WVU Sports Hall of Fame
Major Harris was one of college football’s most exciting performers in the late 1980s. Coming to Morgantown at a time when West Virginia was coming off two straight seasons without going to a bowl game, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native ignited a flame in the Mountaineer grid program that led to the doorstep of a national championship in 1989.
After struggling through the early part of his redshirt freshman season, Harris had a breakout game against East Carolina in 1987 and never looked back. He produced 1,200 yards passing and 615 rushing yards that season in helping WVU to a John Hancock Sun Bowl berth against Oklahoma State.
A year later, he directed West Virginia to its first-ever undefeated, untied regular season and a matchup against No. 1-ranked Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. In getting the Mountaineers there, Harris baffled opponents all season long with his daring and unpredictable play.
That was never more evident than in West Virginia’s 51-30 dismantling of long-time nemesis Penn State. Harris out-gained the entire Penn State team, 301-292, and produced one of the school’s most exciting runs in the first quarter of that game. As the play clock wound down, Harris forgot the play he had called in the huddle. As soon as the ball was snapped, the entire West Virginia team went in one direction and Harris went the other. He faked out the entire Penn State team leaving no less than seven tacklers grabbing air on the way to the most gorgeous touchdown run in school history -- a mere 26-yards forever embedded in the memories of West Virginia football fans.
That run and several more like it helped him finish fifth in the Heisman Trophy race that year and earn ECAC player of the year honors. Harris became so popular with Mountaineer fans that he received write-in votes during the 1988 West Virginia gubernatorial election.
As a junior in 1989, Harris was equally spectacular despite not having as strong a supporting cast. He passed for 2,058 yards and rushed for 936 yards to finish third in the Heisman Trophy balloting. He earned first team Kodak All-America honors and was a second team AP and Football News All-American. Like 1988, Harris was again voted ECAC player of the year.
He established a then-WVU record with 7,334 total yards and became one of just two quarterbacks in Division I history to pass for more than 5,000 yards and rush for more than 2,000 yards during his career. His 2,161 rushing yards still ranks among the top 20 in school history and he still ranks among the school's top 10 in passing yards and total offense.
After the completion of his junior season, Harris opted to leave school a year early and was selected in the 12th round of the NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Raiders, although he would never play a down in the NFL. Instead, Harris played one season in the Canadian Football League with the British Columbia Lions and also spent parts of the next five years in the Arena Football League. His minor league football career included stops in Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia, Toledo, Ohio and Monroe, Michigan.
Harris was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009, and a year later was a 2010 inductee into the The Legends of the Sun Bowl. Harris was named an inaugural member of the Mountaineer Legends Society in 2016.
Major's West Virginia jersey number 9 was officially retired during the Oklahoma State game played on Nov. 6, 2021.
