0 Shares print Nearly three decades later, former Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh’s teammates, coaches and opponents still aren’t surprised he had the guts to say what he said on Nov. 17, 1986. Five days before Michigan played Ohio State in “The Game” in Columbus, Ohio, Harbaugh guaranteed the Wolverines would beat the Buckeyes and win a Big Ten championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. “I think we’re smart enough to know that there’s too much at stake right now,” Harbaugh told reporters. “Everything’s still out there for us. We can still win the Big Ten championship, we can go to the Rose Bowl, and we will. “I guarantee you we’ll beat Ohio State and be in Pasadena.” Late Michigan coach Bo Schembechler would have expected nothing less from his senior captain. “Quarterbacks are a special breed,” Schembechler wrote in his 1989 autobiography, “Bo.” “They need to be cocky, and the cockiest I ever had was probably Jim Harbaugh.” Now, as Harbaugh prepares to face defending national champion Ohio State for the first time as Michigan’s coach at the Big House, his guarantee still touches a nerve. “When he was playing in the pros and coaching at other colleges, I enjoyed watching Harbaugh. I was like, ‘Give ’em, hell, Jim,'” said Mike Kee, an Ohio State linebacker from 1983-86. “As soon as he went back to Michigan, I can’t stand him…
Continue Reading: Harbaugh’s ’86 victory guarantee still strikes a nerve at Ohio State
