[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 95 (Tuesday, July 8, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE HARVILLE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HOWARD COBLE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 1997

  Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina has a 
rich sports heritage and a man who has reported on much of it for more 
than half a century has been honored as one of the best ever produced 
by our State. I am referring to sports broadcasting legend Charlie 
Harville of Greensboro, NC. Harville, the first television sports 
anchor in the Greensboro-High Point market, has been inducted into the 
North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
  As a student at High Point College, now University, Charlie Harville 
began his broadcasting career at WMFR-AM as a substitute baseball 
announcer for the Class D North Carolina State League Thomasville 
Tommies. After he worked his first game on April 28, 1938, the radio 
station hired him permanently. Harville's budding broadcasting career 
was suspended by 4\1/2\ year tour of duty in the Army Air Corps during 
World War II. Following his discharge, he landed radio jobs in 
Martinsville, VA, Goldsboro, NC, and LaSalle, IL, before he returned to 
Greensboro for a job at WFMY Radio. In 1949, WMFY-TV went on the air 
and Charlie Harville became the station's first sports anchor.
  Harville remained at WFMY until 1963 when WGHP, channel 8 in High 
Point, hired him away. He was replaced at WFMY-TV by Woody Durham, 
better known these days as the voice of the University of North 
Carolina Tar Heels. Charlie left WGHP in 1975, and after 2 years of 
free-lance sports announcing, he was rehired by WFMY in 1977 to replace 
the departing Woody Durham. Charlie retired from full-time reporting 
and channel 2 in 1988. In 42 years of broadcasting, WFMY had known only 
two sports directors, both legends in North Carolina, Charlie Harville 
and Woody Durham.
  Now 78, Charlie Harville, shows no signs of slowing down. We are sure 
that his 9 children and 22 grandchildren will make sure of that. He 
continues to tape a 4-minute daily interview show for Greensboro Bats 
baseball games on WKEW-AM. He attends most Bats games at War Memorial 
Stadium, and he remains an active member of Society of American 
Baseball Research. His close friend and president of the Greensboro 
Sports Commission Tom Ward told the Greensboro News & Record that 
Charlie Harville is a ``walking encyclopedia with a photographic mind 
who can recite batting averages from 1944.'' Retired News & Record 
sports editor Irwin Smallwood said that Charlie Harville ``was an 
authentic pioneer in regional television. He set a standard to which 
others still aspire.''
  His colleagues share that opinion and that is why he was elected to 
our State's Sports Hall of Fame. We can think of no better place for 
Charlie to be except maybe at a baseball game, on the golf course, or 
at the race track. We always knew that Charlie Harville was an All 
Star, but we were particularly pleased to learn that now he is a Hall 
of Famer, too.
  On behalf of the citizens of the Sixth District of North Carolina, we 
salute Charlie Harville on his induction into the North Carolina Sports 
Hall of Fame. To borrow Charlie's signature closing line--``That's the 
best in sports today.''