being shot down over the Pacific.

Cliff's mother, who we knew as Big Margaret since Cliff also had a sister named Margaret, had attended what's now Henderson State University. My parents (who hailed from Benton and Des Arc) and Cliff's parents (who hailed from Bearden and Glenwood) became close friends with each other along with couples such as the Kemps and McHaneys. I marveled at the fact that these couples who first met in the 1940s remained so close through all the ups and downs, the moves and changes, the passing decades. They're gone now, but the examples they set remain.

Cliff was born in Fayetteville and spent most of his childhood in Hot Springs. Just before his senior year in high school, Arkansas Power & Light Co. transferred his father to Des Arc. As luck would have it, there was a home available adjacent to my grandparents' house on Erwin Street. The Harris family moved in, so we had my grandparents and family friends living on the same Des Arc street.

Coach John Rollins decided to play Cliff at quarterback his senior year, and Cliff performed well for the Eagles. He didn't, however, receive college scholarship offers after graduating in the spring of 1966.

Buddy Benson, who had become Ouachita's head football coach in 1965, was urged by O.J. Harris' former teammates--including my father--to offer Cliff a scholarship. Benson, who would go on to serve 31 years as Ouachita's coach and be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, gave Cliff his only scholarship offer. Living a block from Ouachita's football stadium (I was ages 7-10 during the four seasons Cliff played there), I walked the sidelines as a water boy. Cliff's sister and my sister later attended Ouachita together.

On game days, O.J. and Big Margaret would come to our house for lunch. Cliff's grandfather would drive his Cadillac up from Bearden and his grandmother, a beloved Glenwood teacher named Amy Weaver, also would show up. Those were fun days, and I felt special because our house was game-day headquarters.

Cliff made a name for himself while playing in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference from 1966-69, but was overlooked in the NFL draft. Gil Brandt, who headed the highly touted scouting operation for the Cowboys, was aware of the hard-hitting player from the small school in Arkadelphia. The Cowboys signed Cliff as a free agent, thinking there was a chance he could make the team. A decade and five Super Bowls later, Cliff retired from football.

When Cliff played for the Cowboys from 1970-79, we spent many weekends in the Dallas area watching games. Coach Tom Landry required players to stay in a hotel the night before each home game. Once the team moved from the Cotton Bowl at the Texas State Fairgrounds to Texas Stadium in Irving, the team hotel was the Holiday Inn Regal Row, which was in a nondescript warehouse district in Irving. We would get a room at the team hotel on Saturday nights and ride a chartered bus to games on Sunday.

George Bernard Shaw wrote that "youth is wasted on the young." True to form, I didn't fully appreciate those weekends in the 1970s. It was a rare opportunity for a boy from Arkansas to be around one of the greatest groups of players and coaches ever assembled. Landry was already an icon. Even the general manager (Tex Schramm), the director of player personnel (Brandt), the man who played the national anthem on the trumpet before home games (Tommy Loy) and the public address announcers (Bill Melton and James Jennings) were celebrities.

In addition to playing in those five Super Bowls (the Cowboys won two of them), Cliff was named to the Pro Bowl six times and was a first team All-NFL player for four consecutive seasons by both The Associated Press and the Pro Football Writers Association. He was named to the Dallas Silver Season All-Time Team, was selected by Sports Illustrated as the free safety on the magazine's All-Time Dream Team, was given the NFL Alumni Legends Award and was the free safety for the NFL All-Decade Team for the 1970s.

In 2004, Cliff was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. In 2013, the Little Rock Touchdown Club created the Cliff Harris Award, given annually to the best defensive player in small college football. And in 2014, Ouachita named its newly renovated football stadium Cliff Harris Stadium.

To understand what has driven Cliff through the years, one must first understand the story of his father. By age 50, the elder Harris had lost most of his sight due to diabetes. By the time Cliff began playing for the Cowboys, his father was having a hard time finding him on the field. At home, O.J. would turn down the sound on the television and listen to the radio broadcasts of Dallas games.

"Cliff didn't think much about it back then," Kevin Sherrington wrote a few years ago in The Dallas Morning News. "He was too caught up making and keeping his position with the Cowboys. . . . Cliff says he is who he is because of his father. He figures he still owes him."

"My dad never flew again after the war," Cliff says. "I played in five Super Bowls, and he never got to live his dream. I feel kind of guilty because I was so focused on myself all those years. I feel like I didn't do him justice."

I never saw O.J. Harris have a bad day after losing his sight. He was a profile in courage. And Big Margaret was always there for him. She wasn't a big woman in a physical sense. It was her personality that was big. Like her husband, the redheaded lady was always upbeat. When she died in October 2009 at age 83, her obituary stated: "Her devotion to her husband was an inspiration to all those around her."

Big Margaret had taken her wedding vows seriously--every word of them. She had given up a potential singing career to marry O.J. in February 1946, though her voice would continue to bless the churches she attended. During her funeral service at Piney Grove United Methodist Church near Hot Springs, there was much talk about her singing ability. Her strong voice also was effective in questioning the calls of football officials from the stands.

Through tenacity and a willingness to do whatever it took to succeed, Cliff overcame numerous obstacles in his football career to become one of the best defensive players in history. His parents, inspirations for all of us who knew them, wouldn't have had it any other way.

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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Editorial on 01/26/2020

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