CANTON, Ohio — This city is deeply significant to the Harbaugh household, and never simply because Jim Harbaugh will coach the Chargers within the Corridor of Fame sport on Thursday evening, seven years after brother John Harbaugh did the identical with the Baltimore Ravens.
However the Harbaugh legacy in Canton predates the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, which opened its doorways in 1963.
That is the place newlywed Jack Harbaugh obtained his teaching begin in 1961, after his taking part in profession at Bowling Inexperienced State College, and three days at Buffalo Payments coaching camp, had come to an finish.
The Ohio River Valley is named the “Cradle of Coaches,” and for good purpose. It produced such teaching legends as Paul Brown, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Bo Schembechler, Lou Holtz and Nick Saban.
The area additionally birthed the profession of 1 Jack Harbaugh, storyteller supreme, whose preliminary foray into teaching was extra of a crash course.
Really, Harbaugh didn’t see the crash, however he heard the commotion.
The incident occurred throughout summer season two-a-day practices for Canton McKinley Excessive. Harbaugh, a junior excessive coach, was conscripted to work with the varsity workforce, and typically that was little greater than babysitting. Between practices sooner or later, a rambunctious group of gamers had commandeered a trailer and rode it down a hill behind Fawcett Stadium. With an incredible clatter, the makeshift stagecoach obtained the velocity wobbles like a wonky grocery cart and flipped over on a flip, ejecting its rowdy riders.
Nobody was severely harm, however there was a number of panic, particularly amongst Harbaugh and the opposite younger coaches who have been in cost whereas the older coaches had left for his or her favourite lunch spot.
“They told us, ‘We gave you one job! One job!’” Harbaugh mentioned. “I went home that night and told [wife] Jackie, ‘Don’t answer the phone. It could be [coach] Pete Ankney firing me.’”
The tools cart was unhinged. Ankney was not. He clearly noticed the teaching potential in Harbaugh, who needed to work his means up from the bottom ground.
That meant beginning with junior excessive gamers, who at instances could possibly be unruly past their years.
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Jack Harbaugh talks in regards to the time he obtained a highschool teaching job solely to understand the top coach needed him to go well with up and play quarterback in workforce scrimmages.
There was a fullback who was dominated ineligible earlier than the primary sport when coaches discovered he was considerably older than his teammates. Harbaugh instructed him to return his full uniform. The participant introduced the whole lot again however his school-issued cleats, so the coach despatched him again for these.
The aged-out child returned someday later and stood on a bridge close to follow. He held out his cleats and dangled them over a creek, shouting to Harbaugh that if he needed them he’d need to swim for them. Kerplunk — he dropped them into the water.
Harbaugh hopped a fence and gave chase, however pulled up when the wayward wild little one began swinging a steel canine chain over his head like a deranged cowboy, the whip inching ever nearer to the coach’s face.
The standoff lasted just a few moments till the child backed right into a curb and fell over, permitting Harbaugh an opportunity to pounce on him and — whereas displaying mercy to the child — confiscate the chain. Jack stored that chain in a jar for many years to come back.
“I remember seeing that chain, and I’ve heard the story probably a hundred times,” Jim Harbaugh mentioned. “I’m just really proud of my dad for the way he handled that.”
John Harbaugh, left, Jim Harbaugh, heart, and Jack Harbaugh chat earlier than a sport between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers in November 2011.
(Nick Wass / Related Press)
Then there was the participant — let’s name him “Frank” — who couldn’t cease swearing on the sphere. Jack Harbaugh warned him on a number of events, telling him he wouldn’t play except he toned down his language. That didn’t work.
“He lets out a high-velocity word, and I say, ‘That’s it, you’re not playing,’” mentioned Harbaugh, who even 60 years later requested that the child’s precise title be stored in confidence.
When Harbaugh turned his again, foul-mouthed Frank swung his helmet and clocked the coach excessive of the top. That staggered Harbaugh, who confirmed restraint in grabbing the participant by the shoulder pads and growling, “You’re done.”
Frank was an excellent participant and a preferred one, and the subsequent day, solely seven youngsters confirmed as much as follow. The one-day boycott labored for the day, because the coach didn’t have sufficient our bodies to run drills. However a grateful Harbaugh did inform the seven gamers who confirmed, “I’ll never forget you.”
Years later, whereas teaching at Bowling Inexperienced, Harbaugh bumped into a kind of unforgettable seven. To his sheepish embarrassment, the coach certainly forgot him and needed to be reintroduced.
Harbaugh remembered him as a pudgy, 5-foot-7 eighth grader. The teen had remodeled right into a sculpted superhero at 6-3 and 230 kilos.
“It was a reminder to me that you don’t forget players,” the coach mentioned. “Especially those players that you’ve brought in and believe in you and trust in you.”
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Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh talks in regards to the life classes he discovered from his father and mom.
Generally junior excessive youngsters have been… properly, simply youngsters.
Harbaugh remembers one timid teen who by no means made it onto the sphere. Within the season finale, he obtained his likelihood however declined to take it.
“He goes, ‘Coach I can’t go in,’” Harbaugh mentioned. “I asked him why not and he said, ‘One, I’ve got a headache. And two, I’ve got to pee.’ I told him, ‘Maybe you’d just better stay here.’”
As for Harbaugh, he obtained his huge break on the finish of the Canton McKinley season when the varsity coach requested him to assist the gamers put together for the monumental matchup towards powerhouse Massillon.
When the irrepressibly enthusiastic Harbaugh confirmed as much as coach, he was handed a uniform. He can be taking part in scout quarterback for the week.
“They kicked the living snot out of me,” he recalled with fun. “Four days of no mercy.”
Jackie and Jack Harbaugh, mother and father of Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh and Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
(Courtesy of Harbaugh household)
Harbaugh was nonetheless feeling the consequences of these grueling practices the week after the Canton McKinley-Massillon sport — which Massillon gained, 7-6 — when he and Jackie have been married the next weekend.
And the Harbaugh youngsters would hear the story for many years to come back.
“Their marriage, their coaching career, the ups and downs, the two of them have been the rock in every story,” Jim Harbaugh mentioned of his mother and father. “It was just Ward and June Cleaver doing the right thing time after time. You just feel blessed and as good as you can feel to have parents like Jack and Jackie Harbaugh.”
Canton isn’t only a end line. It’s a beginning gate too.
