In the Great Depression people were eager to see a hero of any sort. They went to movies with heroic themes. High school football was a favorite escape in Pineville where I grew up, as in many other places no doubt.

Football was a different game in those days than it is now. Players played both offence and defense. Substitution was limited. Once a player left the game he could not return in the same quarter of play. A team could have triple-threats who could run, pass and kick the ball.

Red Harp was a triple-threat who played quarterback on the Pineville High School team in the early 1930s. The team was just average during Red’s time, winning just about half their games. One sunny Friday afternoon the team was playing pretty well with few mistakes. In the third quarter Pineville intercepted a pass and ran it back for good field position. Red gained a few yards and followed with a pass to an end for a touchdown to tie the score. The kickoff left the visitors with the ball on their thirty yard line. Play continued with each team possessing the ball but making no progress toward scoring. Red made a spectacular end run, but to no avail. Progress was stopped there. Pineville had the ball near midfield. Red called the play and must have had a lapse of memory and messed up the play, losing fifteen yards and bringing up fourth down and twenty yards to go for the first down. Red’s punt left the ball in the opponents’ hands on their own thirty-five yard line. There they seemed to get their second wind, and started moving the ball down the field. Their ruling plays netted twenty yards and they added twenty-five more yards via passes. The onslaught continued from Pineville’s twenty yard line until they reached the nine. Pineville called time out and regrouped, realized their situation and ended the time out with great determination to stop them from scoring. They were pretty sure to try for a touchdown because they didn’t have a good kicker.

True to the calculations, the next plays all tried for a touchdown. The first of the series netted in a three yard loss. A pass to the end zone was incomplete. Two running plays advanced the ball to the one and a half yard line where the Pineville line held fast

It was Pineville’s ball but there was little room to develop a play. To be sage Red called for a punt hoping to get out of danger. On signal the center snapped the ball which came toward Red, but off course so that Red had to step to one side to catch it. That step broke his rhythm so that Red had no time to reset for a kick. There was only one thing left to do; he had to find a path across the scrimmage line with the ball. He found a small opening in the line, moved through and began dodging tacklers. Having dodged two or three he simply outran the others for a touchdown. As it turned out Red got possession of the ball just a yard inside the out-of-bounds line.

His touchdown run was a conference record 109 yards! 

People did not remember Red Harp’s stellar performance in his other years on the team, or even other games this banner year. People didn’t remember which team won the 109 yard game, or what team Pineville played that day, or indeed who won the game. Nevertheless there are folks around who after more than eighty years remember the name Red Harp and his amazing touchdown run.