Harris Barton

Harris Barton

Position(s) Offensive tackle Jersey #(s) 79
Born	April 19, 1964 (1964-04-19) Atlanta, Georgia
Career information
Year(s)	1987–1998
NFL Draft	1987 / Round: 1 / Pick: 22
College	North Carolina
Professional teams
San Francisco 49ers (1987–1998)
Career stats
Games played	138
Games started	134
Fumble recoveries	2
Stats at NFL.com
Career highlights and awards
1× Pro Bowl selection (1993) 2× All-Pro selection (1992, 1993)

Harris Scott Barton (born April 19, 1964) is a former American football offensive lineman who played for the San Francisco 49ers.

Early life

Harris was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother was from a very Orthodox Jewish background in Queens, New York and his father was from a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. They met while attending Emory University.^{[citation needed]}

He attended [1] Hebrew Academy of Atlanta, now known as the Greenfield Hebrew Academy] through the fifth grade, and began playing football at age five. He was county MVP his senior season at Atlanta's Dunwoody High School, where he also participated in basketball and wrestling.^{[citation needed]}

College football career

He was recruited by over 100 colleges including USC, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame, but Harris eventually chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with a 3.3 GPA in Finance.^{[citation needed]}

Harris was a freshman All-American at UNC, starting every game for four years. He played nose-to-nose against William "Refrigerator" Perry on national television at Clemson. He was selected to the Associated Press All-American football player team that year, being the first Jewish player in 30 years to do so.^{[citation needed]}

Pro football career

He was a first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1987, and the 22nd pick overall.^{[citation needed]}

Harris signed a three-year, $1.3 million contract with the team, and started 10 of 15 games that year and was runner-up to Rookie of the Year honors. He started every game in his second year, including the Super Bowl, and was named to various Second Team All-Pros. In his third year, he started all games including the Super Bowl, and was chosen as a Campbell's Soup All-American.^{[citation needed]}

He retired after the 1998 season.^{[citation needed]}

In March 2011 he was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

After football

Along with former teammate Ronnie Lott, Barton was a Managing Partner and a Founder of HRJ Capital, a failed fund of funds which invested in private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds and managed $2.4 billion at its peak in May 2008. In December 2008, the fund was taken over by SVB Financial Group in lieu of $69 million of debt and was later sold in 2009.

See also

• List of select Jewish football players