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Sad to hear of Harris' passing. It's been a long time since he referred a game but I always remembered him as one of the best.
I want to relate a Wally story told by Bob Miller, the long time announcer of the Los Angeles Kings, during an away television broadcast. This is from the late 70s or early 80s.
I don't recall if this was a game in Buffalo, just one in which Harris was reffing or another game entirely. But it left me with a strong favorable impression of Harris.
Miller said that during a past game involving the Sabres (maybe or maybe not with the Kings), their flashy center Gilbert Perreault was high-sticked and injured behind the play.
This was back in the days when there was just one referee on the ice and Harris didn't see the high-stick. When play stopped the Sabres converged on Harris and a heated argument ensued.
One of the linesmen skated over and tried to interrupt but Harris was focused on the arguing Buffalo players.
"Just a minute," Harris said.
The linesman again tried to interject and again Harris stopped him, "I said 'just a minute.'"
The linesman, however, interrupted again, "But I saw it."
"Saw what?" Harris asked.
"The high-stick. He high-sticked Perreault behind the play," the linesman responded.
"That's good enough for me," Harris replied and immediately called a 5-minute major on the offending Sabres' opponent.
If I recall it correctly (don't you wish broadcasts were archived like new stories with keyword searches?), what Miller was trying to impress on viewers was that the incident happened before the days when linesmen were able to call major penalties like that - and that Harris had the guts to make the decision based on what the linesman saw.
And that it wasn't too much longer after, unless I'm mistaken, that the NHL gave linesmen the authority to stop play and call such infractions when an injury had occurred (instead of reporting to a referee after the fact once play had stopped), recognizing that one referee couldn't possibly see everything that was happening on the ice.
Rest in peace, Wally Harris. |
