(Part 1)
It’s a family affair, it’s a family affair. It’s a family affair, it’s a family affair. One child grows up to be somebody that just loves to learn. And another child grows up to be somebody you’d just love to burn. Mom loves the both of them, you see it’s in the blood. Both kids are good to Mom, “Blood’s thicker than the mud.” It’s a family affair, it’s a family affair. (Sly and The Family Stone, 1971).
This is a story about the NFL legend and future Hall of Famer, James Henry Harrison Jr., as told by his family. This chronicle represents more than peeling back the layers from a man and athlete that might appear to the untrained eye to be mainly focused encountering and overcoming the bodies, minds and oftentimes the spirits of those that oppose him on the gridiron. How did James Henry Harrison Jr., arrive at this point?
What circumstances and events served both as the compass and divining rod that helped him navigate through and find the treasures of gold and fame that were at the bottom of the tumultuous seas of development of the NFL and arrive at the still waters of eternal greatness? It was and continues to be a family affair when it comes to loving and nurturing James Henry Harrison Jr. He has turned out to be a shoo-in as a future NFL Hall-of-Fame player, (he should be unless politics gets in the way) because his tenacity and passion has redefined the very definition of “contact” in the world of professional football on all levels.
The story of James Henry Harrison began on May 4, 1978 in Akron, Ohio. He was the last of fourteen children. Harrison’s mother Mildred Harrison was quick to point out that James was spoiled a lot more by his siblings than his parents. Mrs. Harrison pointed out: “They spoiled him more than I did. If James was about to get a whipping his sisters’ Crystal and Shabira would begin to cry. They would even offer to take the whipping for him.”
Although Harrison’s outer demeanor is defined as almost always sporting a perpetual scowl, his brother Johnny says that is not an accurate definition of the persona of his baby brother. “He is silly, everybody thinks that he is mean but he is still a big kid because he was so spoiled by all of us. He would do what we asked him to do but believe it or not, there were times that he would be a crybaby, especially if you called him Henry.”
Johnny continued on, saying that if his siblings continued to call James “Henry” James would say, “Mummy and Diddy, they keep calling me Henry.” Mrs. Harrison said that she had to sit young James down and explain to him that the name Henry was just another part of his name. “His name was Henry, his father’s name was James but I called him “J.” I had a nickname for him that I rarely used and I am not going to use it now. When they continued to call him Henry, I sat him down on my lap and explained to him that his dad’s name was James Henry Harrison and his father’s name was James Henry Harrison. After that when they called him Henry he didn’t cry anymore.” His sisters recalled how they would put a blanket over him and pretend that they were going to suffocate him. Both Mildred Harrison and Brother Johnny burst into laughter and challenged his sisters’ to “do it now.”
As a matter of fact his brother Johnny echoes sentiments to this day that even now when James Harrison is on the football field they would prefer to take some of the hits and punishment being dished out to him because to them it doesn’t really matter that he may be one of the strongest and more focused athletes playing in the National Football League or in the entire sports world for that matter. In spite of his unique athletic prowess, his siblings constantly worry about his well-being as he continues to perform in perhaps the world’s most violent contact sport because after all is said and done, he is still just their “baby brother.”
The beginning of the football career of James Harrison can only be described as “greatness in jeopardy,” because it almost never got off the ground. His mother did not initially want him to compete in the sport. It took Harrison and his best friend from childhood, David Walter, to convince her. According to Mrs. Harrison: “David Walter, (his mom just recently passed away) lived across the street from us. David was playing ball and he would come over and I would teach James and David how to dance. David wanted James to play football and I didn’t want James to play football. They kept on and on and then his father joined in. So now it was all three of them. I then told James okay you can play ball but here’s the deal. Your daddy has to be at all of your practices. He has to take you to the doctor, he has to do everything that needs to be done, and he did it all. His dad really didn’t miss a game or a practice until he passed.”
After such a great effort to get James Harrison onto the football field, fire and brimstone would sometimes be unjustifiably attached to Harrison even during his early high school years. He initially attended Archbishop Hoban High School but exited the school and enrolled at Coventry High School after an event that can only at best be described as: “ethnically insensitive.”
Mildred Harrison recalls a specific event that happened when James was attending Hoban High School as a freshman. “When James was at Hoban, they wanted him to compete with some 12th graders. I didn’t want him to but Mo Tipton said that James could handle it, I said no he couldn’t but he would be practicing with them (12th graders) sometimes. One of the boys on the team took a 12th graders phone book and blamed it on James. James told him: “I didn’t do it.” James was of course afraid because these were 12th graders and James was just a 9th grader. So the guy came back with another guy and confronted James and James punched one of them and knocked him out and the other one ran. My husband happened to be delivering at Hoban at the time, so they called him up to the office and said that, “his son had ‘snuck’ a 12th grader” and my husband said: “I refuse to believe that my son ‘snuck’ anybody.” They called me up to the school and I guess I and/or my son was expected to apologize, that’s when I took my son out of Hoban.” Well it looks as if James Henry Harrison Jr. may have grown up to learn, burn and earn.
Next week: Part 2: The James Harrison Story: It’s a Family Affair
Dancing with “the Turk”
(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412-583-6741 Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe)
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