Rest in peace old friend.
We’re deeply sorry to report that Duke legend Bob Harris has passed away at the age of 81.
Harris was behind the mic for Duke football and basketball games from 1976 to 2017. He was a born talker, and we mean that in the best possible sense: he was like the guy next door who was always happy to see you and to chat a bit and his conversational gift was profound. He could talk to a vast radio audience just as easily as he could one-on-one and just as warmly.
Harris treated everyone the same - warmly and with great kindness.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
One of his best moments, though it embarrassed him, was when disgraced Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong spoke to him on Election Day during the Duke Lacrosse hoax and tried to shake his hand. Here’s the exchange.
Nifong: “You’ve got to be nicer than that.”
Harris: “Get out of here.Don’t pull this crap.”
Nifong: “This isn’t about Duke. This isn’t about Duke at all.”
Harris: “No. It’s about honesty. You’re not honest.”
This was at a point when very few people recognized the truth of what was happening and it’s the only time we can ever remember Harris being short with anyone. He might have been the most pleasant, genial man who ever lived. He didn’t know he was on camera when that happened and it embarrassed him. It needn’t have: he was entirely right about Nifong as would later become clear.
He told us a story once of chatting with Dean Smith on an airplane and telling Smith how much enjoyed chatting with him but he sure hoped Duke beat the heck out of UNC next time. Smith laughed and said he understood, of course.
How many people could have elicited that from Smith?
His last years were not easy though.
Harris and his lovely wife, Phyllis, kept tickets at Cameron and we were lucky enough to sit next to him often. As always, he was gracious and conversational. You couldn’t have asked for a better person to sit next to.
The last time we saw him though he wasn’t the same. He said hello back but with a kind of distance that was...unsettling. You wondered if you had somehow offended him.
Later of course his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was revealed and it made perfect, heartbreaking sense: the greatest, most natural conversationalist we’ve ever known wasn’t able to talk to just anyone anymore. The disease had robbed him of his innate openness. How difficult that must have been for him and his family.
We’re so sorry that he’s gone but for anyone who ever spoke to him or heard him on the radio, Harris will remain a friend and a fond memory. And you’ll probably hear him next March, if not before, when Christian Laettner’s shot against Kentucky is replayed during the tournament and you hear Harris’s legendary call of that play.
