Beach History: World Record Holder Worked the Beach Patrol

“HARRIS SHATTERS DISCUS STANDARD” was the headline in the June 21, 1941, New York Times.

A smaller banner reported “Toss of 174 feet 8 ¾ inches in N.C.A.A. Meet on Coast Breaks World Record.” Archie Harris, a 1937 graduate of Ocean City High School, was a senior at Indiana University when he broke the world record at the NCAA track and field championships in Palo Alto, CA.

Harris spent his summers during high school and college working as a lifeguard on the Ocean City Beach Patrol. He left the OCBP to fight in World War II. After graduating from Tuskegee Flight School, Harris chalked up 10,000 hours as a bomber pilot with the much-decorated 617th Bombardment Squadron. He was posthumously inducted into the OCBP Hall of Fame in 1998.

Lifeguard Archie Harris will be remembered at the 73rd annual OCBP Reunion/Hall of Fame party on Saturday, August 13 at the Sandi Pointe restaurant in Somers Point.