Jack Harbaugh

Jack Harbaugh

Jack Harbaugh attends the 2015 press conference introducing son Jim Harbaugh as Michigan head coach.
Position:	Defensive back, quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1939-06-28) June 28, 1939 (age 77)
Place of birth:	Crestline, Ohio
Career information
College:	Bowling Green
Career history
As player:
Titans of New York (1961)
As coach:
Eaton (OH) HS (1964–1965) Xenia (OH) HS (1966) Morehead State (assistant) (1967) Bowling Green (assistant) (1968–1970) Iowa (assistant) (1971–1973) Michigan (DB) (1973–1979) Stanford (DC) (1980–1981) Western Michigan (1982–1986) Pittsburgh (assistant) (1987–1988) Western Kentucky (1989–2002) San Diego (RB) (2004–2006) Stanford (RB) (2009)
Career highlights and awards
Mid-American Conference Champions (1959) 1959 NCAA Division II National Champions Western Ohio League Champions (1966) Ohio Valley Conference Champions (2000) Gateway Football Conference Co-Champions (2002) 2002 NCAA FCS National Champions 2002 AFCA Coach of the Year (FCS)
Head coaching record
Career:	116–95–3

Jack Avon Harbaugh (born June 28, 1939) is a former American football player and coach, and the father of the first pair of brothers to serve as NFL head coaches and the first pair of head coaching brothers to face off in a Super Bowl: John and Jim Harbaugh.

Harbaugh was born in Crestline, Ohio, to Marie Evelyn (née Fisher) and William Avon Harbaugh. He is of German and Irish descent. He played college football for the Bowling Green State University Falcons from 1957 to 1960, where he was a three-time letterman. In his junior year, the Falcons finished the season 9–0 and were named the small college division national champions. Harbaugh played professionally for one season, 1961, in the American Football League for the New York Titans, a team that would be renamed the New York Jets two years later.

Harbaugh began as an assistant coach to Jack Donaldson at Perrysburg High School in Perrysburg, Ohio, southwest of Toledo. (Donaldson later went on to coach the University of Toledo and in the NFL.) Both sons were born while Harbaugh was in Perrysburg. In 1964, Harbaugh was the head coach of Eaton High School football team in Eaton, Ohio. His record was 5–4–1, their first winning season in many years. In 1965 the team went 6–4. In 1966, Harbaugh was the head coach of the Xenia High School football team in Xenia, Ohio. His record for the one year that he coached was 8–1–1. He received championship honors in the Western Ohio League and was named conference Coach of the Year.

From 1982 to 1986, he served as the head football coach at Western Michigan University and compiled a 26–26–3 record. From 1989 to 2002, he was the head football coach at Western Kentucky University. During his tenure with the Hilltoppers he posted a 91–68 record, including three 10-win seasons. In 2002, the WKU squad won the NCAA Division I-AA national football championship.