Football player Dennis Wayne Harrah was born in South Charleston on March 9, 1953. He grew up on the West Side of Charleston and played football at Stonewall Jackson High School where he was an all-state center in 1970.

The six-feet, five-inch guard attended the University of Miami from 1971 to 1974. In the 1975 National Football League draft, he was the 11th overall pick and the first-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams. In the years Harrah played on the offensive line, his team averaged 2,450 yards rushing per year and won 61 percent of their regular season games. Harrah was named First Team All-Conference guard six times, Second Team All-Conference three times, and First Team All-NFL four times. He was named to six Pro Bowl games. He played in one Super Bowl, in 1980, but the Rams lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harrah played 168 games at offensive guard until his retirement in 1987.

After football, Harrah worked in real estate and coached football in California. He moved back to West Virginia in 2010 to be closer to his family. He lives in Charleston and Braxton County and sells insurance. He was inducted into the Miami University Sports Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2013, Harrah was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.