Last year, Ravens coach John Harbaugh won a Super Bowl. This year, he secured something even more rare.
On Friday, a statue was unveiled in his honor at Miami of Ohio’s “Cradle of Coaches,” a bronze gallery of tributes to coaching legends who played college football at the school.
“There’s nothing like the Cradle of Coaches. I don’t think there’s a bigger honor in coaching,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s official website. “People may not understand that, but once you take a look at it, it means a lot.”
The Ravens’ website has video of the unveiling, which fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) wasn’t disrupted by Mr. T.
The throng of 260 family members, friends, and colleagues who attended a Friday night dinner in Harbaugh’s honor included a surprise visit from John’s brother, Jim, head coach of the 49ers.
“There have been a lot of proud moments but I’ve never been more proud of him than I am today,” Jim said at the celebration. “I always prided myself on being the tallest Harbaugh, but that all changed today when they unveiled that statue.”
John Harbaugh played college football at Miami in the early 1980s.
“I wasn’t a really good football player, but I was the best football player I could ever be,” John Harbaugh said. “And there were a lot of challenges and a lot of difficult things. But then 10 years later, or 15 years later, or 30 years later, you have a chance to look back and you understand why you were there at that time with those people.”
Harbaugh’s likeness joins Paul Brown, Bo Schembechler, Weeb Ewbank, Earl Blaik, Carm Cozza, Paul Dietzel, Ara Parseghian and John Pont in the grove of statues outside Yager Stadium.