A Look Back at Ocean City
By Fred Miller
Twenty years ago, Tom Williams, award winning columnist, named Archie Harris as Ocean City’s “Male Athlete of the Century.”
Archie Harris was a four-year letter winner in football, basketball and track at Ocean City High School from 1933 to 1937. He was a member of the All-State Football Team, and three years in a row he broke the state record in the shot put and discus.
Harris was the best high school discus thrower in America when he competed in the 1936 Olympic Trials. He missed making the trip to Berlin by 7 inches. Unfortunately, World War II forced the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games and ended Harris’ dream of winning an Olympic gold medal.
In 1937, Harris enrolled at Indiana University. He quickly became well known for his play on the football field. He was on the 1940 All-Big Ten team.
By 1941, Harris had gained world-wide fame for his long distance discus throws. “Harris Shatters Discus Standard” was the headline in the June 21, 1941 New York Times. A smaller banner reported “Toss of 174 feet 8 ¾ inches in N.C.A.A. Meet on Coast Breaks World Record.” The old record of 174 feet 2 ½ inches was set by Willi Schroder of Germany in 1935.
Harris spent his summers during high school and college working as a lifeguard on the Ocean City Beach Patrol. In the late afternoon, when everyone had left the beach, he would practice throwing the discus and shot put. A crowd would quickly gather along the boardwalk at Fifth Street to watch the world champion athlete workout.
Harris left the beach patrol to fight in World War II. He joined the Army Air Corps where, after learning to fly at the Tuskegee Flight School, he became a fighter pilot. He chalked up 10,000 hours as a bomber pilot with the much-decorated 617th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Composite Group, Tactical Air Command.
After the war he tried to get a job as a commercial pilot, but in 1946, no one would hire an African-American pilot. He found work as a New York longshoreman, but he found racial discrimination was also on the waterfront. African-Americans were not put in positions of authority. After ten years on the docks, he moved up only two small steps.
“Discrimination in the North” was the banner across the cover of the March 11, 1957 issue of the most popular weekly magazine—LIFE. Archie Harris was featured in the article which described the job discrimination he and other African-Americans faced at the time.
In 1957, seeing no future as a longshoreman, and realizing he had no chance of becoming a commercial pilot, Harris became a physical education teacher at the Harlem, New York YMCA. He spent the rest of his life improving the lives of young people.
Archie Harris died on October 29, 1965 after a lengthy illness. He was 47 years old. He is buried in the Beverly (NJ) National Cemetery.
