Legendary football coach to be inducted into National High School Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025
 

   MONTGOMERY – The Alabama State Legislature recognized former Blount High School head football coach Ben Harris Tuesday afternoon at its general session. State Representative Napoleon Bracy of Mobile introduced a proclamation congratulating Harris for being selected for induction into the National High School Football Hall of Fame. He will be inducted June 14, 2025, at Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of professional football and home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
    Harris was joined by his wife and daughter and AHSAA Associate Executive Director Brian McRae, as well as the entire legislative members from the Mobile area at the ceremony Tuesday.
    “I am so grateful,” Harris said in his address to the Legislature. “I have been very blessed.”
   Harris, who was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, was recognized in a proclamation compiled jointly by State Legislature’s House and Senate. Harris attended Toulminville High School in Mobile where he was an outstanding quarterback and an All-Star basketball player. He then attended Alabama State University where he became one of the most prolific quarterbacks in Hornets history.
    He took over in 1988 as head football coach at Mattie T. Blount High School in Prichard, a team that had gone 33-61-1 from 1978-1987 in the 10 years before he arrived. However, Harris’ teams won four Class 5A state championships (1990, 1992, 1996, 1997) over the next 10 seasons compiling 100-30 record during that stretch and produced some of the state’s legendary stars – among them the AHSAA’s first single-season 3,000-yard rusher Sherman  Williams (Alabama); defensive lineman DeMarco McNeil (Auburn), who as the first true lineman to earn the Alabama Sportswriters Association Mr. Football Award in 1998; outstanding SEC quarterback Dameyune Craig (Auburn); and wide receiver Deandre Green (uburn), named the AHSAA’s Class 5A Back of the Year in 1998. 
      Harris was named Alabama High School Coach of the Year twice by the news media and earned the AHSAA 5A Coach of the Year four times. He was head coach of the Alabama team in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Football Game in 1991 and an assistant in 1997.  He also received the NFL High School Coach of the Year Award in 1997.
      After a two-year break, Harris returned to coach at Daleville High School for two seasons and six more seasons at Blount before health issues forced him to finally retire. He has been honored as Citizen of the Year awards three times for civic and religious activities and was inducted into the Baldwin County High School Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Alabama State University Hall of Fame in 2024.
    Harris finished his ASU career in the top five for both passing yards and total offense. He led the Hornets to a 4-0 record in the Turkey Day Classic and a 10-2 overall record against rivals Miles, Alabama A&M and Tuskegee.
     Harris, who is still Blount High School’s all-time career football coaching wins leader,  went on to win 135 games in 19 years as a high school head coach, most of which came in two stints with Blount. From 1988-1997, his teams went 100-30 and won 5A state championships in 1990, 1992, 1996 and 1997. The Leopards were 30-4 in region play during that tenure and won eight region titles.  His 1996 team finished 14-0, and his teams won 30 of 35 playoff games in the 1990s – including one stretch of 14-out-of-15. Prior to Harris’ arrival, Blount had reached the AHSAA state playoffs just twice.
   “Ben was a father figure to many of my teammates, especially those who were growing up without a father, “ said Tony Hairston, an all-star lineman on some of Harris’ great Blount teams in a recent Al.com interview about his beloved coach. “He would take us to church, ride around the neighborhoods to make sure his players weren’t hanging out on the street corners. He taught us to treat others the way we wanted to be treated.” 
   Harris is a member of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alabama Football Coaches Association, and the 1997 NFL High School Coach of the Year Award. He also was named  the  Mobile County Citizen of the Year in 1996. In 2003 he was awarded the Lefty Anderson Service through Coaches Award.
    Harris is being inducted into the National High School Football Hall of Fame’s third class. Also selected is another AHSAA standout from Mobile County, Hanford Dixon. The 1974 Theodore High School graduate went on to earn All-America honors as a defensive back at Southern Mississippi. Drafted in the first round of the 1980 draft by the Cleveland Browns, he earned All-Pro honors during his NFL career with the Browns – which spanned from 1981-1989. He finished with 26 interceptions and 440 tackles in 131 games. Dixon was inducted into the Southern Miss Hall of Fame (1980) and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
    The National High School Football Hall of Fame Class will be the third class inducted.
The first class in 2023 included the famed Manning family of quarterbacks – Archie and his sons Peyton and Eli Manning.
     Joining Harris and Dixon in the Class of 2025 are other football legends: running back Ken Hall of Sugarland (TX) High School;  quarterback Tim Couch of Leslie County High School (KY);  quarterback Warren Moon of Alexander Hamilton High School (CA); Olympic legend Jim Thorpe, Carlisle Indian Industrial School (PA); and quarterback Michael Vick, Warwick High School (VA). A total of 38 players and coaches are being inducted.