Speaking of Sports: The Man Behind the Game

As the College’s unofficial go-to sound tech, Brent has taken it on himself to make sure that the president, student speakers, dean, and registrar are clearly heard by those attending Commencement ceremonies on the College mall.

 

But during Commencement 2010 he was struggling.

 

For months he’d been fighting a mysterious respiratory problem, inexplicably losing weight, appetite, and energy. He had a cough that hurt just to hear.

 

He went to the doctor but refused to take time off from the dizzying spring sports schedule. First it was long days and nights during the 26-game basketball season. Then wrestling. It was easy to tell when Brent was in the building that winter: just listen for the cough. Then it was swimming, tennis, and golf. Then the basketball banquet. Then baseball; he promised he’d take a break from the weekends and late nights after baseball. Maybe after the conference championships. Or that banquet.

 

Suddenly it was Commencement. A last-second decision to move the ceremony indoors sent Brent and Media Center Director Adam Bowen scrambling, lugging speakers as people streamed by them into Chadwick Court. When I walked in, Brent was ashen-faced, hunched over a cable he was following in search of a loose connection, stopping only to cough, trying to keep focused on the task at hand so he wouldn’t fall over.

 

President White had ordered him to take time off starting the next day. If he’d seen Brent at that moment, he would have sent him home on the spot. 

 

But Brent was the only one there who could get the sound to work in this configuration. He knew the system. And he wouldn’t quit until those voices were heard. Short of knocking him over the head and dragging him off the court—and I was tempted—there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. 

 

That afternoon after the ceremony he made it home and collapsed. Tests for cancer came back negative; doctors drained a           serious infection the size of a softball from his right lung, and summer gave him time to recuperate. 

 

But many had noticed Brent’s deteriorating condition at Commencement, and word of his illness spread throughout the Wabash community. When the National Association of Wabash Men named him an honorary alumnus, I wondered if the thought of losing such an essential member of the community had fast-tracked an already well-deserved honor. Or if a few of the many students he’d mentored during the past 12 years, or the hundreds of athletes he’s covered as if they were pros, or the dozens of coaches whose teams he had kept in the spotlight had urged the NAWM to make official what we all already knew: that Brent had been a Little Giant the day he first set foot on campus as a sports volunteer in the 1980s.

 

To mark the occasion, I followed Brent around with my camera during Homecoming Saturday, documenting what an ordinary football Saturday is like for the Wabash SID. The photos are a behind-the-scenes look at things you never imagined had to be done—and done well—to make football Saturdays a reality at Wabash. Visual proof that, as Director of Public Affairs Jim Amidon wrote, Brent’s “background in broadcasting and journalism, knowledge of computers and technology, and passion for sports combined to make him the perfect person to take Wabash athletics into the digital age.” 

 

But I hope at least one of those images catches a glimpse of the man behind the job, who, as Jim says, “is a model for our students. Who carries out his responsibilities with integrity, joy, enthusiasm, and dedication.” Believe it or not, we would have eventually found someone (maybe several someones) to fill Brent’s ridiculously open-ended job description had we lost him two years ago. It’s the man behind the job who is irreplaceable. 

 

As well as he does his work—as media coordinator, sports expert, historian, event planner, Web content provider, broadcaster, photo-grapher, writer, statistician, and teacher—he’s even better to work with. A man of faith who has sought out his Jewish heritage, he’s the workplace equivalent of the athlete who makes those around him better. The consummate team player. A student of history and the Civil War, especially of his beloved Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. 
A good singer, even if he is entirely too enthralled with Les Miserables and 1776. True, he is unforgiving of malfunctioning printers and copy machines, but with us, he errs on the side of kindness.

 

Walking into the Chapel on Homecoming Saturday after getting the press box ready for the football game, Brent was receiving congratulatory handshakes with every other step. Alumni, faculty, current students, coaches, parents—they all knew him. And Brent was relaxed, completely at home, unlike many who stand nervously on that stage to receive such an honor. 

 

Then a Chapel full of the Wabash family saw something rare—Brent Harris standing still. His iPhone holstered, he listened as NAWM President Greg Castanias ’87 read: 

 

“R. Brent Harris, for spending more than half your life in service to Wabash as volunteer and sports information director extraordinaire, for your love of and passion for Wabash athletics, and for so carefully and positively mentoring the young men of Wabash, the National Association of Wabash Men is pleased to name you an Honorary Alumnus in the Class of 2003. Brent Harris—Some Little Giant.”

 

For the first time in 12 years of Saturdays in the fall, no one was asking Brent to do anything but smile.

 

Lower Photo: Brent gets a congratulatory hug from former Wabash Athletic Director and Wrestling Coach Max Servies ’58.