Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University Department of Athletics mourns the loss of former men's basketball student-athlete Chipper Harris (1980-84), who passed away Saturday, May 26, 2018. He was 55 years old.
Born August 30, 1962 in New Kensington, Pa., Harris was a four-year letterwinner for the Colonials. He appeared in 118 games, including 90 starts, and compiled career totals of 1,942 points, 405 rebounds, 436 assists and 450 steals while shooting 51.4 percent (821-for-1,598) from the floor and 78.9 percent (300-for-380) at the free-throw line.
A 1995 inductee into the
RMU Athletic Hall of Fame, Harris served as the program's all-time leading scorer from his junior season until 1994 and currently ranks second all-time behind former guard Myron Walker (1990-94).
Harris averaged 16.4 points per game over his four-year career at Robert Morris, which ranks third in the school record book. He is tops in program history for field goals (821), field goal attempts (1,598), steals and steals per game (3.8) and also ranks ninth in assists and field goal percentage.
During his four seasons in a Robert Morris uniform, Harris teamed with guard Forest "Bay" Grant (1980-84) to give the Colonials one of the best backcourts in the country. The duo helped lead the Colonials to back-to-back ECAC Metro Conference Tournament championships (1982, 1983) and subsequent bids to the NCAA Tournament.
In 1983, Harris scored 16 points, dished out three assists and posted a steal in a 64-54 win over Georgia Southern (3/15/83) in the opening round of the 1983 NCAA Tournament in Dayton, Ohio, at University of Dayton Arena. It marked the first NCAA Tournament victory for Robert Morris, which had jumped from junior college to NCAA Division I prior to the 1976-77 season.
The performance by Harris in the opening round of the 1983 NCAA Tournament followed arguably the most dominating offensive performance in conference tournament history. In three games of the 1983 ECAC Metro Conference Tournament, Harris scored 86 points in averaging 28.7 points per contest, two records that stand today. He also averaged 4.7 steals per game in the 1983 ECAC Metro Conference tourney.
Named to the
Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America Team in both 1982 and 1983, Harris was also selected to the All-ECAC Metro Conference Team by
Eastern Basketball Magazine both seasons. In each of the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons, Harris led NCAA Division I in steals. The final honor for Harris came as a senior, when he was named the 1984 ECAC Metro Conference Player of the Year. He shared the honor with Carey Scurry of LIU Brooklyn and Robert Jackson of St. Francis Brooklyn.
In February of 2014, Harris was the first student-athlete to be named to the
Robert Morris Ring of Honor, which was devised in the summer of 2013 to honor the very best of the program in its Division I basketball history. In a special halftime ceremony Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, Harris had his No. 10 jersey unveiled in the rafters at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
Upon conclusion of his career with the Colonials, Harris was picked in the 1984 National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft with the 148th selection (seventh round) by the Kansas City Kings.
Prior to his career at Robert Morris, Harris helped lead Valley High School to the 1979 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) state championship as a junior. In addition to being a member of the RMU Athletic Hall of Fame both individually as well as with the
1981-82 Robert Morris men's basketball team, Harris is a member of the Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame and the Pittsburgh Basketball Club (PBC) Hall of Fame.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
What They're Saying About Chipper Harris
Matt Furjanic
RMU Head Coach (1979-84)
"Between Chip and Bay, they were the best backcourt combination in Pittsburgh. Everything we did defensively started with those two guys up front. They put so much pressure on other teams. Chip was a hard worker and he knew how to win. A lot of the guys from that team came from winning high school programs. Chip was just so quick, and he was never part of any false hustle plays. Even with all his steals, he never gambled or hurt us defensively. Chip was just a tremendous, tremendous, player on both ends of the court. He could attack the basket, he could pass and he could break a press. Chip wasn't a gunner and wasn't greedy. He just wanted to win. What I'm proud of is that all of the guys on those teams have stuck together throughout the years and have always kept in touch. It's remarkable how they've stayed in close contact with each other after all these years. It's really unique from any team I've coached. We're all just devastated on Chip's passing. It came out of nowhere."
Jim Elias
RMU Assistant Coach (1982-96)
RMU Basketball Color Analyst (2002 – present)
"Losing Chip is like losing a member of my family. I was lucky enough to coach Chip and Mark McCloud in high school and at Robert Morris, and the three of us were intertwined for many years and remained close friends to this day. Everybody knows he was a great basketball player, but he was an even better person. I will really miss him but never will forget him."
Forest "Bay" Grant
RMU Teammate (1980-84)
"It's a tough loss. When I met Chip, he and I were like the odd couple. He was the quiet one, and I was more outgoing. We both came from winning high school programs, and at the time Robert Morris was suffering a lot on the court. I remember our freshman year, we felt that the program was accepting of losing. Chip and I started talking to each other, and we wanted to change that because we were used to winning and we hated losing. That really helped forge a bond between us. I was a natural point guard, while Chip was a natural two guard. He was just a tremendous shooter. It got to the point that I could feel where Chip was at on the floor, and he could feel where I was on the floor. One of the things I'm most proud of with Chip and I is that we really helped build the program and helped lead us to two NCAA Tournaments. We moved into a leading role, and the attitude for Chip and I was let's continue winning. It became the same way off the court. Whenever you saw Chip, you saw Bay. We found ourselves hanging out at each other's parent's houses. We were inseparable. I'm going to miss him tremendously."
Andy Toole
RMU Head Coach (2010 – present)
"Anytime a college basketball program has success, it adds another layer of tradition to the program. At Robert Morris, Chipper, along with his teammate, Forest Grant, helped lay the first brick and, therefore, the foundation of our NCAA Division I tradition. His exploits on the court are well documented, but he was just as good of a person off it. Our thoughts are with his family."
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