Coaching influences

2004-06-24 – By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

Of all the coaches Jim Harbaugh has spent time around as a quarterback, he says the three most influential on him have been his father, Jack, Bo Schembechler and Mike Ditka.

Harbaugh, USD's new head coach, was a three-year starter for Schembechler at Michigan (1984-86). Ditka was the head coach of the Chicago Bears when Harbaugh was a first-round draft pick in 1987.

Harbaugh said he would watch films with his father and first was aware of his desire to follow in his father’s footsteps at age 6, when Jack was an assistant at Iowa.

“From an early age, he explained things to me like three-deep and two-deep coverages and who would have responsibility from the linebacker position,” Jim said. “I can say in all honesty I wanted to be a coach when I was 6. My plan was to play football as long as I could and then go into coaching.”

From Iowa, Jack moved to an assistant’s position at Michigan when Harbaugh was 9, he was an assistant at Stanford in Harbaugh’s high school years and he later was a head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky. Jack’s 2002 Western Kentucky club won the NCAA Division I-AA national title.

Harbaugh on his father’s influence:

“My dad’s greatest quality is he’s a people person. You can have a conversation with him and within 20 minutes you’ll know what he’s about. You’ll walk away saying, ‘I know this guy.’ He has a great level of character. He’s a dynamic type of person who is confident and puts a lot of detail in his coaching.”

Harbaugh on Schembechler’s influence:

“He’s a living legend. He’s a very charismatic figure, larger than life. The biggest thing I learned from him is discipline in your life. For him there was a right way and a wrong way to do things and there was no gray area in between. He had a tremendous will to win. There are people like that.”

Harbaugh on Ditka’s influence:

“He was a tremendous motivator, like Bo. There is a lot to be said for a coach who has a presence and a dynamic style.”

Harbaugh and Ditka once had a public blowup, featuring Ditka’s famous temper, on the sideline that was captured by television and replayed many, many times. But Harbaugh says the incident wasn’t indicative of his player-coach relationship under Ditka.

“I only had one sideline incident with him, but it was famous,” he said. “To me, it was just a coach yelling at a player. That happened to me 100 times at Michigan. But at Michigan, I just said, ‘OK, coach.’ I didn’t say anything.”