James R. Harley (2001) - Eckerd College Athletics Hall of Fame

Eckerd College Athletics Hall of Fame

James R. Harley

Class
Induction

2001
Sport(s)

Men's Basketball, Administration

Harley played collegiately and graduated from Georgia Southern College while obtaining his master’s degree at then-George Peabody, now Vanderbilt University.
After a 32-year tenure that resulted as the all-time winningest men’s basketball Head Coach at Eckerd College, Jim Harley, retired from the sidelines in March of 1996. He remained on staff at the College and served as Eckerd’s first Director of Athletics for a total of 39-years leading up to his retirement in 2002.
At Eckerd, Harley compiled 421 wins and helped bring a Sunshine State Conference tournament crown to the school in 1993-94 as the sixth seed. With all of his collective experience, he has earned over 500 (547 total) wins as a head coach in his career.
Harley’s first year as head coach at then-Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd) was in 1963. He was also a pioneer in the inception/creation of the Sunshine State Conference.
Harley was a three-time winner of the SSC Coach of the Year award and was named the South Region Coach of the Year two times.
He was also Coach of the Year during his stints at Miami-Dade Junior College and Georgia Southern College. Harley also coached at Brewton-Parker Junior College.
Under his watch, the Tritons made three NCAA Division II National Championship appearances.
In November of 2011, Harley was inducted into the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches “Court of Legends” Hall of Fame class. He was sworn into the Eckerd College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.
After many years of dedicated service to Eckerd College, Jim Harley has forever been enshrined in the Tritons’ athletic tradition with a prestigious award being named in his honor at the school’s end-of-the year dinner banquet.
The James R. Harley Award is the highest honor an Eckerd College student-athlete can receive and is presented to the male and female student-athletes that have demonstrated leadership and excellence in the classroom, on the field of competition and in their community.