By MARK MILLER
Liberty Center High School and Manchester University legend Dick Harris was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame during a banquet held in Indianapolis on Wednesday evening.
The 1964 Liberty Center graduate holds the career scoring record at the school that was consolidated into Southern Wells Jr./Sr. High School in 1972. He also lettered three years in track and basketball at Liberty Center.
Harris was on the Liberty Center team that famously played a 9-overtime game in the Marion Regional semi-finals in 1964, losing to Swayzee. It is a record that still stands.
Harris had fouled out of that game during the fourth quarter; it was widely agreed that had he not fouled out, Liberty Center would have most likely won the game and gone on to play the heavily favored Marion team in the evening finale.
“But looking back,” he told the News-Banner in a recent interview, “it would have been just another game and we would be long forgotten.”
After graduation, Harris went to what was then Manchester College, where he was named four-time All-Indiana College Athletic Conference, three-time All-NAIA District and All-American.
When he was inducted as a charter member into the Manchester Hall of Fame in 1994, he still held 16 individual Spartan records, including most points scored in one game (54), points scored in a season (790) and career points (2,643).
After graduating with a degree in biology, he was drafted by the NBA Cincinnati Royals before being drafted into the Army. He was named to the 1972 United States AAU team which participated in the sixth International Cup tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He led the USA team to the championship and a gold medal.
Harris taught biology for a few years in Huntington and later became a commercial airline pilot. He and his wife Donna live in San Diego, California.
Wednesday’s schedule included a reception at the Hall of Fame building in New Castle before driving to Indianapolis for the evening reception and dinner.
In his speech at the banquet, Harris expressed his gratefulness to his father.
“When I had just started playing, he said to me that it is easy to be better than every one else when you’re bigger. You need to learn to play the game better,” he told the crowd. Harris was listed at 6-’4.5” during his playing days.
He gave credit to his high school coach, Richard Butt, and his college coach, Claude Wolfe, for helping him develop those skills. He also thanked his teammates in both high school and college.
“I would like to dedicate this evening to my family members and my friends that are no longer with us,” he concluded his remarks. “They may not be here in person but they are in spirit. They are looking down with smiles on their faces.”
The banquet honored a total of 17 inductees in the 2024 class that included two other familiar names: Dan Dakich of Andrean High School near Merrillvile, who went on to play at Indiana University; and Al Gooden, Fort Wayne Wayne who played at Ball State University and then coached for a number of years at several high schools, including Wayne.
miller@news-banner.com
