“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7
John “Doc” Harvey’s official title was head athletic trainer during his 41 years at Texas Southern University.
But the man with a positive spirit and a heart of gold will be remembered for so much more. He was a friend, mentor, spiritual guide, and someone who wouldn’t pull any punches when the moment called for it. Harvey passed away on June 2 at the age of 81.
“It was a full-circle moment for myself. Obviously, he had impacted my career. You just don’t know when you are playing that ultimately you will end up being able to work with that individual in the process.”
Former TSU basketball player and athletic director Kevin Granger
The larger-than-life legacy he left behind still lives. The man, universally known as Doc, was confidant to many of the student athletes who matriculated through the HBCU. He was also something of a surrogate father to others who either didn’t have one or, like former TSU basketball star and athletic director Kevin Granger, had an active father but was hundreds of miles away in Scooba, Mississippi. Doc sometimes filled the void.
“Doc has always been open,” Granger said to the Defender hours after Doc’s funeral service on June 11. “He has always been approachable, and he was always looking out for your best interest, not just making sure you stayed in your playing field but also in the classroom.
“He would check on you and would see how things were going in your personal life. If he thought you had some issues or anything like that, you could always approach Doc and talk to Doc, and he would give you the guidance.”
He sometimes gave it, whether you knew you needed it or not.
“About as solid as they come,” said former TSU football player Ramon Manning. “He had a big impact on my life as a young man at Texas Southern.”
By all accounts, Doc was a pioneer in athletic training, ahead of his time during his tenure at TSU from 1974 to 2015, when he retired. Unlike his counterparts at PWIs, Doc was a solo act, the only certified athletic trainer in charge of overseeing the 16 sports teams and more than 300 student athletes each year and over 13,000 throughout his tenure.
Along the way, Doc also held unofficial titles like manager, counselor, and even travel agent. Former TSU head football coach Johnnie Cole saw Doc in all his dimensions the time he first encountered him as a 17-year-old student-athlete, later as an assistant coach at TSU, and then once he took over the Tigers’ program.
“He was the dude,” Cole said. “He is the only guy who has been around that Texas Southern program for 41 years. He went through 11 coaches, 10 presidents, and numerous athletic directors.
“Anyone who came across his path, regardless of their status, he treated us all the same. There was no stranger to him. We all had that 100% status with him. Great guy.”
Karen Hawkins, former TSU Olympic track star
“Never got no big raise like he should have. The program couldn’t have stayed afloat, especially in the assistant area, without Doc. Doc sometimes turned into the equipment manager. At one time, Doc handled all travel under William Thomas.”
Doc, however, couldn’t have done without the strong stable of student assistant athletic trainers whom he taught, groomed, and pushed. Many of them, like Reggie “Lil Daddy” Alfred and current TSU head trainer Jeorgia Sanders, were influenced and inspired by Doc’s wisdom.
“The work ethic that we all have is unbelievable,” Alfred said while speaking to a room full of Doc’s family and friends at Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church. “He taught us how to do so much with less. Certain things he would say, `I will teach y’all to be the first one in, last one out. I’m teaching, not preaching.’”
Sanders had similar memories of being taught and prepared by Doc. She also remembers how once she became the head trainer, Doc would periodically poke his head into the training room to check on her and remind her that he was just a phone call away.
Sanders is now one of four full-time certified athletic trainers in the athletic department, a big shift from when she was a trusted student assistant under Doc’s sole tutelage.
“That was definitely a constant reminder in my head, as well as some of the reassurance I got from him,” Sanders said. “Just being in this role can be a lot.
“He understood how important it was to make sure you were doing okay as a person before your role.”
A Good Man
Some constants about Doc seem to be how much he cared and how much of a good man he was. Doc, a native Houstonian, began his career while a student at Jack Yates, then moved on to Wiley College to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in 1966, and later received a Master of Science degree from Prairie View A&M.
Doc got his start at Aldine ISD, then at Austin ISD, before a stint at Prairie View as the head trainer, and then returned home to work with Houston ISD from 1971 to 1974. He even served as a trainer for the Houston Oilers on gameday.
“The real champion is his wife (Lena). Can you imagine 44 years away from your wife, traveling every weekend? Not just through football season, basketball season, baseball season, volleyball season, bowling season.”
Johnnie Cole, former TSU football player and head football coach
Along the way, there were plenty of stories about the impact Doc had on the student-athletes he took care of and the students he took under his wing. Defender publisher and CEO Sonceria Messiah-Jiles first met him in the 1970s while working in the HISD athletic department.
Messiah-Jiles got to observe Doc be all things to many, including athletes who may have needed a parental figure, or even giving financial support to those in need.
“As a result, I grew to admire John because of him stepping up to help young people in their time of need.” Messiah-Jiles said. “He will be missed.
“He was one of those kinds of friends you could not see him for five years and then run into him, and it was like you just saw him the other day. He was a good man, he was a caring man, he was a loving man.”
Longtime TSU equipment manager Earl Jimmison also had high praise and admiration for his longtime friend.
“Doc consistently emphasized the importance of serving others, particularly the student-athletes under his care and the student trainers in his program, a concept he referred to as being ‘under the shield,’” Jimmison said.
It’s a legacy that his wife, Lena, and family, who paid the ultimate sacrifice of time for Doc’s dedication to his craft, are proud of.
“He was more than a father,” his son, John Harvey Jr., said during his funeral service. “He was our foundation, our teacher, our encourager, the greatest example of humility and service. To so many others, he was a mentor, a trailblazer, and praised for his generosity.
“Our father lived with purpose, integrity, and a heart to serve.”
A lover of jazz
As much as Doc is remembered for his advice, counseling, and the tape he administered, he is also recognized by many for his love of jazz music. There are countless stories of student-athletes who were more into rap music being introduced to jazz greats like Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis while receiving treatment in the training room.
Doc was a drummer himself.
“We were young whipper snappers, like, `Man, turn this off. Put on some rap,’” Manning recalls. “And Doc Harvey would say, `Where do you think rap came from, son?’
“It was a teachable moment, everybody from Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, … you name it. And he talked about the repetition, the cadence, the adlibbing, and all of this stuff. And he said, `Son, this is where it all came from.’”
Manning didn’t realize it then, but those teachable moments have had a lasting effect that endures to this day.
“Right now to this day, my playlist in my house, on my phone, when I’m working out, I have those people on my playlist because every time I went into that training room to either get treatment or to get my ankles taped or whatever, that stuff was playing,” Manning said. “You don’t know as a young person the impact that things have on you and how …. It’s like osmosis, you are soaking all of this stuff in. I will tell you, he was a Sensei when it came to exposing you and broadening your intellectual prowess. That’s Doc Harvey.”
The Iceman
While there was the impact side of Doc, there were also unforgettable moments that were more humorous.
Granger, who was famously treated and miraculously prepared for an NCAA Tournament game against Arkansas after suffering a severe ankle injury days earlier in the SWAC Championship game, said Doc was nicknamed the Iceman because that seemed to be his remedy for any injury.
Put some ice on it, baby!
“That was his favorite term that he always used,” Granger said. “Every injury it was, put some ice on it. Your finger hurt, put some ice on it. Your knee hurt, put some ice on it. So that was one of his things.”
Manning, who came along years after Granger, has the same memory. He said the running joke was that they would scream out, `Doc! Doc! Man down! We’ve got somebody hurt. Come get him!’
Without failure, Doc’s reply always seemed to be, `Man, put some ice on it.’
Doc! He’s bleeding: `Man, put some ice on it.’
Doc! He can’t get up: `Man, put some ice on it.’
“That was his answer for everything,” Manning said.
The legacy left
Whether it was the lessons being doled out, him making more with less, or just his ability to reach out to the Houston Oilers or others he had contacts with when the training room ran out of tape or other supplies, and suddenly what was short was now plentiful, left an indelible legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.
Harvey was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in 2019 and into the Texas Southern Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.
“You can only get that at an HBCU. Real talk,” said Manning, who played for the Tigers from 1992-97. “Just think about these lessons that have nothing to do with a curriculum or a classroom. This was a Black man bestowing game to young Black boys. That’s my experience with John Doc Harvey.”
Cole says TSU should make a grand gesture to carry on Doc’s legacy. He is proposing that the training facility, or some area of the athletic department, be named after Doc.
“They need to do it tomorrow,” Cole said. “He held that athletic program down when it came to the assistants. He understood a first-class operation there.
“He was a counselor, a life coach. He wasn’t coming up there just to tape ankles and go back home… He was proud of us for graduating from school, and he always came to the graduations. He is definitely an icon to me.”
