2011 Hall of Fame Feature: Jessie L. Harris
SWAC.org
By Roscoe Nance
Jessie Harris is as much a part of women's basketball at Mississippi Valley State as the baskets at either end of the court at the Harrison Health Physical Education and Recreation Center, the Devillettes' home court.
Harris started the women's program from scratch as the Devilettes' first coach, and he is the winningest coach in school history with 380 victories in 27 years. Additionally, the 1971 Mississippi Valley graduate, along with Jackson State coach Sadie Magee, played a key role in SWAC reviving women's basketball in the early 1970s.
Thursday night in Birmingham, Ala., Harris will be recognized for his pioneering role when he is inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame.
"Back in 1989, I was selected Black College Coach of the Year," says Harris, who doesn't get excited about receiving awards. "It was nice to receive that award at halftime of the Hawks-Bucks (NBA) game. But it was three or four years later when somebody asked me how it felt before I thought about what it really meant. But this tops the cake. It means a lot to me."
Harris became coach of the Devilettes in 1973 as part of package deal. He was teaching math in a Juvenile Detention Center in New York City when Mississippi Valley fired men's coach Andrew Jones and replaced him with William 'Pop' Gaines, who had been head coach at Coahoma (Miss.) Junior College. Gaines had recruited Harris when Harris was coming out high school, and he hired him as his assistant.
That was a year after Title IX was enacted, and schools receiving federal funds had to provide greater opportunities to participate programs and activities. With that in mind, Mississippi Valley started women's basketball, and the job of coaching the team fell to Harris, and he ended up pulling double duty, in addition to taking a pay cut when he left New York.
"It was tough, but it was nice," Harris says of his early years coaching the Devilettes. "The thing was funding. It upset a lot of athletic directors. But some like (Alcorn State's Marino) Casem, (Jackson State's Walter) Reed and (Mississippi Valley's Chuck) Prophet fought for it. They wanted to improve things for women."
Harris relinquished his duties with the men's team after one season. In 1989, he returned to double-duty when he was named coach of Mississippi Valley's first volleyball team.
"I would like to say they asked me to do it," he says, "but I won't put it that way."
Frequently Harris on was on the road with one team when he needed to have been on campus practicing with the other. But in spite of the added responsibilities, he made Mississippi Valley a winner. The Devilettes won SWAC championships in 1988, '89 and '93. He was SWAC Coach of the Year in 1982,'87 and '88.
"I was able to get good players, and I was blessed by the Lord," Harris says.
SWAC didn't adopt women's basketball as a championship sport until 1975 and didn't stage its first conference tournament until 1982. In the interim, Harris established the Devilettes as one of the top programs among HBCUs.
"We were fortunate," Harris says. "When we started off, we started off winning. I give all the glory to God for leading me to do right thing. My main objective was to treat everybody the same."
Harris says he quickly learned that just as with coaching men. That approach didn't always work.
"Some you can yell at some you can't,'' he says. "Some you can use a word or two that you shouldn't, and they understand. It wasn't that tough. You have to be a coach. You see and you don't see; you hear and you don't hear. You do what you think is best, just like men. There's not a whole lot different. ''
Harris holds the distinction of beating every school in Mississippi, including Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi. The Devilettes ultimately made a name for themselves by for themselves by knocking several major schools on the road. They beat Oklahoma in Norman in 1989 and Florida State in Tallahassee in 1982.
"They were always eager to play anybody," says SWAC Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Shirley Walker, whose Alcorn State teams had a number of hotly contested matchups with the Devilettes.
"We really had to work hard to compete with Coach Harris. He laid the foundation at Valley for women's basketball. A lot of times team were afraid to meet Coach Harris at center court. His players would work hard. They would just play to the end until they accomplished what they were looking for."
Harris was an accomplished basketball player himself. He was a four-year letterman and team captain for the Delta Devils. The Chicago Bulls scouted him heavily during his senior season and invited him to training camp. But he never got notification. He graduated at mid-term and left school for New York after the season ended. He finally got the Bulls' letter two years after graduating when he returned to campus as the Delta Devils' assistant coach. He still has the letter, but he says he has never thought about what might have been.
"I really don't think about what might have happened," he says. "I'm pleased with my life. I have two daughters who were both honor students and graduated from Jackson State (at the head of their classes). I have a good life."
And now, that life includes a spot in the SWAC Hall of Fame.