Sure Shot
By Adam Rittenberg
Gameday Staff
When asked about his favorite sport, Northwestern linebacker Napoleon Harris does not hesitate to answer. He would rather slam dunks than quarterbacks, don tank tops instead of shoulder pads and play 2-3 zones, not 3-4 packages.
Harris grew up dribbling a basketball and only stepped on the gridiron after his cousin David decided to go out for football at a rival high school. With roundball awaiting him in the winter months, Harris’ drive to beat his cousin earned him a spot on the varsity squad at Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Ill.
The football-basketball balancing act had begun, and Harris was determined to steal the show.
“It was challenging, but at the same time I enjoyed it because a lot of people doubted me, said I couldn’t do it,” Harris said. “That was more of a driving force than anything, just proving people wrong, showing them I could play.”
Playing multiple sports was no novelty at Thornton, a haven for athletic excellence. Harris joined Indiana University quarterback Antwaan Randle El and current San Francisco 49ers receiver Tai Streets on the football and basketball teams.
Harris and Randle El have been friends and competitors since sixth grade. When asked his favorite basketball memory, Harris remembers catching a different type of pass from Randle El.
“It was in a basketball tournament, the Big Dipper at Rich South High School,” Harris recalled. “Antwaan threw me an ally-oop off the backboard and I caught it in the middle of the lane and dunked it.”
Thornton basketball became high school’s equivalent of the Dream Team. Randle El played point guard, Harris and Streets owned the boards, and current Fresno State star Melvin Ely labored in the low post. The result was a stunning 61-3 record from 1995 to 1996 and consecutive runner-up finishes in the Division AA state basketball tournament.
During his time on Thornton’s football team, Harris amassed 91 tackles and 24 sacks, earning an All-America football selection by SuperPrep his senior year.
“He was one of the best who ever came through here as a student and athlete,” Thornton athletic director Billy Manning said. “He is an amazing person.”
Harris’ stock peaked when the college recruiting period came around. Although his talent as a football player had surpassed his skills on the hardwood, Harris received attention from several Division I basketball coaches, including then-Tennessee coach Kevin O’Neill.
As the selection process wore on, Harris maintained one stipulation before accepting a football scholarship — that he would continue playing basketball. Since NCAA rules prohibited athletes on basketball scholarships from playing football, Harris planned to walk on to the basketball team.
“I discussed it with (former NU football coach) Gary Barnett before I even signed,” Harris said. “That was what I wanted to do and that’s what it was going to take for me to come here.”
Barnett obliged and Harris walked on to the basketball team in December 1997. Coming off the bench Harris appeared in 18 games, averaging 4.9 points and 5.1 rebounds for O’Neill’s first team at NU. He led the team in rebounding four times, and snatched 13 boards in a game against Indiana.
A workhorse in practice, Harris used his strength and athleticism to compensate for his comparatively short stature. At 6-foot-3, the Barkley-esque forward welcomed the challenge of facing bigger and taller opponents in the paint.
“He was an unbelievable fighter in practice,” former teammate Jeff Eschmeyer said of Harris. “Napoleon was the one guy who moved Evan (Eschmeyer) off the block down low.”
“We had our battles, I’ll say that,” Harris said of his encounters with the current New Jersey Nets center. “He knows it wasn’t any pushover when he played against me.”
Harris continued to shoulder both sports, appearing in all 12 football games during the 1998 season. Then, soon after joining the basketball team, Harris heard the news that Barnett was leaving NU for the head coaching position at Colorado.
Regrettably, Harris knew what he had to do.
After playing in only two basketball games before the coaching change, Harris informed O’Neill he would be leaving the team.
“The coaching change was taking place when Barnett was leaving and coach (Randy) Walker was coming in,” Harris said. “Those were not the coaches who recruited me so I wanted to dedicate more time to football so I could get a jumpstart with the new coaches.”
With six years of playing two sports now over, Harris had trouble letting go.
“It was tough,” he said. “I just had a sickening feeling in my stomach. I loved basketball and I wanted to play so bad. Seeing the other guys out there playing and practicing, that was really tough.”
“He thought about coming back,” Jeff Eschmeyer said. “He still came to practice and hung out with the guys, but he has a future in football and can have a good career.”
Turning his full attention to football, Harris flourished in 1999, starting six of NU’s final seven games and tallying 110 tackles, third-most in the Big Ten. Working to become a more knowledgeable player, Harris studied hours of videotape and starting conditioning himself solely to play linebacker.
“The best thing Napo did was to get busy in the weight room and get his size and strength to where it needed to be,” Walker said. “By doing that, it’s given him a chance to be a very good linebacker.”
The trio of Harris, Kevin Bentley and Billy Silva formed the linebacking corps for the final three games of last season and the first four games of 2000.
The three quickly formed a tight bond and motivate each other by comparing statistics.
“We’re going at it constantly,” Bentley said. “We’re in practice saying, ‘There’s my TFL (tackle for loss), I’d have made that one.’ And that’s what raises our level of play. Our motto is ‘Bar none’: We’re going to be No. 1, bar none.”
“I’d go so far to say I think we’re one of the better linebacking corps in the country,” Harris said. “I haven’t seen everyone play, but I haven’t seen any trio of linebackers that were better than us.”
Through four games in 2000, Harris has two interceptions and 37 tackles, including one sack. As one of the most energetic players on the field, Harris prides himself on besting his opponent on every down.
Having competed with current professionals like Streets and Eschmeyer, Harris looks to reach the NFL. “Why shouldn’t I?” he says, citing his major motivation for playing the game.
Yet even as he improves as football player, Harris’ first love of basketball is apparent to all those around him.
Bentley plays one-on-one pickup games against him, but usually can’t keep up. Walker is certain he made the right choice. Linebackers coach Jay Peterson is just sick of hearing about it.
“He tries to tell me, but I don’t want to hear it,” Peterson joked. “He does it during the off-season — he’ll try to mention how good he is, but it goes in one ear and out the other.”
