Carroll Wayne Harris is a retired
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional
footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player who was a
linebackerA linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...
for the
Calgary StampedersThe Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
of the
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
from 1961 through 1972.
High school and college
Harris was a high school all-American who played collegiately for
University of ArkansasThe Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the names of college sports teams at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The term Arkansas Razorbacks properly applies to any of the sports teams at the university. The Razorbacks take their name from the feral pig of the same name...
from 1957 to 1960. In 1960, he was selected as the outstanding player in the Southwest Conference and played in the Cotton Bowl Classic and the
All-American BowlThe All-American Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama from 1977 to 1990. The game was known as the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985....
. He was nicknamed, "Thumper."
CFL
Harris was drafted by the Boston Patriots of the
American Football LeagueThe American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
, but went to play in
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
instead for 12 years, all with the
Calgary StampedersThe Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
. Out of 12 years, he was named all-Western Conference 11 times and all-Canadian nine times, appearing in three
Grey CupThe Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
finals: the
56th Grey Cup56th Grey Cup was played November 30, 1968, and the Ottawa Rough Riders defeated the Calgary Stampeders 24 to 21 before 32,655 fans at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium...
of 1968, the
58th Grey CupThe 58th Grey Cup was played on November 28, 1970 before 32,669 fans at Exhibition Stadium at Toronto. The Montreal Alouettes defeated the Calgary Stampeders 23 to 10...
of 1970, and the
59th Grey CupThe 59th Grey Cup was played on November 28, 1971, before 34,404 fans at Vancouver's Empire Stadium.The Calgary Stampeders beat the Toronto Argonauts on a slick rain covered field in an extremely close 14 to 11 match.-Box Score:First Quarter...
of 1971, the latter being the only victory among the three, when he was named Most Valuable Player in the game. In the
1971 CFL seasonThe 1971 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the eighteenth season in modern-day Canadian football, although it was officially the fourteenth Canadian Football League season.-CFL News for 1971:...
, thanks to help from tackles
John HeltonJohn Helton is a former defensive tackle for the Calgary Stampeders from 1969–1978 and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1979-1982 of the Canadian Football League.-High school and college:...
and
Granville LigginsGranville 'Granny' Liggins was an American football and a Canadian Football League player.-College:At the University of Oklahoma, Liggins was not only a football player, but also a wrestler...
and safety Larry Robinson, Calgary allowed only 218 points in 16 regular season games, best in the CFL, fewer than any Eastern Conference team playing two fewer games. Harris was fierce but also savvy, so that opponents had a difficult time outmaneuvering him on either pass or run plays. His jersey #55 was retired by the Stampeders in 1973.
Awards
Harris was has been inducted into the
Canadian Football Hall of FameThe Canadian Football Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is an open to the public institution. It includes displays about the Canadian Football League, Canadian university football and Canadian...
, the
College Football Hall of FameThe College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
(2004), the
ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
Sports Hall of Fame, Arkansas' all-century team for the 20th century, and the
AlbertaAlberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
Sports Hall of Fame. In November, 2006, Harris was voted 9th among the CFL's
Top 50 playersThe TSN Top 50 CFL Players was a list of the greatest fifty Canadian Football League players, as selected by a panel of sixty former CFL players, then-current and former coaches, executives, and media members in 2006. The panel was assembled by sports television network TSN in partnership with the...
of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network
The Sports NetworkThe Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
/TSN, no linebacker being ahead of him.
Post-football
Wayne Harris is now a full time physical education teacher, at William Aberhart High School in Calgary, Canada. He also volunteers his football know-how to the school's football teams.
Videos
CFL Hall of Fame member
Seen in game 3 of the 1970 Western finals in its entirety