The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/447116
than us — remained clear. The path simply created some nagging, unspoken, second-guessing. Jack Harbaugh offered: "As a coach, you move, and you say to yourself, 'Is this the right thing to do? Taking our kids out of elementary school, moving … is this the right thing to do?' "You come home after getting your tail kicked, and we've had it kicked severely at different stops along the way. You come home and you don't want to talk to anybody. You go hide, turn out the lights and get away from everyone. Your kids see that. Is that good for them to see? Is that positive? "Then you win, and you celebrate, all the different things that happen in this journey of coaching. Then to see your kids — John and Jim and Joani, deciding that's what they want to do, Joani marrying a basketball coach and our kids choosing coaching. It reaffirms. You say, you know what? It worked out. It worked out." That's why watching Michigan's new head coach meant just a bit more to an already proud father. He'd walked this road. He'd coached in Michigan Stadium. He'd worked alongside Bo Schembechler. And now, his son is going to sit in the chair for real. "This is home, where our signature years were in collegiate football," Jack Harbaugh said. "There was a great man I had a chance to work under, my hero, Bo Schembechler. Now for Jim to be head coach at the University of Michigan … it's just a tremendous thrill that every once in a while you have to slap yourself around a little bit to know it's all happening to you and your family. "There has to be some kind of destiny, some kind of a force. How it happens I have no idea. I really don't care to know. I'm just thrilled to be here." Jack Harbaugh lavishes credit on his wife, Jackie, for holding down the fort through all these years, as many football wives do. " S h e ' s b e e n t h e h e a r t a n d foundation and rock of our family," he said. "She's made the decisions and done the heavy lifting." He also praises Sarah, Jim's wife, with whom Jim is raising daughters Addison and Katherine, along with son Jack. Jim also has three grown kids — Jay, James and Grace — from a previous marriage. "Sarah was instrumental," Jack Harbaugh said, regarding Jim's return to Ann Arbor. "Sarah has the biggest heart of anyone that you'd ever want to meet … she is a star. She is such a star. She stands with Jim." They all stood together on a crisp December day, a stone's throw away from The Big House. They'd come straight from San Francisco, where the 49ers and their fans had picked up on Jack's longtime rhetorical question. But here, in this time and this place, it seemed to resonate more deeply. This time, it spoke of a homecoming that seemed too good to be true. "He's built some houses," Jack Harbaugh mused. "Now he's building a house, and he wants to be here. Coaching here is something he's dreamed of pretty much all his life." Who has it better than us? Nooo-body! ❏