Alabama-Huntsville A.D. Harris Dies After Heart Attack

December 13, 2010 /
Al.com

HUNTSVILLE, AL – You begin to wonder sometimes.

How many hits can a group of people take? How many times can an athletic department already battling crippling budgetary limitations be expected to continue while periodically absorbing so much emotional pain in its gut?

For 16 years, the answer for those folks at Alabama-Huntsville sat in the first office just up the stairs in Spragins Hall.

Jim Harris provided the necessary resolve. He was the rock, the foundation, for the Chargers’ program.

Now, that sizable chunk is missing.

On Saturday night, Jim Harris died of a heart attack at age 63.

Just like so many other tragic moments the UAH community has had to endure since Harris took over in 1995 – his predecessor as athletic director, Paul Brand, had died of cancer – this one came suddenly, and without warning. Harris had attended the Chargers’ hockey game Friday night against Robert Morris and had been planning on going to Saturday night’s game as well when he was rushed to Crestwood Hospital.

A fighter to the end, Harris was overheard urging his caregivers in the ICU to hurry because “I’ve got to get to the hockey game.”

He never made it.

And UAH athletics never would have made it this far without him.

Harris took what Brand started – the latter guiding the Chargers from NAIA and into the Gulf South Conference – and pushed and prodded and cajoled in every direction. There were a pair of Division II national hockey titles, the softball program attained elite status, on-campus facilities arose and bringing home Lennie Acuff as men’s basketball coach proved to be an exceptional hire.

He asked plenty of his staff and coaches, but his expectations were never unrealistic.

“He expected you to do your job,” Acuff said. “But he was fair, and he was consistent.”

Above all, Harris simply had a passion for all things UAH. Which, of course, required a lot of energy and ingenuity.

He was never afraid to roll up his sleeves. In recent years, he had to do just that, sometimes breaking down tables and chairs after basketball games after fiscal attrition had whittled his work force down to the nub.

“Jim was the first one in the office, 5 a.m. every day,” said Antoine Bell, associate athletic director in charge of communications.

“If there was a night game – unless he had a meeting – he’d be there, regardless of the sport. He’d be there until the job was done.”

Too often of late, it never was. This past June, during a two-week period that he normally tried to take off, he found himself in the midst of trying to hire men’s and women’s soccer coaches and a hockey coach. He was also doing his best to hold the GSC together as the six Arkansas schools made plans to bolt for the new Lone Star Conference.

And then there was the hockey program, its very future in doubt without a league to call its own. The August 2009 decision by the Central Collegiate Hockey Association to deny the Chargers hockey team into the league devastated Harris.

It’s not a stretch to say the internal stress of the last few years proved to be too much.

“It’s been very tough,” Bell said. “And Jim had to make some decisions that were hard to make. But he believed in getting things done by any means necessary.

“I’ll always feel he only wanted the best for us. He was our leader.”

Never was that more evident than when misfortune struck. During his tenure, assistant women’s basketball coach Lindsay Floyd and avid hockey supporter Sam Bommarito died in car accidents, marketing and promotions director Jean-Marc “Frenchy” Plante passed away while playing street hockey, and Tia Sossamon died of cardiac arrest six months after resigning as the women’s basketball coach.

Earlier this year, Harris shut down athletics for almost a week in the wake of the campus shootings that left three professors dead.

“I think Jim was at his best when things were tough on campus,” Acuff said. “He never panicked. He was always that calm voice.”

Here are some of his own words on the subject of one of those tough times, as told to former Times sports editor John Pruett in 2003.

“I believe in each and every one of our student- athletes, coaches and athletics administrators. It was their inner strength, faith, determination and compassion that got us through those difficult times. We talked openly amongst ourselves during the mourning period, and that helped to celebrate the lives of those who had passed and to remember the contributions they all made to the programs and how their contributions better.

“At the appropriate time, we brought closure to each of the tragedies. We did so with the thought that these times have made us stronger, more compassionate and more determined to complete our mission.”

UAH has a major one ahead of it today. The lessons he taught those around him should serve them well.


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