Burris, Harry Clifton 1921-2004

BURRUS, GRAVIS, BAMMEL

Posted By: Debbie Nash (email)
Date: 9/27/2004 at 22:29:53

Harry Clifton Burrus
September 24, 2004

Harry Clifton Burrus, 83, of Winter Haven, Fla., and formerly of Fairfield, died Monday, Sept. 20, 2004, in Winter Haven.

Burial will be in Lubbock, Texas, where his parents and grandparents are buried.

Mr. Burrus was born April 6, 1921 in Slaton, Texas. He married Wilma Norene Gravis April 10, 1942. She later died.

He graduated at 15 years of age from Big Spring High School in Big Spring, Texas. He then attended Hardin-Simmons University in the early 1940s, where he won All-Conference and Little All-America football honors as well as letters in basketball and tennis. He was inducted into the Hardin-Simmons Hall of Fame in the 1980s.

He was a member of the first Army Air Force team, the Randolph Field Ramblers, who were national football champions in 1944, and Fort Worth Skymasters. After receiving his undergraduate degree and completing military service, he attended Columbia University in New York and received masters and doctorate degrees. While attending Columbia University, he played three years of professional football with the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers in the All-America Conference, antecedent to the National Football League. In one game Burrus intercepted three of Otto Grahams passes.

Mr. Burrus moved to St. Louis, Mo., in 1949 to become a professor at Washington University. A member of the football coaching staff, he became athletic director in the late 1950s. As athletic director, he increased the number of varsity sports and enhanced the universitys intercollegiate competition. In addition, he and his wife created the Sports Skill School, a camp for elementary students teaching archery, swimming, tennis, gymnastics, basketball and track.

He played in St. Louis tennis leagues and was frequently highly ranked in singles and doubles. Instrumental in creating the Dwight Davis Tennis Center, he also was involved with junior development and ranking for the Missouri Valley Tennis Association. He sponsored and worked with tennis greats Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe as youths.

Mr. Burrus moved to Fairfield in 1966, where he and his wife were professors at Parsons College. In addition to coaching the Parsons College tennis team and hosting numerous tennis tournaments in Fairfield, he competed in Iowa tennis leagues and Missouri Valley sectional tennis play.

Active in national Father and Son tennis in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he and his son were listed by World Tennis Magazine a the second-ranked team in the United States.

He moved to Florida June 1973 to become a full-time tennis professional. He was named Master Pro, the highest rating of the U.S. Professional Tennis Association, and ranked first in the nation in Mens 65 Singles in the USPTA.

Survivors include one son, Harry Burrus of Houston, Texas; and one daughter, Lei Lane Bammel of Tucson, Ariz; and a brother, Ronald Burrus of Lubbock;

Courtesy of the Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc. 2004