Walker Harris
From 7-21-14
There is no way to measure the impact that Walker & Cora Harris had on my coaching career! Walker was a very successful Chrysler dealership owner, and also was the mayor of Covington, Ga. The two main ways that Walker & Cora helped me was the support they gave their sons, Stanley & Tony, to be a major part of our basketball program! All Stan & Tony did in a total of eight years of play was help win 232 games, while losing only 27, winning 25 different championships, including 6 Region titles, a State Championship, a State Runner-up, & numerous individual honors! (I won't even attempt to cover here, the story of Tony & his wife, Donna, & how they bought a house & moved to Loganville, in order for their daughters, Katie, Lucy, & Laney, to play for our son, Coach Bill Bradley, who coached The girls' basketball & softball teams at LHS.). Recently Stan's lifetime friend, Tim Hopkins, who was once an all-star catcher for me on our championship baseball teams, was expressing to me how much we all miss Stan Harris! When Tim sent me his thoughts on his close friend, Stan, I said "Wow!"--& I can't improve on what he wrote, so with his permission, I am sharing some of his memories of Stan:
"Many people remember Stan as a standout basketball star for NCHS in the mid-60's, but before he decided to concentrate on basketball in high school he was also an outstanding 1st-baseman in the Newton Co. Little League program with Jimmy Gardner's Covington Braves. He later starred at 1st base for Buddy Baker's Covington Mills Pony League team. Stan was also a great "tag football" player, in what we called the "Leaf Bowl" on the side-
yard of his house on Floyd St. In Covington. As much as he loved all sports, Stan loved music as well! His favorite band was the Beach Boys, and he knew virtually every lyric to each of their songs. Every time they appeared in Atlanta, we would be there, mostly at the old city auditorium. Stan also loved the Beatles and we were there for their show at old Atlanta-Fulton Co. Stadium in the mid-60's! If it was music in the '60's & '70's, Stan knew the title, the artist(s) & probably the words. With the family being in the automobile business, Stan also loved cars and NASCAR. We made it to a number of the racing events over the years such as Atlanta Motor Speedway, Talladega Raceway and best of all, Daytona! Stan loved the Daytona Firecracker 400 and he loved Daytona Beach! We had some really great times in Daytona where the Harris' owned a nice beach condominium. There are also memories from Atlanta Cracker games (best vanilla custard ever), the Atlanta Braves & Falcons, & UGA. I will never forget the time that Stan, I, Becky, & a friend of Becky's, visited Becky's parents at Ft. Lee at Petersburg, Va. What a blast that was! Stan liked to give friends nicknames and many of the stuck, many of me friends didn't know my real nam was Tim rather than Sam. My 9th grade home room teacher even had my name as "Sam" Hopkins on my report card! Stan was tall and slender, but boy, could he put away the food! Growing up, his favorite food was old-fashioned southern home cooking. When Stan & Becky got married, she developed into quite a good cook! It was a real treat that she cooked. We also liked to hit the "catfish restaurants" in the area, with our favorite being Louis Lang's place on Jackson Lake. They had the best hushpuppies you ever tasted. Stan was also good for a few "pranks" from time to time. One that stands out in my mind was when we were at Middle Georgia College. The student population was starting to grow due to so many baby boomers hitting college campuses. This caused us to have 3 guys to a dorm room for a while. Stan & I had a roommate by the name of Leon from Smyrna, whose last name I can't recall. He, unlike Stan & I, was an early riser. During winter quarter when it was still dark in the early morning hours, he would get up, shower & head over to the dining room across campus for breakfast before his 1st period class. Stan decided we would have a little fun with him by setting his alarm clock ahead a few hours. This required a sacrifice on our part to wake up earlier than normal, but it was worth it when he got just outside the dorm and saw a campus clock showing about 2:00 AM. We went back to sleep laughing! Even after Stan & Becky married, we lived in the same apartment building in Athens & included Becky as a part of Stan in our activities. When you were friends with Stan, you were friends for life! Even as we grew older and didn't see each other as much, it was like a day hadn't gone by and we were young again. Once Becky came into his life, it was the same times ten! Those two were totally devoted to each other. I doubt you could find anyone who was family, friend, classmate, teammate, or just an acquaintance who would have anything bad to say about Stan. He was a prince of a guy and he left us way too early. However, he left us lots of fond memories to savor."
