Harold Porter

Sport: Track and Field

Induction Year: 1997

University: UL-Lafayette

Induction Year: 1997

By Bruce Brown

Harold Porter needed convincing that he could be an athlete when he was in high school in New Orleans.

Years later, when he got the call informing him that he had been chosen for induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, he needed convincing once again.

Hall of Fame director Doug Ireland was on the phone at the same time as USL sports information director Dan McDonald, both delivering the good news.

“We had a three-way conference call going,” said Porter, whose dazzling speed set the standard for sprinters at USL and in Louisiana in the 1970s.

“Dan said, ‘You might not believe it coming from me,’ ” Porter said of his longtime friend. “I said, ‘You’re right.’ Some people will go to no ends to play a joke on a friend.”

But the call was sincere, and Porter’s credentials are in order to join the 1997 class to be inducted Saturday on the Northwestern State University campus in Natchitoches.

Porter ran the 100-yard dash in 9.2 seconds on the cinder track at McNaspy Stadium on the USL campus and remains among the school’s all-time leaders in the 100 meters (10.28) and 200 meters (20.68).

He also ran the scratch leg on the Cajuns’ 4 x 100 relay that clocked a 39.51. That remains the school mark 25 years later, teaming with Pat Gullett, Aaron Thompson and Don Credeur on a unit that placed third at the 1972 NCAA Championship.

That quartet also posted a 1:23.35 in the 4 x 200, still among the best in USL annals, and Porter was on a sprint medley foursome that clocked a 3:17.79.

“I guess it’s a little bigger than I thought at first,” said Porter of the Hall of Fame inclusion. “When they first called me to tell me, I probably didn’t give it a lot of thought.

“But since it was announced, I’ve gotten a lot of calls from friends and a bunch of letters.

“I heard about it so long ago (January), and it really didn’t sink in. Now that it’s getting closer to the time, I’ve got a lot of things to do.”

Such as write an acceptance speech, something Porter’s wife Joyce had to remind him to do.

“There are people I want to thank,” Porter said. “People from my grade school and high school eras who helped me – people at critical junctures in my life who helped me along.

“This is about all they can do to me,” said Porter, a salesman in Baton Rouge for 20 years with Johnson and Johnson. “I guess they’ll write the last one when God calls me home.”

Porter is in no hurry for that day, although he accepts that fate as easily as he won his first race in high school.

“I had been late for a physical education class,” he recalled, “and the coach had me run the 100-yard dash against the track team before the bus left.

“The other runners got down in the starting blocks, and I didn’t even know what to do with them, being from the ghetto.

“All of a sudden, it was time to go and they were way out in front,” he recalled. “I caught and passed them at about 70 yards.”

Porter’s time was an eye-catching 10.2, and by his junior year he was a key member of the East Jefferson track team with times of 9.7 at 100 yards and 21.3 in the 220.

As a senior, he won the 100 in 9.3 and the 220 in 20.6 at the state meet in Baton Rouge.

That speed drew attention from schools like Southern Cal, UCLA, Arizona, Tennessee and LSU, but USL coach Bob Cole’s persistence won the recruiting war and Porter was on his way to All-America status, NCAA Championship appearances and a pair of team titles in the Southland Conference.

Although he missed in a bid for the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team, falling short in the semifinals of the 100 meters, Porter was a member of United States teams that made goodwill competitive trips to the Soviet Union and communist China in the 1970s.

That was a long way from Porter’s humble beginnings.

“I accomplished a lot more than I thought I would, “he said. “I had a lot of aspirations – we all do – but my goals didn’t match what I did. I had no perception of what would happen.

“I didn’t think I was a good athlete, so I guess I was a little off target on that one. Even after I got into athletics, I was a laid-back kind of person. I never thought about making it into anyone’s Hall of Fame. I just thought I would go as far as I could with it.”