Jim Harbaugh - Athletic Alumni 2016

Recently, a highly regarded football network analyst was discussing the best coaches in college on a national radio broadcast. The analyst said there were three above all others. Two are very well-known and have already won NCAA national championships in recent years. The third was Jim Harbaugh. And then the analyst said that, even though Harbaugh has had only one year at Michigan, he’d put him number one on the list. And perhaps in all of football.”

And Ann Arbor can revel a bit in that praise because much of Jim Harbaugh’s talent, knowledge, attitude, and spirit was forged in his youth on the playgrounds, parking lots, and football fields of Tree Town, including on Pioneer’s Hollway Field.

A whole bunch of victories support the analyst’s view on Jim. As a coach, he turned around programs with losing records at San Diego, Stanford, and in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers. In all cases, he dramatically improved each team’s performance, including playing in or winning league championships, up to and including the Super Bowl.

In addition, either as a college head coach or as a position coach in the NFL, he developed two Stanford players to Heisman Trophy runners-up status, and guided an NFL quarterback to a league championship, the year’s NFL’s MVP award, a spot in the Pro Bowl, and a Super Bowl appearance.

Others have noted Jim’s coaching prowess and made him the only coach to win both the AP NFL Coach of the Year (2011) and Woody Hayes Coach of the Year Award (2010).

As a player, Jim earned the nickname in the NFL as “Captain Comeback” for numerous fourth quarter come-from-behind wins. He had a 15-year pro career, playing for 5 teams.

As the University of Michigan’s quarterback, Jim led the nation in pass efficiency in 1985 and finished as the runner-up in 1986. His career pass efficiency rating was the NCAA's top mark for more than 12 years. An All-America team member, Jim finished third in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy following the 1986 season.

At Pioneer, Jim was a member of the football program until his father Jack accepted a position at Stanford University and necessitated a move to California. Chuck Ritter, Pioneer’s head coach, remembers Jim’s playing days. “We kept Jim on the Junior Varsity to get more playing time as we had a strong senior at quarterback. When that player got injured mid-season, we called up Jim. Despite a shaky first half in his first game on Varsity, he almost brought us back to victory against a strong opponent. He showed that he was special. Plus, in true Jim Harbaugh-fashion, he quickly gained his confidence and by the next game was suggesting plays we could run to fire up the offense.”

Recently, Jim penned a look-back at his days in Ann Arbor as a youth in The Players’ Tribune. " I have my fondest (memories) here in Ann Arbor, the place I stayed the longest as a kid and that left the biggest impact on me. I have so much gratitude to the University of Michigan and to the people I’ve met who’ve shaped how I think in a very positive way. I can’t think of any place in the world I’d rather be.

“Who’s got it better than us? No-body," he finished writing.

On December 30, 2014, Jim put those words into action and came back to his beloved Ann Arbor to accept the position of head coach for the University of Michigan’s football program.

And now he accepts a position as a member of the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 2016, appropriately entering with his brother John.

From the Pioneer Athletics Hall of Fame, welcome back, Jim. And who’s got it better than us? Our answer, too, is “No-body!”