Jim Harbaugh

James Joseph Harbaugh (born December 23, 1963) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL).

Born in Toledo, Ohio, on December 23, 1963, Harbaugh is the son of Jacqueline M. "Jackie" (née Cipiti) and Jack Harbaugh.

His mother is of half-Sicilian and half-Polish ancestry and his father is of Irish and German ancestry.

Both Jim and his brother John were born in Toledo, while his father was an assistant football coach at nearby Perrysburg High School in Perrysburg.

During Harbaugh's childhood, the family moved frequently, as his father held assistant coaching positions at Morehead State (1967), Bowling Green (1967–1970), Iowa (1971–1973), Michigan (1973–1979), Stanford (1980–1981), and Western Michigan (1982–1986).

Harbaugh played for the junior league Ann Arbor Packers and then for Tappan Junior High before moving on to Pioneer High School.

After graduation from high school in Palo Alto in 1982, Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor and enrolled at the University of Michigan and played quarterback for the Wolverines, starting for three seasons.

When his father became defensive coordinator at Stanford, he transferred to Palo Alto High School, graduating in 1982.

In February 1982, Harbaugh committed to play football for Bo Schembechler's Michigan Wolverines football team.

He came to Michigan with a "high school reputation as a slick California passer."

As a freshman in 1982 Harbaugh, age 18, and junior Dave Hall were backups to quarterback Steve Smith who had broken Michigan's single season record with 2,335 yards of total offense in 1981.

In the 1982 season, Smith started all 12 games, and Hall handled the limited backup role.

Even as Smith struggled, coach Schembechler expressed a reluctance to play Harbaugh, saying, "To suddenly pull some freshman out of the bag, I don't think you can do that in today's football."

Harbaugh did not see any game action in 1982, registered no statistics, and retained four years of eligibility under the NCAA's redshirt rule.

Harbaugh played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986 and played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons from 1987 to 2000 with his longest tenure (1987–1993) as a player with the Chicago Bears.

Harbaugh was born in Toledo, Ohio.

His father, Jack Harbaugh, was a football coach, and the family lived in Ohio, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, and California.

He attended high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California, when his father was an assistant coach at Michigan and Stanford, respectively.

Harbaugh performed well in the annual spring game in April 1983, completing 10 of 15 passes for 116 yards.

After the game, coach Schembechler noted, "Harbaugh is a fresh talent who'll be all right, but he has a lot to learn."

While Harbaugh was touted as the team's "pass-oriented quarterback of the future," he spent the 1983 season as Michigan's No. 3 quarterback behind Steve Smith and Dave Hall.

Smith started 11 games, and Hall started one game, while Harbaugh completed two of five passes for 40 yards in limited action.

Harbaugh completed his first pass for Michigan on November 5, 1983, in a 42–10 victory over Purdue.

As a fifth-year senior in 1986, he led Michigan to the 1987 Rose Bowl and was a Heisman Trophy finalist, finishing third.

Harbaugh received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in communications from the University of Michigan in 1986.

The Chicago Bears selected Harbaugh in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft.

He played 14 years as a quarterback in the NFL, with Chicago from 1987 to 1993, the Indianapolis Colts from 1994 to 1997, the Baltimore Ravens in 1998, and the San Diego Chargers in 1999 to 2000.

He first became a regular starting quarterback in 1990 with Chicago.

From 1994 to 2001, while still playing in the NFL, Harbaugh was an unpaid assistant coach at Western Kentucky University, where his father Jack was head coach.

In 1995 with Indianapolis, he led the Colts to the AFC Championship Game, was selected to the Pro Bowl and was honored as NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

In 2002, he returned to the NFL as the quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders.

Harbaugh returned to the college ranks in 2004 as the head coach at the University of San Diego.

After leading San Diego to consecutive Pioneer League championships in 2005 and 2006, he moved to Stanford in 2007, where he led the Cardinal to two bowl berths in four seasons, including a win in the 2011 Orange Bowl.

Immediately afterward, Harbaugh signed a five-year deal as head coach of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, where he led the team to the NFC Championship game in each of his first three seasons after the franchise missed the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons beforehand.

He and his older brother, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, became the first pair of brothers to serve as head coaches in NFL history.

Their teams played in a Thanksgiving Classic game in 2011 and in Super Bowl XLVII at the end of the 2012 season.

He previously served as the head coach at the University of Michigan from 2015 to 2024, the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2014, Stanford University from 2007 to 2010 and the University of San Diego from 2004 to 2006.

Harbaugh accepted a job as the head coach for the University of Michigan Wolverines in 2015.

Harbaugh led the team to berths in the College Football Playoff in 2021–22 season and the 2022–23 season, eventually winning the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2024, the school's first undisputed national championship since 1948.

On January 24, 2024, Harbaugh left Michigan to return to the NFL, signing a five-year contract to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.