Jim Harbaugh is an Example of How to be a Good Catholic

Jim Harbaugh’s successes are largely known in the football world where he has guided countless high level teams to immediate glory as both a player and a coach.

As a player, he stared at the University of Michigan where he guided the 1985-1986 Wolverines to a 10-1-1 season and a Fiesta Bowl victory, finishing #2 overall in the AP Poll as the starting quarterback. The next season was more individually prolific however, as Jim Harbaugh finished #3 in the Heisman voting and guided Michigan to the #8 ranking overall, finishing 11-2 with a Rose Bowl appearance. 

Following this success, he went on to play in the NFL as a First Round Draft Pick. 

He played for the Chicago Bears (1987-1993), the Indianapolis Colts (1994-1997), the Baltimore Ravens (1998), the San Diego Chargers (1999-2000), the Detroit Lions (2001), and the Carolina Panthers (2001). His best season was the 1995-1996 season where he led the Indianapolis Colts to the AFC Championship Game, earned NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and made the Pro Bowl. 

From 1994-2001, Jim Harbaugh doubled as a college football consultant for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, at that time in the lower Division 1 now called FCS. WKU would win the National Championship at this level in 2002, with many of their players having been recruited by Jim Harbaugh. 

The WKU experience started his coaching career. 

In the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons, Jim Harbaugh was the quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders, guiding Rick Gannon to earn the 2002 AFC MVP, and the Raiders to play in Super Bowl XXXVII. 

He would then become the Head Coach at the University of San Diego, a lower Division 1 football team and a Catholic university. His first season, the Toreros went 7-4. Jim Harbaugh then guided them to two straight seasons with an 11-1 record, winning the Pioneer Football League twice!

In 2007, Jim Harbaugh would be named the Head Coach of Stanford University, the Cardinal! Stanford had just finished 1-11 and were one of the worst teams in the nation, if not the worst!

But, by his third season (2009-2010) as head coach, Stanford was now a team with a winning record, finishing 8-5.

Jim Harbaugh’s fourth season at Stanford was his most successful finishing 12-1 and winning the Orange Bowl, finishing #4 overall in the BCS rankings. In just four seasons, Jim Harbaugh had transformed Stanford into one of the best teams in the nation. 

Jim Harbaugh’s career took him to the San Francisco 49ers next, as head coach of this storied NFL franchise. 

The 49ers were coming off of 8 consecutive losing seasons and Jim Harbaugh was just the man to stop this trend. He guided the 49ers to a 13-3 record in the 2011-2012 season and an NFC Championship appearance. 

In the 2012-2013 season, the 49ers finished 11-4-1 and made it to the Super Bowl! 

And, the 2013-2014 season saw the 49ers again have a great season at 12-4 and make it to another NFC Championship Game. 

After one last season with the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh returned to his alma mater to become the Wolverines Head Coach!

Despite having many good seasons, the bar for Michigan Wolverines football is quite high! 

Over his first six seasons, Michigan failed to win the Big Ten and also failed to defeat Ohio State, their fiercest rivals. 

There was lots of pressure on Jim Harbaugh to put together a great season last year, or risk being fired. And, that is what the Wolverines did, winning the Big Ten, defeating Ohio State, making a trip to the College Football Playoff, finishing 12-2 and #3 overall in the nation. 

But, enough about Jim Harbaugh’s footballing exploits. What makes Jim Harbaugh a good Catholic?

Well, for one, he is a Catholic, having been born into a maternal Sicilian (Italian)-Polish and paternal Irish-German family. 

And, despite the fame and the busy schedule as a football player and coach, he has kept his Faith first. 

While as the Head Coach of the Stanford Cardinal and San Francisco 49ers, Jim Harbaugh and his wife became active parishioners of Saint Raymond Catholic Church in Menlo Park, California. 

It was in the Bay Area that Jim Harbaugh became active in the Santisimo Sacramento Parish in Piura, Peru. In 2009, he was shown this land the Catholic Church had bought and it looked like a wasteland. 

The next summer, it had a K-11 school with 690 kids dressed in uniforms. 

Jim Harbaugh helped build houses and other structures, while also donating money. His efforts earned him the name Diego, which he is known by at the Santisimo Sacramento Parish. This is most likely due to the fact that one day, Jim Harbaugh was wearing his University of San Diego gear while working there. 

Piura is a city that at the time, 60% of their population lived in poverty and a further 20% lived in extreme poverty. And, combined with the fact that this parish was new, it needed lots of help.

Jim Harbaugh was one of the key people in making this happen. He also helped the kids have fun there and created a modified version of soccer with endzones called Peruball.

And then, there is his work that he has done with Legal Services Corporation (LSC), where Jim Harbaugh has advocated for and donated time and money towards, to decrease the justice gap in the USA.

He had a great quote from an event in Washington, D.C. representing LSC where he stated: “I think of our country as a team that we’re all on. Fairness on a football team is probably the thing you strive for the most. I treat everybody exactly the same but you want to be fair to everybody on the team. It would be like only giving 20% of the team a helmet. The rest of the team doesn’t get a helmet, you don’t get protection. Run out there and play in the game without a helmet and we’ll see what happens. Then they’ll start talking about this guy’s got a glass jaw, he’s hurt all the time. Well, you don’t have the protection. The 70, 60, 50% that don’t have legal protection. That’s why this new report is so important, it details many legal challenges that confront low-income Americans and how hard it is for them to get legal assistance.” 

The report from LSC that was featured showed that 86% of civil legal problems attributed to low-income Americans receive inadequate to no help, 71% of low-income Americans received at least one civil legal problem in the last year, and in 2017, low-income Americans will approach civil legal help on an estimated 1.7 million cases, yet will receive little to no legal help for over half of these cases. 

Away from his work with Peruvian charities and extending the American legal system to those less fortunate, Jim Harbaugh has also brought his football team closer to the Church, literally, by having the team take a trip to Rome in 2017 at the end of their Springball. Here, the players got to experience lots of sites and events like the opera, the beaches, and cooking classes while having three practices. In addition, they got to meet with refugees and also went to a SOS Children's Village. 

They visited the Colosseum, and plenty of other sites across "The Eternal City", but most notably, they went to the Vatican City! Here, some of the players and Jim Harbaugh himself, met Pope Francis! Pope Francis was given a Michigan Wolverines football helmet and Air Jordan cleats!

Michigan traveled to Paris and Normandy in France in 2018, and Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa in 2019. 

In France, a lot of the trip took in the sites of Paris, but it was their Normandy trip that had the most impact from Omaha Beach to the American Cemetery where the Wolverines’ players and staff were reminded of the American struggle for freedom around the world.

In South Africa, much of the trip was focused on visiting historic museums on apartheid and on famous figures like President Nelson Mandela, as well as taking in the wildlife such as safaris! They held a football and rugby clinic while there too, connecting their footballing roots to the Springboks to create more unity. 

These trips helped educate the football players and build more camaraderie amongst the players, while also broadening their world, teaching the players about compassion, sacrifice, and relentless efforts toward justice, all very Catholic traits.

These were all great acts of Catholic love and service.

However, it has been what has made the news most recently that is his most important Catholic service.

Coach Jim Harbaugh has been a vocal Pro-Life person for a long time now, such as in 2020 when he stated: "And lastly, abortion, we talk about sanctity of life, yet we live in a society that aborts babies. There can't be anything more horrendous." 

He has especially double-downed on his Pro-Life efforts this summer.

Earlier this month, Jim Harbaugh and his wife Sarah spoke at a Pro-Life charity event in Plymouth, Michigan, to raise money for Pro-Life charities in Metro Detroit. 

Some of Jim Harbaugh's quotes were really good such as this one where Jim Harbaugh states that the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born: "In God’s plan, each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love. I have living proof in my family, my children, and the many thousands that I’ve coached that the unborn are amazing gifts from God to make this world a better place. To me, the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born." 

And, to the question of whether abortion should be one of the immoral practices allowed by the government to exist for personal liberties and constitutional reasons, Jim Harbaugh clarified: "[T]here are conflicts between the legitimate rights of the mother and the rights of the unborn child. One resolution might involve incredible hardship for the mother, family and society. Another results in the death of an unborn person." Jim Harbaugh later confirmed the rights of the child must win out because of the fact that the child’s right to life is on the line.

While the Harbaughs have faced criticism for this, they are not afraid of being canceled because they know they must speak the truth.

In fact, in the midst of criticism, Jim Harbaugh stated how his wife and he would look after any unwanted babies from family, extended family, players, staff members, trainers, etcetera: "Let that unborn child be born, and if at that time, you don’t feel like you can care for it, you don’t have the means or the wherewithal, then Sarah and I will take that baby."

The courage of Jim Harbaugh to preach for the Pro-Life cause when his university, many in his state, many alumni, and many across the nation are so vehemently opposed to the Pro-Life movement displays how one can put their Faith first. 

Recently, Southwest Airlines fired an employee for being Pro-Life, and many other workers have been fired, overlooked for a promotion or a hire, or heavily pressured to resign over their beliefs. Many students risk lower grades if they voice their opinions. It has become very difficult to be Pro-Life openly. But, if all of us Catholics were, or at the very least, silently were in action through our votes and donations, then we would probably no longer have a culture and legal system so pro-abortion.

For a man that already has so much, some may look past his bravery. However, one must also acknowledge he has so much to lose too. 

What is most special in Jim Harbaugh’s Pro-Life views is that fact that as he alluded to in his speech this July, that he is a living testament to each life being a gift because he knows so many people that were born into an environment where abortion was seen as an economic necessity. Looking at the Pro-Choice arguments today, one can see that it often treats those from poorer backgrounds as if their life is a burden to others and themselves, as if they would be better off dead. In sports, especially football, we often see this argument completely collapse on itself because we see lots of people that fit this description when they were born, but yet become an inspiration for us to continue pursuing our dreams as they excel beyond these hurtful and dangerous expectations. 

For Jim Harbaugh, representing the voiceless, helping the less fortunate, and creating life-long learners is the path he has taken in his Faith journey. For these reasons and many more, he serves as a bright example of what Catholics should be like in the modern world.