Professor mixes sports with Shakespeare

With the build of a linebacker and a hairless head perfectly formed to fit under any helmet, he appears out of place as he strolls down the English department hallway at Augustana.

His green sweater bears the Green Bay Packers logo, and with his arm bent across his large chest, at a quick glance he looks like he's ready to burst through a defensive line with the football tucked safely away.

Onlookers might think this man accidentally stumbled upon the Humanities building on his way from the Commons to the Elmen Center. But upon closer look they can see that it's not a football he carries against his body - it's a book. John Milton's Paradise Lost, to be exact.

And this man is not lost either - he's right where he's meant to be.

Professor Mitchell Harris is in his second year of teaching English at Augustana, and even though he is in a department that is known for being dominated by females, that's not the only reason he isn't your conventional English professor.

From the moment Harris came to interview for the English department position, his football obsession was apparent.

"Mitch was hired partly because of it," Jeffrey Miller, the English department chair, admits.
Harris smiles when recalling the events surrounding his Augustana interview.

"Foolish thing I did," Harris says. "I looked for dates of convenience and decided to interview on Friday so I could drive down Thursday."

At the time Harris was filling a visiting position at his alma mater, Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minn., and he figured Friday would be the best day to work with his schedule. But he had forgotten the NFL had added Thursday night games that season, and this particular Thursday was the much-anticipated Dallas Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers game.

"I was kicking myself all the way to the interview," Harris says. "I wanted to watch the game that night, but also prepare for the interview."

Harris decided to go to a Buffalo Wild Wings to catch part of the game before heading back to his hotel to prepare for the next day's important meeting. But when he got to the restaurant, the place was packed, so he asked a table of guys if he could join them. The three men obliged, and Harris soon discovered that they were Augustana football players.

The next day at his interview, Harris mentioned that he had met a few of the college's football players at Buffalo Wild Wings the previous night, and Miller was impressed at how Harris was already able to bond with Augustana's students, especially ones that didn't frequent the Humanities building often.

"Humanities is usually gender-stereotyped," Miller says, and considers Harris' more masculine appeal as a "good thing."

Although the Packers lost that game against the Cowboys 27-37, Harris succeeded in landing the Augustana job with the hopes that he might do well at connecting with male students.

"Well, he's motivated me to start doing more push ups to make myself not seem so insignificant when I stand next to his aura of testosterone," English major Rob Green jokes.

"He makes Uncle Sam look like a communist. What a man."

Fellow senior male English major Per Nestingen agrees. "Mitch Harris could walk onto any NFL team's practice and instantly be given a starting job as an o-lineman, tight end, quarterback, or heck, even wide receiver," he said.

Not surprisingly, Harris did play football during high school in his hometown of Hutchinson, Wis. However, the combination of playing on a team with little talent and a coach with questionable teaching methods made his on-field experience not a very positive one.

"We were awful," Harris says. "We never won a game my junior and senior year."

Instead, Harris began focusing on his major, premedical biology and chemistry.

However, since Gustavus Adolphus was a liberal arts school, Harris was required to take some writing and literature courses. These classes were very writing intensive, but it wasn't long before Harris had second thoughts about going into the medical profession.

"I was getting tired of those students who saw premed as a means to an end," Harris says.

"In the midst of organic chemistry one day, I realized I didn't want to be in it anymore."

Harris swiftly changed his major to English and eventually went on to graduate school at the University of Texas with a particular interest in British literature and medieval and Renaissance drama.

Although this was a very busy and studious time in his life, he found solace in his favorite sport.

"Sunday afternoon was my sacred time," Harris says. "There would be church and then a three-hour football break."

Miller has also noticed this off-balance gender ratio in both the students and faculty, but points out that English major numbers have gone up, and even more surprisingly, one-third of Augustana's freshmen English majors are male, which is unusually high.

Already Miller and professor Patrick Hicks, the only other male English professor at Augustana, note Harris' uniqueness.

"Mitch is definitely different," Miller says. "Hicks and I like to sit around and drink tea."
Students also echo Miller's sentiments.

"From a male and female perspective, his presence is reassuring," Nestingen says. "He provides a way for us to see how a bear trapped in a man's body interprets the different gods of English. Who knows, maybe his allure and hip male perspective will help even out the ratio of men to women."

Still, even though he may be adjusting to the Augustana life, he's still not conforming to the stereotypical English professor persona.

"I hate coffee," Harris admits, and then adds, "Tea's okay."