He attended Hyde Park High School in Chicago where he played football as a center.

[1] He attended the University of Chicago, where he was a member of Amos Alonzo Stagg's football teams that won consecutive Western Conference championships in 1907 and 1908.

Harris was the head coach of the 1908–09 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team.

[3] During World War I, Harris served overseas in the U.S. Army's Rainbow Division under the command of Douglas MacArthur.

[2] He married Sylvia Morrison; they had two daughters, Ruth M. Harris and Roberta Tugenberg.