When tuning into East Carolina Pirates games, one unconventional number particularly sticks out in purple and gold.
Yes, the No. 47 has been an allowable number for the running back position throughout the annals of football history. Even before the NFL loosened its jersey number restrictions prior to the 2021 season, 47 was encompassed in the permitted range of running back numbers from 20 to 49. However, nobody really wears it.
The last tailback — not fullback — to wear 47 in the NFL was Nate McCrary, who logged two career snaps and one rushing attempt on Dec. 5, 2021. You’ll have to trek two decades back to find the last running back to attain 1,000 yards in a 47 jersey, which was former Oakland Raiders standout Tyrone Wheatley in 2000.
Yet East Carolina running back Rahjai Harris chose the number 47 at Byrnes High School in South Carolina. Then he envisioned himself in a 47 jersey on each of his recruiting visits. Finally, the instant he selected ECU and arrived on campus in Greenville, NC, he didn’t waver from the number.
As years progress and running backs finagle their way up the depth chart, they’ll typically ditch their bulkier, double-digit numerals for leaner, flashier, single-digit jerseys. That trend does not apply to Harris though, who remains true to 47 in his fifth year suiting up for the Pirates.
“My dad wore it,” Harris said. “His goal was the NFL, but some things popped up and he had to leave the game alone. I just took over the torch and I’m here to finish what he started.”
Rahjai Harris’ father Rodney Harris was a star running back at Spartanburg High School in South Carolina during the late 90s. Rodney rushed for over 1,600 yards as a junior and over 1,400 yards as a senior, leveraging his high school success into a college football career at Georgia Military College. But there was a point where Rodney had to hang up No. 47 when Rahjai’s oldest sister was born. Rodney subsequently left Georgia Military College to prioritize the highest responsibility of fatherhood.
Even though Rodney Harris’ football career was cut prematurely, it currently lives on over a quarter of a century later in the coastal plain of Greenville through Rahjai.
“Everything my dad did and is to this day is something that I want to be,” Rahjai Harris said. “So just wearing his number is a little appreciation for him.”
Rodney remains an important part of Rahjai’s football career at East Carolina. The two converse regularly about a gamut of topics, ranging from running back tips to financial advice to fatherhood — as Rahjai had his first daughter in 2021.
“I talk to him every day,” Rahjai said. “We talk for an hour, two hours, three hours, and it will just be regular conversations. Now I’m becoming a man so he’s trying to teach me little things like building my credit and stuff like that. It’s just a relationship that can’t be broken, and I appreciate him every day.”
Even Rahjai’s teammates have taken notice of his inseparable relationship with his father. Many members of the Pirate roster have met him as he’s a mainstay at every game. Rodney has never missed one of the 37 games since Rahjai first ran out of the tunnel for ECU.
“He’ll be on the phone for an hour,” cornerback Shavon Revel said. “I’ll tell him I’m about to get in the shower. He don’t care. He won’t even hear that. They’re still talking.”
Harris, who served as team captain last fall, prepares for his fifth season donning No. 47 for ECU. The running back has been a staple of the Pirates’ backfield throughout the entire 2020s decade, recording 1,930 rushing yards, 307 receiving yards, and 22 total touchdowns in four years. The upcoming 2024 campaign marks Harris’ final in Greenville, where he looks to utilize his favorite prime number to cement multiple generations of the Harris legacy.
“I just love that number to death,” Harris said. “Eventually I’m gonna get it somewhere on my body, tatted on my body. That’s just something that’s never gonna run out of our family.”
