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Heavyweight Contender Roy Harris, Barefoot Boxer From Cut and Shoot Texas
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Four time Texas State Golden Gloves champion Roy Harris won the Texas Olympic Trials in 1952, and later won the Texas State and Southern Heavyweight titles as a professional. A four year graduate of Sam Houston State College, secondary school teacher Roy Harris was nicknamed ‘Cut and Shoot’ because he was from the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas.
Turning pro in April 1955 with a third round stoppage of Tommie Smith at Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Roy Harris emerged in the heavyweight era immediately after Rocky Marciano’s retirement as perhaps the next ‘great white hope’. The world took notice as Harris won 23 bouts in a row, and magically became the mandatory challenger for Floyd Patterson’s World Heavyweight title at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles on April 8, 1958.
Less than 24 months after Marciano retired, the American public and the world thought they had the next ‘great white hope’. A rare 19 minutes of 1958 footage from the Roy Harris and Floyd Patterson training camps, and highlights of the bout in black and white 16 millimeter footage, long believed to be lost, was rediscovered by this reporter on line athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARvibHtSbdc A serious world title try by Harris.
Unfortunately Patterson, the world heavyweight champion at the time, disposed of the supposed successor to Rocky Marciano, knocking Harris down in round two and round seven, twice in round eight, and again in round 12. Harris did not answer the bell for the thirteenth round back in the 15 round world title era. Both Harris and Patterson would lose to Sonny Liston, who would then claim the world title. Harris later lost a ten round decision to Henry Cooper, the British and European Heavyweight champion, who later became the first man to deck Muhammad Ali. A pair of losses to Canadian Heavy weight champion Bob Cleroux forced Roy Harris into retirement at age 27. Harris finished his career with 30 wins and five losses, with nine knockouts. His world title loss to Floyd had discouraged him, and after only six years as a pro, Harris gave up on his boxing career.
However, Roy Harris did not give up on himself. Roy Harris left his boxing and secondary school teaching careers behind, and subsequently went to law school. Harris became a licensed real estate broker in 1960, was admitted to the Texas Bar as an attorney in 1972, and served as county clerk of Montgomery County Texas from 1972 to 1995. At age 83, Roy Harris is the oldest living heavyweight title challenger who did not win the title, and uniquely the only heavyweight boxer who went on to achieve success in the legal profession!
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