TSWA Hall of Fame: Ed Harris had nose for news

His real name was Edward Morgan Harris, but to the people who worked with and knew him, he was simply "Ed."

Ed Harris will be inducted into the Tennessee Sportswriters Hall of Fame July 9 at Cumberland College in Lebanon. Harris died July 3, 1979 at age 70.

In the days Knoxville had two newspapers, the morning Knoxville Journal and the afternoon Knoxville News Sentinel, each paper covered the sporting scene locally, regionally, and nationally with a spirited but friendly rivalry.

"In our business, Ed has always been a vigorous competitor, strong on sniffing out a good story and then getting it," The News Sentinel's Tom Siler wrote June 3, 1974, just after Harris retired. "Ed can look back on more than four decades of fruitful labor in this vineyard."

He worked with the Journal on a part-time basis while at Knoxville High School. He was on the police beat before shifting to sports. He spent two years at the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and in Chattanooga before becoming news editor at the Journal.

He became sports editor in 1939 and kept that position until 1969 around a stint in the Army after Pearl Harbor. Harris then became executive sports editor, a position he held until he retired May 31, 1974.

"He was a down-to-earth-type guy who would have been a plus for any newspaper," said longtime colleague Ben Byrd said.

Ed wrote his "Top of the Morning" column two or three times per week for 35 years. He covered the University of Tennessee football program and enjoyed a fine relationship with head coach Bob Neyland.

Baseball was his "second love," and he spent many happy afternoons and evenings covering the Knoxville Smokies and K-Sox at Bill Meyer Stadium.

In the early 1950s, Ed Harris dubbed the University of Tennessee band the "Pride of the Southland," and, more than 50 years later, that's still the name. Give Ed Harris the credit.

Ed was a part of a famous brother act in Knoxville journalism, Ed with the Journal and Harold, five years younger, with the News Sentinel.

"Ed and I were just about as opposite as you could get," brother Harold wrote July 4, 1990, when the brothers were inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. "Ed was the Journal's sports editor, never made anybody mad. Ed worshipped at Neyland's shrine. I respected the man's ability as a great football coach. Ed's daughter, Loretta, told my wife, Chris, that it didn't matter, whatever side I'd take, he take the other and vice versa."

Ed authored two books, "Bob Neyland: 37 Years a Volunteer," published in the early 1960s, and "Golden Memories of Ed Harris: 50 Years in Big Orange Country," published in the early 1970s. After he retired, he was working on a third book and had done interviews with several ex-Vols, but the book wasn't finished because of his declining health.

He was a regular on the long-time WATE Radio football game day show called "Pigskin Panel," with E.L. "Tip" Tipton, Russ Bebb, and Byrd.

There was one final Ed Harris story that occurred near the end of his sojourn on earth.

"When I came back in 1977, I found out Ed was ill with cancer," John Majors recalled. "Ed had been sports editor of the Knoxville Journal during my playing days, and he was one of the finest folks I ever knew. I went to see him in the hospital and asked him how he was doing.

"The doctor tells me I'll last until you win the national championship at Tennessee," Ed said.

Majors did not immediately respond.

"Then he motioned me a little closer."

"John," he said. "Don't win it this year!"

That was Ed Harris.

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), available now in second edition, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). Comments may be sent to tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."