Walt Harris said he will be honored to stand on the opposite sideline from Johnny Majors, an old friend and a former boss, when they serve as honorary coaches Saturday for the Pitt Blue-Gold game at Heinz Field.

“It would be nice to beat him, though,” Harris said, with a smile.

Coach Pat Narduzzi, who likes to connect to Pitt's past, made the announcement Tuesday.

“He's excited,” Narduzzi said of Majors, 82, the most recent coach to lead Pitt to a national championship (1976). “He wants to know when he gets his meetings with the offense. He wants to put some plays in. He's got one play that we'll Tweet out that he has ready to go.”

Majors, who lives in Knoxville, Tenn., said he returns to Pittsburgh at least once a year to visit friends and meet with his UPMC doctors. He's eager to reunite with Harris, who served as an assistant on his Tennessee coaching staff from 1983-1988.

“He's a sharp guy,” Majors said. “I have to get a game plan down and fine-tune it. He's an outstanding football coach, one of the best assistant coaches I ever had and I had some great ones through the years.”

Harris inherited a 4-7 team from Majors in 1997 and immediately earned Pitt's first bowl berth in eight years.

He still lives in the Pittsburgh area and attends Pitt practices several times a year. He was on the sideline Tuesday when he met and chatted with another old friend, Upper St. Clair coach Jim Render.

Harris left Pitt after the 2004 season, punctuating his time there with a Big East co-championship and trip to the Fiesta Bowl, the Panthers' most recent big-time bowl.

His departure didn't occur under the most pleasant of circumstances, but he remains on good terms with the university, recently having lunch with former Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg.

“It happened. It's over,” he said of his departure. “I've moved on. They've moved on. I have a lot of good memories. That's the only way to be.”

Harris, a noted play-caller during a coaching career that spanned four decades, said he doesn't know how much freedom Narduzzi will give him.

Win or lose, he promises not to light up a cigar after the game. He did just that after Tennessee beat No. 2 Miami in the 1986 Sugar Bowl, and regretted it.

“I lit up, it was terrible and I threw it away,” he said, noting his father made him fetch it from the trash can to prevent a fire.

Harris didn't try another one until 1999 when Pitt defeated Notre Dame in the last game at Pitt Stadium.

“I took one puff and I still didn't like it,” he said.

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.

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