RAY SCOTT OUTDOORS
Presents
SCOTT ONLINE
By Ray Scott

MotorGuide:  The Story of G.H. Harris’ Foot Pedal

TULSA, OK –– Thanks to the manufacturing by MotorGuide, a division of the Brunswick Corporation, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, most fishermen today take for granted the everyday use of the foot-controlled electric trolling motor.  But some 50 years ago “hands-free” fishing was still a dream until a Jackson, Mississippi building contractor named Garrett H. Harris determined to make it a reality.

G. H Harris, who designed the first foot-control system for a trolling motor, shows Ray Scott his prototype and copy of the patent issued in 1951.

 An avid bass fisherman, G. H. Harris wondered if a better idea could be invented to allow hands-free operation of an electric motor or even the timeworn sculling paddle.  He had a SilverTrol electric, the pride of its day, which operated from the stern as a hand-controlled unit.  G. H. Harris, with a bassin’ man’s tinkering mind, wanted to use his foot to control the boat from the bow and not with his casting arm.

After months of experiments, Harris finally produced a spring-loaded direction control that he could operate with his foot to guide the boat.  And when he took his foot off the pedal, the spring would return the electric motor to the straight-ahead setting.

 Harris trademarked and received a patent for the first-ever foot control system in 1951.  But nine years and $30,000 passed without fishermen getting the benefit of the new idea.  The big boom in bass fishing’s growth was another 10 years down the road.

 However, G. H. Harris enjoyed a happy coincidence.  He became friends with Dick Herschede, owner of the Starkville, Mississippi grandfather clock company.  

 Looking to expand the clock company’s product line, Mr. Herschede took on the task of marketing and manufacturing the “Motor Guides,” now the world’s most powerful foot-control electric and the rest is history as the saying goes.  After being acquired by Zebco Fishing Tackle under the Brunswick Corporation, the trademark logo evolved to the use of MotorGuide.

 But G. H. Harris wasn’t satisfied.  He continued to “tinker” and received five more patent improvements, including rack-and-pinion steering that gives easy 360-degree direction.

 Mr. Harris, now in his 90s, makes his home in the Panhandle of Florida; but it was his days of fishing the oxbows off the Mississippi River near Gloster, Mississippi, that were the genesis of the modern foot-control fishing electric. 

 Today, the Tour Edition by MotorGuide is the foot-control electric mounted on the bow of the world championship BASS Masters Classic “official” rig, and is endorsed by professional bass anglers everywhere.

 The pros may not recognize the name G. H. Harris, but each owes him a tribute.  For his idea of a foot-control electric motor has made their jobs a lot easier.