Jim Harbaugh

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Jim Harbaugh
Jim Harbaugh as the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal football team.
Title	Head coach
College	Stanford
Conference	Pac-10
Team record	4–8
Born	December 23, 1963 (1963-12-23) (age 44)
Place of birth	Toledo, Ohio
Annual salary	$750,000
Career highlights
Overall	33–14
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Awards
1995 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year, 1995 UPI AFL-AFC Player of the Year Indianapolis Colts ROH 1x Pro Bowl selection (1995) NFL All-Pro (1995) NFL.com stats
Playing career
1983-1986 1987-1993 1994-1997 1998 1999-2000 2001	Michigan Chicago Bears Indianapolis Colts Baltimore Ravens San Diego Chargers Carolina Panthers * *Inactive and/or practice squad member only
Position	QB
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1994-2001 2002-2003 2004-2006 2007-present	Western Kent. (Assist.) Oakland Raiders (QBs) San Diego Stanford

James Joseph "Jim" Harbaugh (born December 23, 1963 in Toledo, Ohio) is the American football head coach for the Stanford Cardinal football team.^[1] He is also a former quarterback who played for the Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, and San Diego Chargers of the NFL. He was drafted by the Bears out of the University of Michigan with the 26th pick in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft.

[edit] College career

Harbaugh was a four-year letterman at the University of Michigan and finished his college career in the top five in passing attempts, completions, completion percentage, passing yards, and touchdown passes for them. Playing for Bo Schembechler, he was a three-year starter (though he broke his arm and sat out the remainder of the 1984 season) and led the Wolverines to appearances in the Fiesta and Rose Bowl games. As a junior, Harbaugh led the nation in passing efficiency and quarterbacked one of Bo Schembechler's best teams ever. The 1985 team posted a 10-1-1 record, a 27-23 win over Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, and a #2 ranking in the final polls -- the highest finish ever for one of Schembechler's Michigan teams. As a senior in 1986, Harbaugh guided Michigan to an 11-2 record and Rose Bowl berth while earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors and finishing third in the Heisman balloting. Harbaugh was also named to the Big Ten's All-Academic team, as well as the 1986 AP and UPI All-American teams.

[edit] NFL career

Harbaugh entered the NFL as a first-round draft pick by the Chicago Bears in 1987. He played seven seasons for the Bears and passed for a career-high 3,121 yards for Chicago in 1991.

From 1994 to 1997, Harbaugh quarterbacked the Indianapolis Colts, and in 1995, achieved career highs in completion percentage (63.7) and touchdown passes (17). While with the Colts, he led the team to the AFC Championship game and came within one dropped Hail Mary pass of taking the Colts to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1970. In 1995, he was voted to the Pro Bowl, was named Comeback Player of the Year and AFC Player of the Year, and was runner-up in the NFL MVP voting. With the Colts, Harbaugh completed 746 of 1,230 passes for 8,705 yards and 49 touchdowns and won the NFL passer rating title in 1995 with a rating of 100.7. In January 2005, Harbaugh was inducted into the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor as one of the most successful and popular players in the club's Indianapolis era.

After a last-place 3-13 record in 1997, Harbaugh was immediately traded to the Baltimore Ravens in order for the Colts to make room for Peyton Manning. During the 1998 season, Harbaugh was the starter but would split playing time with Eric Zeier. Then he played two years with the San Diego Chargers. In 1999 he led the Chargers to an 8-8 record, but in 2000 the Chargers finished with a 1-15 record behind Harbaugh and former first-round pick Ryan Leaf. Harbaugh signed with the Detroit Lions prior to the 2001 season, where he was expected to backup incumbent starter Charlie Batch. However, on the eve of the regular season, the Lions cut him and traded for Ty Detmer. Harbaugh then closed out his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers in 2001, where he dressed for 6 games but did not compile any statistics.

For his NFL career, Harbaugh played in 177 league games with 140 starts. He completed 2,305 of 3,918 passes for 26,288 yards with 129 touchdowns. Particularly during his time with Indianapolis - such as when he led the Colts to come-from-behind wins over the Chiefs and Chargers in 1995-96 playoffs and a near upset over the No. 1 AFC seed Steelers - he earned the nickname "Captain Comeback" (the second player to be so nicknamed after Roger Staubach) for his ability to win games in the fourth quarter after overcoming significant point deficits.

[edit] Coaching career

During his final eight seasons in the NFL (1994-2001), Harbaugh was an NCAA-certified unpaid assistant coach under his father, Jack, at Western Kentucky University. Serving as an offensive consultant, he scouted and recruited high school student-athletes throughout several states including Florida, Indiana and Illinois. He was involved in recruiting 17 players on WKU's 2002 Division I-AA National Championship team. His father was a football coach for 18 years, including 14 years as Head Coach at Western Kentucky.

Harbaugh was an assistant coach with the Oakland Raiders in 2002-2003. In 2002 he was an offensive assistant coach, and in 2003 he was the quarterbacks coach.

Prior to the 2004 season, Harbaugh was named head football coach at the University of San Diego. In his first year, he directed the Toreros to an overall mark of 7-4, including 5 straight wins to end the season. The following year, the team improved to 11-1 and won the 2005 Pioneer Football League Championship. In 2006, USD again went 11-1 winning their second consecutive Pioneer League title in the process.

On December 18, 2006, Harbaugh was named the head football coach at Stanford University, replacing Walt Harris. Harbaugh's father, Jack, was Stanford's defensive coordinator from 1980-1981, while Harbaugh attended Palo Alto High School, located directly across the street from Stanford Stadium.^[1]

[edit] Controversy

In 2006, Harbaugh, while coaching at the University of San Diego, guaranteed a win over D1-AA foe UC Davis. After making statements like, "Just looking at the Top 25, which includes all the I-AA scholarship schools, I believe we beat most of them," and claiming he "...turn[ed] the program into a Division I-AA powerhouse in just three "seasons...", Harbaugh coached his team to a 37-27 defeat at UCD, an unranked D1-AA scholarship program.

Harbaugh stirred some intra-conference controversy in March 2007, when he was quoted as saying rival-USC coach "Pete Carroll's only got one more year, though. He'll be there one more year. That's what I've heard. I heard it inside the staff." Upon further questions, Harbaugh claimed he had heard it from staff at USC. The comment caused a rebuke from Carroll.^[2] At the Pacific 10 Conference media day on July 26, 2007, Harbaugh praised the Trojans, stating "There is no question in my mind that USC is the best team in the country and may be the best team in the history of college football." The declaration, especially in light of his earlier comment, garnered more media attention.^[3][4] Later in the season, Stanford defeated #1 USC 24-23 with a touchdown in the final minute. With USC being the favorite by 41 points, it was statistically the greatest upset in college football history.

On May 4, 2007, Harbaugh was quoted in the San Francisco Examiner making comments about the University of Michigan's football program.^[5] In touting Stanford's academics, he stated "the [Michigan] athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in and, when they’re in, they steer them to courses in sports communications. They’re adulated when they’re playing, but when they get out, the people who adulated them won’t hire them."^[5] Harbaugh stated that he had wanted to major in history at Michigan, but was told early in his freshman year that he shouldn't major in history because it was too demanding academically.^[6] The comments generated negative reactions from members of the Michigan football program, including alumni, current players, and head coach Lloyd Carr.^[7] Michigan running back Mike Hart noted that Stanford had recently taken a Michigan student-athlete as a transfer,^[8] and openly questioned whether Harbaugh would be welcome to ever coach at his alma mater.^[7] However, following up on Harbaugh's comments about football players being steered to easy majors, the Ann Arbor News reported that as of the spring of 2007, 82% of Michigan's scholarship football players who had declared a major were majoring in general studies.^[9] This debate led to in depth research on the subject. This led to an ESPN article to identify that many of these student-athletes taking "general studies" do choose majors before their junior year.^[10]

[edit] Head coaching record

[edit] Personal

Harbaugh has two sons, Jay and James, Jr., and a daughter, Grace. His brother John is the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens and his brother-in-law, Tom Crean, is head coach of the Indiana University men's basketball team.

He has been very active in Community Service ventures. He has been actively involved with the Harbaugh Hill Foundation, the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children, Western Kentucky University, the Jim Harbaugh Foundation, the Uhlich's Children's Home and the Children's Miracle Network.

Harbaugh is co-owner of Panther Racing in the Indy Racing League. The main car for the team carries Harbaugh's old jersey number, 4. When the team won the 2001 and 2002 IRL championship, the team, which had the option of going to #1, chose instead to keep the #4 for its association with Harbaugh's career. When Harbaugh was with the Carolina Panthers, #4 had been given to kicker John Kasay so Harbaugh wore #14, for A. J. Foyt.

[edit] See also

• Lists of Michigan Wolverines football passing leaders

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Profile from Stanford Department of Athletics website
• Pro-Football-Reference.com - career statistics.