John Harbaugh is set to join the famed Miami (Ohio) Cradle of Coaches, the school announced Wednesday.
After graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his father, Jack, was an assistant on Bo Schembechler's staff at Michigan, John Harbaugh headed south to play defensive back at Miami (Ohio). After graduating in 1984, Harbaugh immediately jumped into coaching at Western Michigan, and climbed the ladder from there to eventually win a Super Bowl as head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
And for that, his alma mater will induct him into one of the most exclusive coaching fraternities in football.
Harbaugh will join the likes of Earl "Red" Blaik, Paul Brown, Carm Cozza, Paul Dietzel, Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank, Ara Parseghian, John Bont, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel and Schembechler (Bill Narduzzi and Rick Carter are in the college version of the Cradle). All nine - and now 10 - coaches have either won a college national championship or Super Bowl, entered the College or Pro Football Hall of Fame, or earned recognition as the collegiate or professional coach of the year, and graduated from Miami University. Harbaugh joins Brown and Ewbank as the only Cradle members to hold NFL championships.
At age 51, Harbaugh will be the youngest Cradle member by a decade and, short of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a recipient of perhaps the most prestigious honor he can possibly attain.
Harbaugh will be immortalized with a statue in Miami's Cradle of Coaches plaza outside of Yager Stadium in a ceremony on April 19. The statue will be designed to depict Harbaugh on the sidelines of Super Bowl XLVII. His image will also be added to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches mural on Yager Stadium's south end zone scoreboard. The public is encouraged to attend.