Harris misses a UT home game first time in 48 years

KNOXVILLE — Former Chattanooga Times sports editor Buck Johnson has watched Tennessee football games from the Neyland Stadium press box since 1959.

Saturday night, the Volunteers’ contest with Mississippi State mere minutes from the opening kickoff, Johnson noticed something he had never witnessed before.

“Did you hear how quiet it got when David (Grim) said his first word on the (press box) microphone?” Johnson asked. “You could’ve heard a pin drop. They instantly knew that wasn’t Haywood’s voice.”

That might be because Haywood Harris missed his first UT home game in 48 years due to health reasons, though there is no truth to the rumor that the Vols’ struggling play made him sick. He is expected back for this Saturday’s visit from second-ranked Alabama.

The 79-year-old Harris retired from the school as associate athletic director for media relations in 2000 but has continued as public address announcer within the press box.

Said Bud Ford, who replaced Harris as sports information director in 1989 and as associate AD when Harris retired: “Haywood’s under house arrest. He hates it.”

He has loved the Vols for decades. He began working full time for the school in 1960, then moved to sports information the following year as the last hire by Gen. Robert Neyland, who died in 1962.

But even before he became employed by UT, Harris was already becoming a household name in Big Orange Country thanks to the “Locker Room” radio segment he and close friend Gus Manning had begun broadcasting in 1958 as part of the Tennessee pregame radio show.

In fact, even though his doctors told Harris he couldn’t attend the Mississippi State game, he and Manning still taped their “Locker Room” spot this week, focusing on the Vols’ 7-0 loss to MSU in 1950, UT’s lone defeat in a national championship season.

“I’ve grown up my whole life around Gus and Haywood,” Ford said. “In fact, I was Gus’s paper boy when I was growing up. Between the three of us (Manning was sports information director before Harris), we span 57 years of UT football. Not having Haywood around today has been kind of tough.”

It is toughest on Manning, who is rarely seen without Harris when the Vols are on the road.

“He lives just a block from me,” Manning said, “so I’m up there to see him almost every day. I think he’s going to be fine. It will be tough to keep him away from the Alabama game.”

For Johnson, Harris’s absence was equally unsettling.

“Obviously, we go way back,” he said. “One thing I’ve always admired about Haywood is he’s always known the best restaurants. If you’re with Haywood, you’re going to get a good meal. But what I’ve always most admired about Haywood is he’s a perfectionist. Whatever he says, you know that’s it.”

As the game began, Grim said he hoped his first turn behind the press box mike would be his last.

“I want this to be a one-week gig,” he said. “I want Haywood back.”

No offense to Grim, but after spending the past 48 years with Harris, the rest of the press box was wishing the same.