John Harris (30 June 1917 – 24 July 1988Sheffield United official matchday programme, 3 September 1988) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

nicknamed "Gentleman John".

Playing career

Harris was the son of former Scottish international centre-forward and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East En ...

player Neil Harris. He played for

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

before moving to Swansea Town in 1934 when the side was managed by his father. In 1939, he played for both

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club' ...

. Like most players in his era, his

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

appearance tally is much lower than it would have been had the war not broken out but he continued to play for several years afterwards. Between 1939 and 1943, he made 121 guest appearances for

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, scoring 15 goals. Harris also played once for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

in a wartime international. He joined Chelsea on loan from Wolves during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and captained the club to victory in the Southern War Cup final at Wembley in April 1945. In September 1945, Harris signed permanently for £5,000. A tough-tackling but skilful

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, Harris was a regular in the Chelsea side throughout his career and was club

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

until

Roy Bentley Roy Thomas Frank Bentley (17 May 1924 – 20 April 2018) was an English football player and manager. A former forward, Bentley played 367 games for Chelsea and captained the club to their first League Championship in the 1954–55 season. H ...

took over the role. He was a member of Chelsea's 1954–55 First Division-winning side, making 31 appearances that season. In eleven years, he made 364 appearances and scored 14 goals. During his final season at Stamford Bridge - 1955–56, he became the first professional coach for Surrey Senior Leaguer's Croydon Amateurs and after a slow start, probably due to the players not being used to the intensity of the training and methods, laid the foundations for the club to start to become one of the competition's leading clubs. The Chelsea / Croydon connection carried on as he was replaced by Albert Tennant for two seasons before he took over as Guildford City's manager and then Chelsea youth manager Dick Foss replaced him at Albert Road for ten years.

Managerial career

He left Chelsea in April 1956 to become player-manager of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

before retiring to concentrate on management. He took over from

Joe Mercer Joseph Mercer, OBE (9 August 1914 – 9 August 1990) was an English football player and manager. Mercer, who played as a defender for Everton and Arsenal in his footballing career, also went on to manage Aston Villa, Manchester City and Engl ...

as manager of

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

on 20 April 1959 and finished the season third, seven points behind second placed

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

. His first full season finished in fourth place. Harris was a quiet dignified man and, moulded his players into a highly efficient team without fuss, always shunning the limelight. To him, the team was more important than the manager. This attitude produced a harmonious dressing room and, as a result, effective and attractive performances on the field of play. Finally in 1961, his Sheffield United team won promotion from the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

as runners-up to

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

, mainly due to his purchase of Welsh international winger

Len Allchurch Leonard Allchurch (12 September 1933 – 16 November 2016) was a Welsh professional footballer. Allchurch played in the English Football League for almost twenty years, playing in the top flight with Sheffield United and having lengthy spells wit ...

for £12,500 from

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the C ...

. Under Harris, United enjoyed numerous runs in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

(reaching the semi-finals in 1961 for the first time since 1936) and the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. Despite financial problems, he led United to fifth place in the first season back in the top division, and over the next few years relied on a steady flow of youngsters graduating from the Northern Intermediate league team to replace players sold to remain in profit. After years of mid-table finishes, he was "promoted" to general manager in August 1968 after the team had been

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

the previous season, replaced by

Arthur Rowley George Arthur Rowley Jr. (21 April 1926 – 19 December 2002), nicknamed "The Gunner" because of his explosive left-foot shot, was an English football player and cricketer. He holds the record for the most goals in the history of English lea ...

. However, Rowley was sacked within a year and Harris returned as manager in August 1969. In the ensuing years, he made astute and highly effective signings with players such as Tony Currie,

Alan Woodward Alan Woodward (7 September 1946 – 21 May 2015) was a professional footballer who played in the position of outside right for Sheffield United over a 16-year period between 1962 and 1978. Woodward or ''Woody'' as he was nicknamed, will be be ...

, Len Badger, Geoff Salmons, Eddie Colquhoun, Bill Dearden and

Gil Reece Gilbert Ivor '"Gil" Reece (2 July 1942 – 20 December 2003) was a Welsh international footballer. Described by former Wales manager Mike Smith as ''"a very quick player, sharp and tough"'', he made over 300 appearances in the Football League d ...

all signing for

the Blades A blade is a sharp cutting part, for instance of a weapon or tool. Blade or Blades may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Blade (character), a Marvel Comics character **Blade (New Line franchise character) **Blade ...

, and resulted in Sheffield United winning promotion from the Second Division in 1970–71. Harris understood the principle of getting the right man for the job and, this was typified by his signing of Trevor Hockey to boost United's promotion challenge in 1971. Sheffield United started the 1971–72 season in great form and, under the guidance of Harris they stayed top of the First Division with an unbeaten run of eleven games from the start of the season. Harris resigned in December 1973 to become the club's Senior Executive. In June 1977 he finally left United and was soon acting as scout for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

. He later became a

lay preacher Lay preacher is a preacher or a religious proclaimer who is not a formally ordained cleric and who does not hold a formal university degree in theology. Lay preaching varies in importance between religions and their sects. Although lay preache ...

. He died in 1988, aged 71, in Sheffield.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, John 1917 births 1988 deaths Chelsea F.C. players Chester City F.C. managers Chester City F.C. players Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Scottish football managers Sheffield United F.C. managers Swansea City A.F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players English Football League players Southampton F.C. wartime guest players Scotland men's wartime international footballers Men's association football defenders Sheffield Wednesday F.C. non-playing staff Anglo-Scots