Coaches

Earl “Tree” Harris

Year Inducted: 1992

Category: Coaches

Schools / Organizations: 
(East St. Louis) Lincoln High School

Biography:  The late Earl “Tree” Harris graduated from Bishop College in Dallas, Texas after attending East St. Louis schools.  His first coaching job came at Bishop College assisting his collegiate coach, Jimmy Stevens.

His first head coaching job came in the small Texas town of Panhandle.  In the previous season, the team had won just 7 games.  In Earl’s only season at the helm, the squad went 28-4 and was a runner-up for the state championship.  

However, Earl had always dreamed of coaching in his hometown.  He returned to East St. Louis in 1951 as an assistant to his former coach, John T. Caldwell.  He was a volunteer the first year before being hired to a position and serving for 2 seasons.  He became the head coach of his beloved ESL Lincoln Tigers in 1954 when Caldwell became an administrator for the school district.  

Earl was the head coach of the Tigers for 16 seasons and recorded a 236-59 record.  Despite playing an independent schedule, several of his players earned “all state” recognitions.  Numerous players went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters after their collegiate careers.  Two notable players were Vic Rouse who was a member of the 1963 NCAA Champion Loyola Ramblers and Benny Lewis later became the coach at ESL Lincoln.  

It is difficult to document Earl’s accomplishments as many of the records and publications from that era no longer exist.  Earl Harris believed that, ” A high school coach is someone special. He takes kids at an impressionable age.  The responsibility is scary.  Whatever you say, those kids believe.  You get an awkward stumbling, bumbling boy and you work with him until he becomes accomplished.  That’s the true joy of coaching.”

Earl Harris was inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame posthumously but information about his passing is not known.