TU basketball great Steve Harris was one of a kind
Although the word ‘great’ is thrown around too much, it could never be used enough when talking about Steve Harris.
Harris was not only a great player, but even more importantly, a great human being. There isn't anyone anywhere who didn’t like him.
The soft-spoken Harris, who played at Tulsa from 1981-1985, was as good as any Golden Hurricane player to put on a TU uniform. Certainly, he was the best shooter. He is the last first-round NBA pick from TU, and was the third of six TU players to have their jersey number retired.
There were a few players in college history that could be considered better, but the list isn’t long. Bird, Magic and Alcindor are three that come to mind.
Even Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest pro basketball player of all time, may not have been better in college. The only time Harris and Jordan met in college, Harris outplayed Jordan and Tulsa won 84-74 at ORU’s Mabee Center when both players were sophomores.
Nicknamed “Silk”, Harris had a style that could not be confused with any other player. If you saw Harris playing, you knew it was him.
Harris wasn’t a long-range bomber, but wasn’t an inside player, either. The 6-foot-5 Harris was a mid-range shooter who seemingly was moving forward most of the time while shooting, often levitating over defenders. Most of his shots came from the eight to 18-foot range.
Harris was such a good shooter that fans literally were surprised whenever he missed a shot.
In the age before three-pointers, Harris actually did play 18 games as a sophomore with the three-point line in conference play. He made four three’s that year.
When paired with Ricky Ross in the backcourt in the 1983-84 season, after Ross moved to point guard, the two formed arguably the best guard combo in TU history. And it led to one of the greatest seasons in TU history, as the top-20 ranked Golden Hurricane finished 27-4.
Harris was good immediately, averaging in double figures his first year coming off the bench for a top-20 team that returned the nucleus of the NIT Championship 1981 squad under coach Nolan Richardson.
Amazingly, he wasn’t even highly recruited. Perhaps it was because he didn’t fit the mold. He was a bit frail looking as a freshman, as he entered college as only a 17-year-old. He was quiet.
But it didn’t take TU assistant coach Andy Stoglin long to figure out how good Harris was.
The story goes that Stoglin, upon seeing Harris warm up on a recruiting trip to Blue Springs, Missouri, immediately told Richardson that TU had to have Harris.
His college roommate was Vince Williams, another equally soft-spoken and genuinely kind human being. Williams was a terrific defensive player, and like Harris, was from the Kansas City area from the same recruiting class.
Williams and Harris are now reunited, as Williams passed away at age 38 after living for over a decade after a heart transplant.
At Tulsa, Harris got better every year, finishing as Tulsa’s all-time leading scorer with 2,272 points. He is still second on the list, 16 points behind current TU assistant Shea Seals. He still ranks 2nd in steals with 271 -- just 28 behind Eric Coley.
He has a career scoring average of 18.6 points, including 23.6 in his senior season where he shot 54.7 percent from the field.
One of the funny memories I have of Harris was at the old Mabee Gym at TU. I was with some friends playing on one court, and across the gym I saw this left-handed player draining every shot he took. I couldn’t tell who he was, since his back was to me.
It didn't take long until I realized it was Harris. He was working on his left-handed shot. Truly amazing.
Drafted by the Houston Rockets, Harris played in the NBA finals his first season on a loaded team, and never really got the chance he deserved in five NBA seasons. Still, he averaged seven points per game in only 13.7 minutes per game over his NBA career.
Watching him score 22 and 18 points in two games against the then mighty Boston Celtics in his second season was proof he could have been an NBA standout if given the chance.
It was touching for the TU players to wear a patch of his #20 on their uniforms Tuesday night, in Tulsa’s smashing win over Temple, to commemorate the 52-year-old Harris’ passing from colon cancer the day before.
Even in his last days, he was touching lives.
For those who knew him, knew of him, or saw him play, they all know he was one-of-a-kind.
