A former Tiger Cat was honoured by Hamilton Police Services this week.
I pride myself on being a Tiger Cat afficianado but don't recall this guy.
Apparently he played Defensive End ... does anyone remember him and which era did he play?
From the 2010 Ti-Cat Media Guide, the only players named Harris listed on the "all-Time Roster:"
NAME YEARS # POS.
Harris, Bob ’80 62 oL
Harris, cooper ’97-99 38 LB
Harris, Jamie ’90 75 wr
Harris, Jim ’77-78 dB
Harris, Joe ’75-76 45 LB
Harris, Mike ’76-77 7 rB
8) No, I don't remember him at all. He does say that he played for the Cats, but a knee injury ended his football career.
He probably attended a training camp and was injured in a pre-season game. He was never on the active roster during
any regular season games.Then he really isn’t an ex Tiger Cat is he?
Sounds like a good cop though!
Sgt. Harris wins National Award
Sergeant John Harris, a 38-year veteran of the Hamilton Police Service, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Blue Line Magazine Police Leadership Award.
This award recognizes and encourages a standard of excellence that exemplifies "Leadership as an Activity not a Position," and pride in service to the public. Its goal is to increase the effectiveness, influence, and quality of Canadian police situational leadership from both an organizational and community perspective.
The five judge panel concluded that Harris epitomized the best qualities of leadership in police work. He has overcome physical adversity with an admirable tenacity and throughout his career he has demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities to his co-workers and community.
In the nominating papers, Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire wrote, "Sergeant John Harris is without equal as a Supervisor. He is equally a mentor, sympathetic listener, task-master and supporter.... his squad members consider him a co-worker... and he is the quintessential ‘cops’ cop."
A former CFL defensive end with the Hamilton Tiger Cats, Harris’ law enforcement career began after an athletic career ending ankle break. He moved on to join the Hamilton Police Service and currently supervises and co-ordinates a platoon of 35 patrol officers in downtown Hamilton. He has worked in many aspects of policing including: divisional patrol, special projects car, Criminal Intelligence and Motorcycle Gang investigation.
Open to active Canadian police officers below the rank of senior officer, the Blue Line Police Leadership Award is bestowed annually to those who have demonstrated exemplary leadership and commitment to service through deeds resulting in a measurable benefit to their peers, police service and community.
BACKGROUNDER
The Police Leadership Award was first bestowed in 1999 when it was instituted by the Canadian Police Leadership Forum. This group, with continual sponsorship from Blue Line Magazine, continued presenting the award until 2005 when the organization ceased to exist. Blue Line Magazine took up the challenge of recognizing notable police leaders with a search across Canada for a suitable candidate. A total of six nominations were presented to the judges at the beginning of March in order to bestow the recognition for the year 2010.
The judging panel was coordinated by former Peel Regional Police Chief Robert Lunney. Other judges on the panel included Kingston Police Chief (Ret.) William Closs; York Regional Police Chief (Ret.) Armand LeBarge; Director of the Atlantic Police Academy Edgar MacLeod; Royal Canadian Mounted Police Dep. Commissioner (Ret.) Roy Berlinquette.
FORMER RECIPIENTS
1999 -- Supt. Bud Bechdolt -- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
2000 -- D/Chief Robert Kerr -- Metropolitan Toronto Police
2001 -- Sgt. Barry Gordon -- Cape Breton Regional Police
2002 -- Insp. Robert Taylor -- Vancouver Police Department
2003 -- C/Supt. Kate Lines -- Ontario Provincial Police
2004 -- Chief Edgar MacLeod -- Cape Breton Regional Police
2005 -- Cst. Ojo Tewogbade -- Toronto Police Service
2010 -- Sgt. John Harris -- Hamilton Police Service
The award will be presented to Sgt. Harris at a special ceremony to be held on April 26, 2011 at 4:00 PM in conjunction with the Blue Line Trade Show at the LeParc Conference Centre at 8432 Leslie St., Markha
Source: http://www.hamiltonpolice.on.ca/HPS/News/sgtharris.htm
Apparantly, according to what I’m finding on-line, he was from the University of Minnesota before being picked up by the Tiger-Cats…and ended up being Hamilton’s first cop to be assigned to working the “1 % bikers”
I don’t know what you found on-line Deerhunter, but I found John Harris listed as the 1972 6th pick in the CFL draft. He is shown HERE on Total Football Stats as a Tackle from York.
Draft Picks 1972
Rd Ovr Pos Name College
1 4—FB—Walker, Tom Waterloo Lutheran
1 6—T----Harris, John York
1 7—DE—O’Shaugnessy, Mike McMaster
You never know what’s out on the web until you go looking!
My congratulations to a real TIger!
Oskee wee wee
This is from a book about a member of the Hells Angels where it mentions Harris quite a bit:
[url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vG4bfGwXZNIC&pg=PT86&lpg=PT86&dq=john+harris+tiger+cats&source=bl&ots=9F-Hx3sLES&sig=wDyMgdkvCtD-J-QcOkJa76_MDtU&hl=en&ei=j2mSTYXRMuXI0QG0yPHMBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=john%20harris%20tiger%20cats&f=false]http://books.google.com/books?id=vG4bfG ... ts&f=false[/url]I found a brief article from 1972 which mentions his release. The article is dated July 13, the same date as the Ti-Cats second exhibition game.
Great work tracking this one down by Dan_here, deerhunter and Stats_Man.
From what Dan connected us to, it sure looks like '72 was Draft bust for the Cats, even though it ended up with the Grey Cup win at home. 9 picks that year, including 3 first-rounders, and I don't think a single one of them ever played a regular season game.
DRAFT PICKS
Rd Ovr Pos Name College
1 4 FB Walker, Tom Waterloo Lutheran
1 6 T Harris, John York
1 7 DE O'Shaugnessy, Mike McMaster
3 24 FB Chalkley, Jim McMaster
4 33 WR Mays, Jerry McMaster
5 42 QB Smith, Dan Ottawa
6 50 DE Drexler, Mark Western Ontario
6 51 HB Baldosoro, Mark McMaster
7 59 DB Wiedenhoeft, Rick Waterloo
I love the link you posted. I’m having fun scrolling through it and looking at all the old prices… 