True stories about Dave Harris

By John Herdan
Correspondent

Ok, since Dave Harris is in the news on our web site, it's time for a Dave Harris true story. This really happened!

Dave Harris and Tom Savegeau were broadcasting an Alexandria hockey game back in the days before the indoor arena at the fairgrounds. Dave and Tom would broadcast the game at Noonan's park from the top of a snowbank next to the rink standing in the midst of the crowd. Between periods they would broadcast from inside their car doing the stats while they warmed up. One particularly cold day there was actually a pretty good sized crowd and everyone stood elbow to elbow bundled up tight. Between periods when they got in the car to do the stats Dave commented on the size of the crowd. Tom replied, "Yes, Dave. I don't know if you noticed, but the coach's wife was standing right next to you." Then Dave says,"Oh really, I didn't recognize her with her clothes on."

Do you know what a cough button is? That's a little button you can push that shuts your microphone off so you can cough. Both Dave and Tom dived for their cough buttons and held them down so long the radio station thought they'd gone off the air. Fortunately they were able to recover long enough to finish the game.

How do I know all this?
In 1978-79 I worked as a realtor and substitute teacher in Alex. I was also hired to direct the pep band all winter including hockey (only boys back then). The night of the first home game it rained and Tom Savegeau got frozen into his garage. I happened to sit down in the seat where Tom would have been since it was the best seat in the house. Dave motioned to me to put on the headsets so I could hear his broadcast. The next thing I know he asks me a question about the game and I hear myself answering. Whatever I said must have been somewhat intellegent because the next day they offered me the job doing color commentary on all of the out of town games. The rest is history.

The worst place in the world to broadcast from is St. Cloud. The booth sits up in the corner at a 45 degree angle and you have a great view of one end but that's it. Fergus Falls was the coldest and Brainerd was the most dangerous as a puck took out one of our students who was sitting right behind us. That was the first time Dave left me alone with the mic and said "I'll be back when I find out how she is." Took him 20 minutes, the longest 20 minutes of my life.

As a reward for my broadcasting I got free tickets for the first day of the state tournament that year. As it turns out our seats were two rows behing Cheryl Tiegs who was in town to hype the switch of KSTP to the ABC network. She's really tall!!!!

I was just in contact with Dave this week since he is still the Region Secretary for the Minnesota State High School League and he hires me occasionally. I don't know if you knew that his son died this fall. I know he's had a tough time dealing with it. Dave is a real first class guy and one of the people I love to run into when I'm in Alex.