Football star dies in weekend crash

Micah Harris, a senior with an infectious smile to match his standout play as a defensive lineman on the football team, died Friday when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel driving through Virginia to visit his girlfriend. He was 21.

Harris was an hour away from his destination of Richmond just before noon, when his 1989 Volvo veered off Interstate-85 in Brunswick County, struck a tree in the median and burst into flames.

Sgt. D.S. Carr of the Virginia State Police said Harris was driving 10 miles over the speed limit but was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, after which witnesses rushed to the scene of the accident.

"Passers-by saw the crash and stopped immediately," Carr said, "but they were unable to help before the car caught on fire and burned up."

"He was just the type of guy that you can put him to anyone and you instantly like the guy," said quarterback Chris Dapolito, Harris' best friend and roommate last year. "He was just that nice, that caring, just a funny guy all around."

Even at 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, Harris blended into the student body and became very well-liked among athletes and non-athletes alike--jamming on his acoustic guitar in the dorms, singing and dancing at local bars, cracking jokes on his way to football practice.

"He was a gentle giant with a heart proportional to his body," said senior Nico Richardson, good friends with Harris since their freshman year. "The guy was a mountain of a man, but he wasn't like other athletes, where their stature can be intimidating. He was just too nice."

  On the field, Harris converted from outside linebacker to defensive end after his first season in 2001 and started on the line for the last two years. He battled injuries early this past season and returned to total 32 tackles and 2.5 sacks for the Blue Devils, bringing him to 124 tackles and 6.5 sacks in his career.

Despite his ability to sneak into the backfield, it was Harris' blithe spirit that steadied a football program plagued by loss after loss.

"His experience made a big difference for us," former head coach Carl Franks said in September 2003 after Harris returned from an injury to lead Duke to an early-season win. "He had a big smile on his face before, during and after the game."

Current head coach Ted Roof, formerly the team's defensive coordinator, worked with Harris as he made the transition to defensive end. "He was a converted linebacker and worked real hard to change his body, get bigger and play down," Roof said. "And he was a high-energy, high-effort guy and was a guy that had a very soft side to him, a very kind side to him."

In Ohio, where funeral services will take place Friday, Harris was a small-town hero, a big man on campus who led Poland Seminary High School to a 15-0 record and a state title his junior year with enough humility to fill that big frame.

"Senior year, he did everything but sell the popcorn at halftime," said Poland Seminary head coach Paul Hulea, who called Harris "superman" at Poland, as much for being a sports star as a community leader.

"He had a real presence here too," Hulea added. "Obviously a lot of his teammates while he was a player have been in town and have stopped by and seen us, and it was really neat, especially the first night, because I was just kind of sitting around listening and not one of them talked about a football story."

Harris, Dapolito and linebacker Giuseppe Aguanno had planned to drive to New York City for Harris' first trip to the Big Apple this weekend, but instead much of the team will attend Friday's funeral. Plans for a service at Duke have yet to be finalized, but Roof said it would most likely take place in early July, when the entire team returns to school.

Harris, the first Duke football player to pass away as an undergraduate since Mike Suglia died in 1977, is survived by a tight-knit family that visited Duke often: his parents, Diane and Richard Harris, and two brothers.