Former Syracuse basketball standout Paul Harris says he once had a shot to take his game to the football field - and potentially beyond college.
In a recent social media post, Harris shared that he was offered a place on the Syracuse football team and also got a chance to chase the sport professionally with an NFL combine invite.
Harris, a highly regarded recruit out of Niagara Falls, N.Y., had the kind of frame that could make a football staff take notice. During his Orange career, he was listed at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, and his reputation was built on his explosive leaping and dunking.
At Syracuse, Harris spent three seasons playing for Jim Boeheim and earned All-BIG East recognition along the way. After his final year with the Orange, he stayed in the pro game for the next decade, logging time in the NBA’s G-League and overseas in Turkey, France and the Philippines.
If Harris had gone the football route, he would have joined a short list of Syracuse athletes who have competed in both sports.
Vic Hanson remains the most decorated name on that list. He is the only athlete inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and in the 1920s he was a three-time All-American in each sport.
Jim Brown also crossed over, playing two seasons with the basketball team and averaging more than 13 points per game. Brown, of course, went on to become one of the game’s all-time greats on the football side and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
Donovan McNabb spent two seasons as a walk-on with the basketball program and was part of Syracuse’s 1996 Final Four team. He appeared in 18 games over those two years and averaged more than two points per game. Football was his main sport, and he was a two-time All BIG East selection who helped lead Syracuse to conference titles.
The most recent example is freshman Calvin Russell III. Russell appeared in one game for the Orange basketball team during the 2025-26 season, and the five-star football prospect has not yet made his debut on the gridiron while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon suffered in March. He is expected back in early October.
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