‘Mr. Hillbilly’ Gets Official Honor Ozark Native JaSon Harris Selected For Hall Of Fame
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
by Janice Penix
Three decades ago, JaSon Harris had the honor of being selected “Mr. Hillbilly” at Ozark High School, for his participation and accomplishments in Hillbilly athletics.
Now, he is being recognized by his peers on the other side of the ball.
Harris was recently selected as one of six members of the 2026 Arkansas Officials Association (AOA) Hall of Fame class.
“I’m truly honored that my hard work and dedication was recognized,” Harris said. “I’m not a pat-myself-on-the-back kind of guy, I’m a nose-down, get-it-done type of guy. But it’s something I’ve had a great time doing. I have enjoyed it 100%.”
Starting Young
A 1994 graduate of Ozark, Harris got his start as an official when he was a teenager, when he and his twin brother, JaRon, umpired peewee baseball games, and their high school basketball coach recruited them to officiate junior varsity games.
“It was basically my summer job ever since I could drive,” he said. “I was also calling JV and seventh grade games as a senior in high school. My high school coach, John Harris, got me and my brother to volunteer. Then, come to find out, we could make a little bit of money doing it, which was pretty cool when you’re 16.”
After high school, Harris attended the University of the Ozarks for a year, where he was a member of the baseball and cross country teams. After getting married and starting a family, working full-time became a priority over attending school. His “extra” job, officiating ball games, was added income for his growing family, which would come to include three children.
“After I started having kids, and had a family, I was still calling games,” Harris said. “My brother and I continued doing JV and seventh grade basketball, and after a year or two of that, some of the ‘varsity’ guys, the real officials, came and talked us into joining.”
The senior officials who helped Harris in the early years were Johnson County men – Jim Lewis, Larry Moore, Danny Hamm, Steve Atkinson and Greg Donaldson.
“They talked us into getting registered with the Arkansas Officials Association, and really showed us the ropes,” Harris said. “They had all been doing it a long time. They were mentors for me in the beginning.”
Mastering The Craft
Harris has officiated both basketball and football for the AOA. Although he had to sit out from both sports this year due to a health issue, he is looking forward to returning next year for his 32nd year calling basketball, and his 16th in football. His career has included 13 state basketball championships and four state football championships.
“When you’re a teenager, the money gets you into it,” he said. “But what kept me doing it was staying involved in the games. I enjoyed being on the court or on the field.”
While a knowledge of the sport is the first step to becoming a good official, Harris said there is no substitute for experience.
“You have to dive into the rule books and things like that,” he said. “But there’s nothing more prevalent than what we call ‘court time.’ You just have to be on the court and experience it. If you want to get better at our craft, you’ve got to put in the time.
“You’ve got to know the game first, to know the rules. Then, it’s like anything else. It’s attitude and effort.”
It’s also important, he said, to have thick skin and a degree of humility.
“I’ve been called everything you can imagine,” Harris said. “After a while, you’re just numb to it. You have to figure out how to shake it off, and don’t take it personally. We call it being a duck – just let it roll off your back.”
Verbal, and sometimes physical, aggression and violence toward athletic officials has become a serious issue facing those in Harris’ profession, which is seeing fewer and fewer young men and women join.
“It’s definitely a real problem,” he said. “That’s why we can’t retain young officials, because of parents, fans and coaches who give them too much of a hard time. When you first do something, you’ve got to learn how to do it right. There’s a learning curve, and no one gets it perfect all the time.
“I read an article in a national referee magazine that said the national average age is 55 for sporting officials. For the future, that’s not good. I’m still considered young, and I’m 50 years old. Thankfully, I just had the personality to be able to do it for this long.”
Harris said being a good official also means willing to admit when you are wrong.
“You’ve got to raise your hand when you mess up,” he said. “The big thing is, you’ve got to be able to take a little blame and try to get better from it. You can’t be what we call the ‘yeah, but’ guy. I can tell you what you did wrong, but if you’re going to come back with, ‘Yeah, but I did this,’ you’re not learning. Ultimately, that’s not what makes a good official.”
Leading A Crew
Because he has officiated football for a shorter time than basketball, Harris said football is the sport he most enjoys calling.
“Football is my favorite now, because I’ve been doing it half the time I’ve done basketball,” he said. “I’ve done basketball so long, and it’s not that I get bored with it, it’s just that football’s still new to me.”
Football official Lynn Parnell from Fort Smith helped Harris get his start as a football referee. Parnell was a 2023 inductee into the AOA Hall of Fame.
“When he knew he was getting ready to retire, I took over the crew and took over the white hat,” Harris said.
In addition to high school football, Harris was a collegiate official for five years, working in the Great American Conference – which includes in-state schools such as Arkansas Tech, Southern Arkansas University and Ouachita Baptist – as well as the Mid-America Conference – which includes schools in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
Harris is the “white hat,” or the lead referee of his crew.
“In football, I have my own crew,” he said. “You’re with the same people on Friday nights, every week. I’m the white hat, and then I have five guys that are on my crew, including my twin brother. So you get close to each other. They’re some of my best friends in the world.”
Sharing A Brotherhood
The bond that forms among fellow officials is what Harris said he likes most about the work.
“I enjoy the games, but the camaraderie, the brotherhood that I have, that’s what I enjoy the most,” he said. “My closest friends in the world by far are officials. That’s who my friends are. It’s literally a big brotherhood.”
Harris said working together so frequently has occasionally taken a toll on his relationship with his twin brother.
“There have been some heated battles, is all I’m going to say,” Harris said, laughing. “We’re twin brothers, but we are like oil and water,” he said. “It’s hard for him because he’s my older brother by two minutes, but I’m his boss. So it makes it pretty hard sometimes. But we can get along. I mean, we work a big schedule, and we were considered the number one crew in the state the last two years. So I think how we work speaks for itself.”
A battle with pancreatitis sidelined Harris from refereeing both football and basketball during the 2025-26 school year, but he said he is improving and looking forward to returning to work.
“I had a really bad health scare in June, and I’ve had it to deal with that this last year. I live with it every day. But I’m definitely coming back next year. I’ve come a long way in my recovery so I’m ready to be back.”
While he was unable to officiate, Harris did assist the AOA as a crew chief for state basketball tournaments this spring, assigning officials to tournament sites each day.
He also serves on the AOA executive committee, currently as president, and was elected by his peers for a second term as District 4 area director, overseeing officials for all sports in a nine-county area.
“I’m actually in charge of all officials in the whole activity district, which is everything from Fort Smith, up to Mountainburg, all the way down to Mount Ida and Waldron, and all the way back around to Atkins,” he said.
He is engaged to Haley Hatch, with a May wedding planned. The two met in Hot Springs when Harris was attending a referee clinic there three years ago. Harris is the father of three adult children, including Bailey Henson, 30; Kailen Griego, 27; and Jaxson Harris, 23, and has six grandchildren.
Harris will be inducted into the AOA Hall of Fame on Friday, July 17, at the Hot Springs Convention Center, along with James Brookhart of Bentonville, Bettye Francis of North Little Rock, Dan Henry of Benton, Steve Padgett of Conway and Don Urioste of Pyatt.
Read this story and others in the April 1 issue of The Graphic, available online and at businesses throughout Franklin and Johnson counties. Subscribe or donate here to support more hometown journalism.
JaSon Harris
