PICTURES: Wolves honour Jack Harris
A true football man - that's how the late Jack Harris has been remembered as Wolves unveiled a bronze bust of one of its saviours.
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The sculpture of the late former Molineux director and chairman was revealed for the first time by the Harris family at a ceremony in the club's museum attended by chief executive Jez Moxey, director John Gough and vice-president Rachael Heyhoe Flint.
The sculpture was made by James Butler, who produced the superb statues of Billy Wright and Stan Cullis standing outside Molineux.
Harris, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 79, first collected the keys to Molineux from the Receiver after the club went bust for the second time in four years in 1986.
It was a complicated deal which saw Asda build a supermarket on land near the ground and Wolverhampton Council take over ownership of Molineux.
But it finally ended uncertainty about the club's future when Wolves were at their lowest ebb, and within months, Harris was paying £64,000 out of his own pocket on an unknown striker called Steve Bull.
Harris remained associated with the club until his death and Moxey recalls how his input was invaluable.
"Earlier in my time here, he was a very calming influence and we desperately needed that," said the chief executive.
"He did have this approach of 'act in haste, repent at leisure'. So he was a real true football man.
"I've always believed that throughout the ups and downs in football, I'm cool and collected regardless of the madness going on around us.
"We don't always manage to maintain that but it's a good lesson to learn from.
"I think I've got some of what Jack had. He should be remembered as a saviour of the club and that's what this bust is about."
Harris, whose car and automobile parts business, JA Harris, is still going in Telford, was a director in the two-man board with Dick Homden as chairman from 1986-88 before taking over as chairman from 1988-92 after which he continued to serve on the board.
And he was delighted to cut the ribbon to open the new South Bank when it was named after him in December 1993 with a friendly against crack Hungarian team Honved in a rematch of the iconic 1954 match.
When Sir Jack Hayward bought the club in 1990, he insisted Harris, who had earlier served on Walsall's board for 17 years and before that at Newport County, remain on the board.
Heyhoe Flint recalls: "Sir Jack was sitting in a car park in Plymouth with Jack and Billy Wright when he gave us the news that he had bought the club.
"But he said he would only do it if they both agreed to be on the board with him. Jack agreed and we can only thank him for bringing Steve Bull and Andy Thompson here.
"So to Jack Harris, we're incredibly proud and grateful. He had what I call an enigmatic smile; he was probably quite emotional inside but it never showed.
"When you were thinking of getting rid of someone he would always say 'careful what you wish on yourselves'."
Jack's son John Harris said: "On behalf of my family and friends I would like to say what a great honour it is to unveil this bust.
"He would have been immensely proud of this occasion and this wouldn't have happened but for the generosity of Sir Jack.
My first memory of dad turning up at Wolves was in 1986 to meet the receiver outside the old Waterloo Road Stand.
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"The receiver handed him a big bunch of keys and said 'there you go, you've got yourself a football club. Good luck - you will need it!'
"With a lot of luck and hard work they managed to go from the Fourth Division to the Second, and the great man (Hayward) turned it into what it is now through to the present chairman and it's looking in great shape.
"He used to smile quite a lot when we won - let's hope he carries on smiling."
Members of the Harris family present included son John, and two of his four daughters Jane and Julie, along with John's wife Margaret, their two sons Oliver, 32, and James 24, Jane's partner Jeremy Lewis and Julie's daughter Lucy, 18.
