The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/447116
feet up on his desk. He walked in and said, 'How you doin' Jim?' "I said, 'I'm doin' great, Bo, how you doin'?' He said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm sitting in your chair, Coach.' I couldn't think of anything better to say." The middle Harbaugh child couldn't think of anything to do but run for his life during a Michigan practice, when a football he and others were playing around with got away and rolled onto the practice field. Schembechler thundered out a strongly worded protest, but somehow young Jim made it through to eventually become recruited by that same Schembechler … Who soon enough told Harbaugh he'd never see the field. "In my first team meeting, I was 10 minutes late," Jim Harbaugh recalled. "Coach Schembechler told me I would never, never play a single down at the University of Michigan my entire career." It didn't play out that way, of course. Jim Harbaugh seemed destined for success in Ann Arbor, through a journey that began those many years before he took his first snap. "He's always talked a b o u t w h a t t h o s e seven years meant for him — not when he was playing here, b e c a u s e I w a s a t Kalamazoo coaching at Western Michigan," Jack Harbaugh said. " T h o s e y e a r s I ' m talking about are when he was at St. Francis Elementary, his years at Tappan Middle School, Pioneer High — when he was sitting in Bo's chair, sneaking into the IM building to play pickup basketball with some of the students when he was a freshman and sophomore at Pioneer High School. "Those are moments in his life that kids have that they will remember forever. Those experiences brought him to this place, being in Ann Arbor as the football coach." The elder Harbaugh recalled his own moments of doubt along the way. In 45 years of coaching, he moved 17 times, including uprooting the kids. The message — who's got it better Harbaugh was defensive backs coach at U-M under Bo Schembechler from 1973-79. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN