George Harris

Member of the first United States Olympic judo team

Born

15 January 1933, Kittrell

Died

7 January 2011, Brick Township

Citizenship

United States

Sport

judo

Occupation

judoka

Height

189 cm (6 ft 2 in)

Weight

100 kg (220 lb)

George Lee Harris (January 15, 1933 – January 7, 2011) was a member of the first United States Olympic judo team. He was born in Kittrell, North Carolina.

He was a 10th dan in Judo. Harris began his judo career after 1952. Harris while speaking at Jack Krystek's School of Judo stated he was initially a boxer before becoming a Judoka. Harris was a gold medalist at the Pan American Games, four-time United States National Champion, and six time Air Force Champion. He also trained at the Kodokan where he earned his blackbelt.

Harris had a long involvement with military judo in the United States Air Force, and later served as president of the United States Judo Association.

He starred in the late-1970s martial-arts film, "The Year of the Gentle Tiger", a forerunner to "The Karate Kid". He also appeared on talk shows and was twice a guest on "To Tell the Truth".

Competitions

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q5540265 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.