Parents Support Harbaugh

Jack Harbaugh knew in February that his son Jim, the quarterback, was about to be traded by the Indianapolis Colts, so when the phone rang he simply asked: “Where you going?”

“Baltimore,” replied Jim Harbaugh. Knowing he’d be headed in the opposite direction from the Colts when the franchise departed Baltimore on a cold, snowy night in March 1984, the almost-always upbeat quarterback said jokingly: “Hey, dad, I got an idea. How ‘bout if I get a Mayflower van? We can have a little snow coming down. ... Hey, I’m moving to Baltimore.”

Jim’s recent preseason debut with the Ravens found the father, who is Western Kentucky University’s head football coach, occupying one of the gaudy purple seats in Baltimore’s new stadium, rooting for his son. He wouldn’t have been elsewhere. The Harbaughs have shared the game of football since Jim was able to stand up and tag along with his father when he worked as a college assistant. Jim, during his last five offseasons, has worked as an unpaid assistant coach for his father, primarily recruiting.

Even if Jim is 34 years old and with his third NFL team, father and son jointly approached the quarterback’s latest beginning with unflagging enthusiasm, as if Jim still were a collegian at Michigan or making his rookie bow with the Chicago Bears. “I can’t imagine that there could be a finer facility than this,” Jack said to Jim, walking into the new stadium for its unveiling Aug. 8, when the Ravens met the Bears in a preseason game. There was a bounce in Jack’s step, a smile at his lips as he looked around. He was pleased to be there. He was continuing a football journey with his son.

Most of the Harbaugh family was there, including Jim’s wife, Miah, and Jack’s wife, Jackie, and their daughter, Joani, who is married to Tom Crean, an assistant basketball coach at Michigan State. “When Tom came into the family we had to expand our sports,” Jack said with a laugh. The Harbaughs were spending a football weekend, having already been to Philadelphia, where their other son, John, made his debut as the Eagles’ special teams coach in a preseason game.

Jim was eager to play again for Ted Marchibroda, under whom he guided the Colts to the 1995 AFC championship game. “He kind of resurrected Jim’s career,” Jack said.

Earlier, Harbaugh played seven seasons with the Bears. But the stay in Chicago did not end happily at Soldier Field. “Seventy-seven thousand booed,” Jackie said. “I was ticked off. Crying, I might add.”

The Harbaughs’ pleasure in being in Baltimore brought to mind an earlier father and quarterback-son who didn’t take the time to find out about the city’s passion for pro football and its appreciation for good quarterbacking. Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas and Bert Jones all played for the Colts. John Elway was drafted No. 1 by Baltimore in 1983, but he -- and his father -- said he would never play for the team. Ernie Accorsi, the general manager, was stunned when he heard on television six nights after he had drafted Elway that owner Robert Irsay had traded the quarterback to Denver. Accorsi recognized Elway as a franchise player and had been prepared to wait him out a whole year if necessary, but Irsay’s move proved to be the beginning of the end of the Colts in Baltimore. Had the Elways been as happy then as the Harbaughs are now, the current NFL landscape might be closer to what it used to be.

“Jim’s a very enthusiastic person,” his father said. “He gets excited about things. Even now at 34 he’s a kid at heart. He might not like me to say it, but he gets a kick out of things like meeting another player like Dan Marino. Jim’s a little embarrassed by the ‘Captain Comeback’ nickname he got in Indianapolis because somebody like Marino has pulled out a lot more games than he has.”

From the time Jack or Jackie used to drive their young sons to play in games, football has meant competition and something more, fun and a closer family. “Football,” Jack said, “has enabled us to spend a lot of time together, good times that just came naturally.”