Michigan Football: The 1984 Harbaugh Effect on the Wolverines

Michigan Wolverines football is ready to begin anew under Jim Harbaugh, but looking back to 1984, his mark was already made on the program.

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Nobody knows just how big an impact Jim Harbaugh will have on Michigan’s football fortunes this season. But if the impact he had during his playing career in Ann Arbor is any indication, we should be in for quite a ride. This is the first in a three-part series that looks back at each of Harbaugh’s three seasons as starting quarterback for the Wolverines.

In the fall of 1983, an apple-cheeked freshman from Palo Alto by the name of Jimmy Harbaugh joined the varsity football team at Michigan. The program was in the midst of a lackluster stretch by Schembechler standards. The previous year’s squad won the conference, technically speaking, but held the distinction of being the first Wolverine team to travel to Pasadena after losing to Ohio State.

They lost their two big non-conference games, dropping the first night game ever played at Notre Dame and blowing a 21-point lead in a home defeat to UCLA. They fell in the Rose Bowl to the same Bruins team, making Terry Donahue the first coach outside of the Big Ten to beat the Wolverines twice in the same season.

The 1983 edition of Michigan football fared pretty much the same, with a slightly better 9-3 record and a second-place finish in the conference. They defeated the Buckeyes yet lost their only significant non-conference game by one point to Don James’ Washington Huskies in Seattle. They also experienced a stinging bowl defeat, falling 9-7 to Auburn in the Sugar Bowl after keeping Bo Jackson and the high-powered Tiger offense out of the end zone all evening.

Harbaugh was on clipboard detail his freshman year, backing up three-year starter Steve Smith—at once the most electrifyingly fast and mind-bogglingly inconsistent quarterback the school had seen. The senior from Grand Blanc started all 11 games in 1983, leaving Harbaugh to wait until the following season for a shot to be the starting signal-caller.

When that opportunity came, the kid who once played on the Michigan Stadium sidelines while his father coached defense didn’t disappoint. In August, Bo awarded Harbaugh the starting job for the No. 14 ranked Wolverines’ first game of 1984. And what a first game it was.

Apr 4, 2015; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh is seen during the Spring football game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Not only had the Miami Hurricanes won the 1983 national championship; the team that returned was just as loaded if not more. A retiring Howard Schnellenberger turned the reins over to former Oklahoma State head coach Jimmy Johnson.

The Miami offense was led by a pimply, frizzy-haired senior named Bernie Kosar. His backup, sophomore Vinny Testaverde, would eventually win the Heisman Trophy in 1986. The backfield featured Melvin Bratton and Alonzo Highsmith, the tandem that led the Canes to an 11-1 record and historic upset of top-ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Stanley Shakespeare and first-team All-American Eddie Brown were the wideouts, with future All-America Willie Smith at tight end.

To make matters worse, the Canes hit Ann Arbor with two games already under their belt: an impressive 20-18 win over preseason No. 1 Auburn in East Rutherford, NJ, and a dramatic 32-20 victory over the No. 17 Florida Gators in Tampa Bay. The wins were enough to vault the Hurricanes to No. 1 in both AP and UPI polls. As such, they were everyone’s pick to make short work of their third ranked opponent in as many weeks.

Teams from the south seldom traveled above the Mason-Dixon line to play football. But Miami realized that the road to being a bona fide top-tier program passed through the Ann Arbors and Columbus’s and South Bends.

I still remember the buzz around Michigan Stadium that morning, an unprecedented level of excitement for early September. When the Wolverines took the field, legendary PA announcer Howard King’s voice vanished under a sea of 105,000 screams. The sound of “The Victors” was nearly drowned out as well. Miami couldn’t help but feel that they’d have their hands full.

The Canes’ first possession ended with Rodney Lyles stripping the ball from tailback Darryl Oliver at midfield. The Wolverines took over, and out trotted Harbaugh. Fans were familiar with the Harbaugh pedigree from Jack’s days on Schembechler’s staff. They would soon discover the impact that name would have on the Michigan offense.

Harbaugh’s first pass found wide receiver Vince Bean for a first down on the right sideline. His second crossed the tartan turf, hitting flanker Steve Johnson at the Miami 10. Two plays later fullback Bob Perryman blasted through the thinly-spread Hurricane defense for a Wolverine touchdown. The stadium exploded in a euphoric roar.

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Michigan’s inspired defense hit, harassed and confused Kosar all afternoon, picking off six of his passes (with Lyles grabbing three) and recovering two fumbles as the maize and blue pulled off the major upset of top-ranked Miami. While Perryman scored three touchdowns on the day, the true hero was the young general at the helm. In his first start for the Wolverines, Harbaugh completed 11 of 21 passes for 163 yards as Michigan controlled the ball for over 35 minutes.

After 60 minutes, Bo had found himself a leader.

As satisfying as this was, it would be Harbaugh’s lone highlight of the season, as a broken arm suffered while trying to recover a fumble against Michigan State ended his 1984 campaign. The void he left was undeniable. Michigan limped to a 6-5 record—punctuated by its first shutout loss in seven years, 26-0 at Iowa—yet managed to land a berth in the Holiday Bowl against No. 1 Brigham Young.

Back in those days, top-ranked schools could play 6-5 schools in its bowl games. In fact, the 1984 Wolverines are one of the few schools in history who started and ended their season against the nation’s No. 1.

Quarterback Robbie Bosco led the Cougars to a last-minute, come-from-behind 24-17 win that earned BYU the national championship. The Wolverines finished 6-6, Bo’s first and only non-winning season at Michigan. But for one incredible September afternoon, maize and blue fans everywhere got their first glimpse of the Harbaugh effect.

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