'I've worked at Portsmouth for 73 years - for free': True Blue Barry Harris on alligators, Sir Alex Ferguson's friendship and Harry Redknapp's biscuits
The former Dockyard scaffolder and window cleaner has also spent the last 73 years working at Fratton Park
The framed letter from Sir Alex Ferguson has temporarily been removed from pride of place on the wall along the second set of stairs.
With a new shower in the process of being installed at his Southsea home, Barry Harris was wary about leaving his cherished memorabilia exposed to potential damage with workmen busying around.
Dated October 2017 and signed by the Manchester United managerial legend, it had been sent to congratulate Harris on his 65th anniversary of working at Fratton Park.
‘I was always aware of your presence every time we played you, sometimes to my annoyance!,’ it reads. ‘I hope you all have a very enjoyable evening to celebrate your anniversary and outstanding commitment to the club!’.
Since starting off as Pompey’s team mascot at the age of eight in 1952, Harris has become a permanent Fratton Park fixture, proudly serving 35 permanent managers in wide ranging roles including the Pompey Sailor, reserve-team physio, boot cleaner and match-day kit helper.
‘Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to talk about my time in Pompey’s Dockyard’
Indeed, the 81-year-old’s versatility has seen him deal with alligators, scout in the Premier League, act as chauffeur for Alan Ball, serve as Harry Redknapp’s tea maker and, as of this month, now a published author.
And remarkably, as a working volunteer, he has never taken a penny out of Pompey during 73 years with the club he adores.
‘The first time I met Alex was when he came to our hotel at Mottram Hall before dinner in January 2003. We were playing an FA Cup match against them the following day,’ Harris told The News.
‘He was at a table with Harry Redknapp and Jim Smith, while I was on my own at the bar. Jim being Jim called over to me: “Hey, don’t you want to sit with us?”. They explained to Alex my involvement with Pompey and he bought me a pint of bitter.
‘I listened to their stories, but, to be fair, Alex was interested in me, asking a few questions about my 17 years in the Dockyard and my time with Pompey. He was really fascinated by the Dockyard, he and his dad both worked in the Glasgow shipyard.
‘From that point, he remembered my name and would always shake my hand when we met at games. He’s a nice man as well as being a great manager. He manipulated referees, but that was just his way.
‘After we won at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in March 2008, I shook Alex’s hand and said “All the best in Europe”. He then wished us all the best in the semi-finals - then told the press his team were robbed and the referee was bad. He never mentioned that to me!
‘Mind you, I saw Bobby Charlton in the corridor while we were packing the coach. He tapped me on the shoulder, shook my hand and said “Even Dick Turpin wore a mask”. Yes, it was our day.
‘On the day of my 60th anniversary, Alex rang me up that afternoon while I was at home, wishing me all the best. It never occurred to me to ask how he got my number. Then, five years later, he sent me that letter, congratulating me.
‘It’s funny who you meet in football. It has been 73 years for me at Pompey so far, the years don’t wait!’
Started as Pompey’s mascot in August 1952
Born in his family home at Spurlings Farm, in the village of Wallington, Fareham, during a Second World War air raid, Harris was first introduced to Pompey at the age of eight in February 1952.
Accompanying dad, Bill, and brother, Cyril, to an FA Cup fifth round fixture with Doncaster Rovers, it was a winning start, with Bob Jackson’s Division One side claiming a 4-0 victory.
The opening day of the following season saw Blackpool visit Fratton Park in August 1952, led out onto the pitch by a new team mascot - Harris. It began an association which remains to this day.
He later worked as the Pompey Sailor, involving walking around the pitch with a Play Up Pompey placard before home and away matches in an attempt to gee up the supporters.
He continued to be a volunteer when he progressed to become physio for the Blues’ reserve and youth teams, before taking on the role of cleaning players’ boots, washing the balls and, on match days, helping with kit duties.
Harris added: ‘I enjoy being around the players, that emotion when you win and disappointment when you lose. When you’re in that dug-out, you hear the views of managers during the game. You learn a lot.
‘I have never been on the payroll, working for my club is an honour in my book. I get match tickets, I get tracksuits, I’ve stayed in hotels with the team overnight, so I’m looked after.
‘Harry Redknapp would tell me I’m just as important as the players because I always have a smile on my face and a joke to tell. I wouldn’t go along with that, but it’s nice of him to say that all the same.
‘Last year, when I was in hospital for three weeks after an operation following cancer, he phoned a couple of times to see how I was. He was brilliant, the best manager since I started following Pompey in 1952. At that time, our Division One title-winning team was just starting to break up.
‘Someone had stolen Harry Redknapp’s custard creams’
‘When Harry was manager, he loved having a custard cream with his cup of tea on the coach back after games, so I’d hide them away to make sure nobody else pinched them.
‘I remember coming back from Blackburn and, as usual, he asked for a cup of tea, but I couldn’t find the biscuits anywhere. Harry was properly angry: “I never ask for much on this bus, I ask for a biscuit and cup of tea and can’t get one”.
‘Then I noticed Linvoy Primus, sitting in front with his back to us, laughing like a drain. I soon realised who had taken them! I was never going to grass him up, though. Harry doesn’t bear any grudge, though, and calmed down.
‘We won the FA Cup under him in May 2008, which was a great day and wonderful being in the dressing room afterwards. You try to treat it as any other day, but you’re taken in by the occasion. It was a bit emotional.
‘Around 10 minutes before the end of the game, leading 1-0 against Cardiff, me and Kev went back into our changing room and covered up all the players’ suits with towels, before returning to watch the end. We didn’t want to get champagne on them later!
‘In July 2008, we were on pre-season in South Africa and everyone went on safari. Hermann Hreidarsson nicked a guide’s gun and was waving it around. It was loaded and he got a right rollicking for it.
‘In our jeep there was me, Harry, Sol Campbell and the club doctor. I always found Sol distant, a little hard to converse with. Anyway, while we’re going around looking at the animals, a guy from London rang Harry with a racing tip. Harry replied “I’m out on safari at the moment”. Then he added: “I’ll have a monkey on it”.
Harris’ Pompey partner-in-crime is kitman Kev McCormack, a former Commonwealth Games boxer for Wales, with the pair having established an unlikely double act over the last 26 years.
As travelling companions and room-mates, they have formed a close bond, although perhaps that’s not always immediately apparent through their frequent bouts of bickering.
Nonetheless, the iconic duo represent what is so special about Pompey and its people.
Fratton Park’s iconic double act
Harris added: ‘In July 2011 we went to South Carolina for pre-season and the team trained at Charleston Battery’s ground. There was a swamp behind the pitch, with alligators moving around and warning signs.
‘One time a ball went over the top of the goal and into the swamp, so I said to Kev: “I’ll go and sort that out”. Oh my word - the ball was right next to an alligator! When I returned without it and explained, Kev replied: “They won’t hurt you”.
‘So we went together. He was poking this alligator with a big pole, distracting it, while I was using a stick to get the ball out of the water. It worked, we got the ball back.
‘Paul Cook said me and Kev are like a man and wife, always bickering. It’s a love-hate relationship, but we’ve had some fun. He will say something, I will tell him to shut up, he’ll call me a silly old man, I’ll call him a fat so-and-so.
‘But every time I’ve been ill, whenever something has been wrong, Kev has always been there for me, always having my back. He gets grumpy sometimes, but his bark is worse than his bite. He’d do anything for you and has a big heart.
‘Often we’d share a room at games. At Hartlepool in April 2017, when Paul Cook was manager and we were top of League Two, everyone was allowed a drink. I was three sheets to the wind and went to bed, but ended up falling out of it. Kev came to help me and fell over as well!
‘He’s got a short fuse, it goes up, but comes down quickly, and he can be a contrary so-and-so. But that’s Kev, we wind each other up and he’s very good with the players, they all think he’s funny.
‘I remember when Glen Johnson was arrested for shoplifting from B&Q (January 2007), the next day, Kev decided to put a toilet seat next to his kit.
‘I had to admit, though, if we’ve lost to a better side and played well, I’m okay. But if we’ve not done a shift, I will get the hump, so Kev leaves me alone for 30 minutes. He knows that.’
True Blue: The Barry Harris Story
Earlier this month, Harris launched his autobiography ‘True Blue: The Barry Harris Story’, containing tributes from Paul Cook, John Mousinho, Harry Redknapp, Michael Doyle and, of course, McCormack.
Written with the assistance of Gary Tipp, the author of books ‘Prosinecki In Blue’ (2021) and ‘Merson In Blue’ (2022), it details the former Dockyard scaffolder’s seven decades at Fratton Park.
Priced at £9.99 and available from Pompey’s Club shop as well as eBay, it is proving a popular read in the build up to Christmas.
Harris said: ‘People have often asked “Why don’t you write a book?”. It has taken a while, but now I have, looking back at my time at the club, including all my managers.
‘I liked Steve Cotterill. He got involved in too many things, was a bit of a control freak, but someone who cared and always made sure I was on the team coach.
‘During one international break in the 2010-11 season, he sent me scouting. I went to Torquay to watch a defender called Mark Ellis in their League Two game, but he didn’t even play that day!
‘When we were in the Premier League, early in the 2009-10 season our manager Paul Hart asked: “Can you do me a favour, Barry? Go to Poole Town and tell me what you think of their centre-forward?”.
‘So I made a few notes, basically he’s a fine player who stands out, but no better than what we’ve got. Paul also went and watched him, but we didn’t make the signing. His name was Charlie Austin and three weeks later he signed for Swindon.
‘Paul had a lot of good in him, but he lost the dressing room and, in the end, the players weren’t listening to him, which is a shame. He missed Brian Kidd, who was his assistant until leaving to work for Manchester City.
‘I’ve had a lot of managers. Kenny Jackett was deadpan, he had no charisma, nobody really got close to him. Although when I had a fall at Coventry and was in hospital for a few days, Kenny came in to see how I was.
‘He was a very good manager, but couldn’t always get things across to the players. Deep down, Kenny was a bit of a shy person, but football through-and-through and did more good than bad with us. Although people always mention the Coventry 3-3 game and why he didn’t play Tom Naylor in the play-offs.
‘Alan Ball was the second-best manager I’ve worked with at Pompey’
‘I would put Alan Ball as the second-best manager we’ve had while I’ve followed Pompey, his passion was unbelievable. The most passionate manager I have ever worked with, without a shadow of a doubt, although sometimes his passion got the better of him and he’d lose his temper.
‘He would put belief into the players, I was there when he did his speech about “People went to war from this city”. He was also a great story teller, you loved listening to him.
‘Bally’s coaching and motivation were second to none, he’d take players on a one-on-one and work with them, which not many managers did. And if any player on the opposition was running the show and being a bit clever, he’d shout to Mick Kennedy: “Mickey, sort it out!”.
‘While Bally is the most passionate, Harry is the most knowledgeable person I’ve worked with. It was the way he could get the best out of a player, he studied them and was very quick on the uptake about what that player could do. He knew football backwards.’
Following the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent restrictions, Harris was stood down from his match-day dressing-room duties after March 2020, with a 2-2 draw against Fleetwood representing his final match.
Once football resumed, with supporters eventually allowed back into grounds in the 2021-22 season, he took up a new role, involving visiting the Fratton Park lounges on a match day and telling his many tales.
In October 2024, he underwent an operation after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, which proved a success, and continues to be a regular presence at Pompey and at the training ground, where he still cleans players’ boots four days a week - including yesterday.
‘I didn’t to let go, but he was right’
And that infamous double act with Kev McCormack remains as strong as ever.
‘During Covid, the chief executive Andy Cullen called me up into the office and asked “Do you still want to be chasing after footballs?”. I didn’t want to let go, but he was right,’ added Harris.
‘Travelling, unloading the kit from a van in the middle of the night, I was 78-years-old by then and it was beginning to take its toll.
‘My wife Sue has told me it showed a bit towards the end. I’d get tired on the away trips, especially the night ones away from home, getting back at 3-4am and then returning to the training ground at 9am doing the boots.
‘At first I told Andy that I could still do it, but he smiled and said “We have something else for you”. Now my match-day role is in the lounges, which I really enjoy, while I still go to the training ground four days a week to clean the players’ boots.
‘The night when we won the League One title against Barnsley, John Mousinho asked me to join the team in the dressing room for the celebrations, which was a lovely thing to do. He’s a nice bloke and a good manager, who knows what he wants.
‘Last year I had an operation after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, I was in hospital for three weeks but they got it early and thankfully it hasn’t returned. I’m still healthy and I’m still down the training ground.
‘As long as I can do it and as long as they want me, I will continue. I wore a cap the other day and Marlon Pack was calling me Andy Capp. They make a fuss of me up there, they’re all good to me.’
To order a copy of True Blue: The Barry Harris Story visit https://tinyurl.com/49hcyrub
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