Personal Letter from Jim Harbaugh
Living in South Carolina, I have a friend and co-worker who is a rabid Michigan fan with me (he grew up in Bay City). A month ago, at age 44, he suffered a devastating stroke. He got home from the hospital and rehab center two days ago and is beginning a long and uncertain struggle to regain his movement and speech. Yesterday, his wife asked me to stop by the hospital to get a letter that came for him. It was a personal note from Jim Harbaugh. It began: "On behalf of the 2020 University of Michigan football team, our thoughts and prayers are with you as you fight through this difficult time." It concluded: "Attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. We are rooting for you. Go Blue," and then was signed by JH. None of us know how this was arranged, although someone obviously sent in a request. That our busy heady coach took the time to write such a personal note speaks volumes about his compassion and character.
This was just awesome and really lifted the spirits of my friend. Hats off to you, Jim Harbaugh. We appreciate it a lot.
Good man.
Jim also wrote a note to my cousin while he was fighting cancer back in 2015 (my cousin beat it)
Back in February we had friends who lost their 12 year old adopted son unexpectedly (cardiac arrest) and someone was able to get Jim to sign a jersey in his honor.
We have a first class steward of this program.
Agreed. We all want Michigan to win more games, but I would be extremely slow to trade Harbaugh for anyone else.
Agreed. Go blue.
I want Jim to prove all the doubters and haters wrong. I believe he coaches the team in a way we should be proud of. I believe he runs a scheme that is what I want to see on the field. I just want to finally see the team win the games I really, really want to see won. I want Jim to prove all the doubters and haters wrong.
Harbaugh will.
He does more for the program then probably all of us know. I agree completely with the string above, we’d like him to win those games, and he will; keep the faith and Go Blue!
Got it, Jim cures cancer!
I hope Coach Harbaugh is here at UM for a long, long time.
I thought this was going to be related to the Bo allegations. Glad it was something else. Best wishes to your friend.
Amen, brother.
Well done. Wishing the best for your friend and his family. My best friend had a stroke a year ago, too. So damn sad !
Jim for President!
Great story. A little light in this dark world.
Great story. Go Blue and bless the guy trying to make it back to his normalcy.
This kind of stuff is going on behind the scenes all the time. This is another example of how Coach Harbaugh demonstrates was it is to be a leader to the team and coaches. I wish the parents of all the kids we recruit would grasp how valuable lessons like these are in terms of life skills.
Truly great man. I'm sure he'll be canceled eventually.
well, after all, he DID have his team watch "American Sniper" /s
Well, we should have known Bo was evil long ago since he was a card carrying Republican (according to a tweet that was liked by a certain writer for this blog).
I could be wrong but I thought towards the end of his life Bo recorded campaign ads for GOP candidates in Michigan. I might be remembering that wrong but remember thinking that since he was removed from coaching and broadcasting he had probably concluded he could more vocally voice an opinion.
He definitely did. I saw him give a speech and introduce President Bush at Oakland Community College during a campaign stop in 2004. I knew then that he was pure evil.
Knee-jerk reactions are the best crowd pleasers.
Why did you introduce politics to this otherwise apolitical, uplifting thread?
He did a video bit for my old high school football coach who was losing to a brain tumor back in '15 as well. Said pretty much what he wrote in the OP's letter. I pull it up on my phone and watch every now and then. Very nice thing to do.
Sorry about your coach.
*
Nothing personal here, but I get tired of cancer being framed as a "battle" and something against which people are "fighting." Interesting, isn't it, that you never hear about anyone "losing their battle" against heart disease or diabetes?
If you die of cancer, why is it that you're losing? You're just dying. Presumably similar groups of people have similar desires to continue living. Some are going to -- randomly -- have worse outcomes than others when all other things are equal. Do we have to call the survivors "winners?"
Families of the deceased have enough problems without having to hear "I'm so sorry he lost his battle with cancer!" (OK, so they probably wouldn't hear that directly from any decent person, but they'll read similar statements about others often enough to internalize them.)
I'm not a doctor or in any medical field but my guess is that the treatment for cancer (chemo) is very physically and mentally demanding in and of itself, on top of any issues caused by cancer. I've seen it framed that it can be more difficult to continue treatment than to just "give up" and let the cancer run it's course. I'm not sure that is the case for some other diseases, but that is probably why the different terms are used.
I see your point with chemo, but there are all kinds of other disease processes (e.g., the neurodegenerative category) that can be demoralizing and where the patient has at least some agency.
I view chemo as part of the cancer process.
Ask anyone who's gone through cardiac rehab. It's mentally and physically challenging and the risks of "giving up" are arguably greater. (Sometimes with cancer there's really not much you can do no matter how hard you try.)
Have you ever had cancer? I have. If anything, framing it as a battle isn't strong enough. It's an all-out war to the total annihilation of one side or the other, and you're trying to wipe the enemy out with machines and chemicals.
Friend was murdered a few years ago, his wife was a big state fan and he was a big Michigan fan. The university sent her a similar letter, and we had a fundraiser for his two daughters. I’m not sure how that all happened either, but it’s pretty special that these large institutions are reaching out to their fan bases (friend was not alum) and encouraging and supporting people. I love this. Go Blue!
#JoeBlue
Dido to these posts. JH is a good hearted man with a compassionate heart. It takes character to spend the time and express personal well wishes to so many while holding a job with such pressure. Proud of our head coach.
For all the shit that Harbaugh gets for football reasons around here, as someone said, we have a great steward of the program and we would likely be hard-pressed to find someone who could do this in the way that Harbaugh does.
Yeah, Harbaugh's weirdness comes through in a bunch of ways. This is one of the good ones!
I don't mind any of his weirdness. To put it in perspective, I don't think anything he does is weird.
Thanks for sharing this story. It reminds us that a little kindness can mean a lot to others, especially in difficult times.
Well done, JH.
Definitely the type of person I’d want my kids and grandkids to be coached by. There’s a few other coaches out there who might be a bit more successful than Harbaugh but none that have as much decency and class. I wouldn’t have any other. A clear example of Michigan difference. Go Blue!
We can all talk about it, but when you do things like this, you are acting like a Michigan Man.
Awesome!
I would be pleased if he were coach for life
Jim Harbaugh should get more praise than he gets. Good story, thanks for posting.
This letter from Coach Harbaugh is nothing less than awesome! It's very heartening in these troubled times to see our football coach prioritizing things such as this.
Can we just call this the Harbaugh POSBANG Thread?
POSBANG it is. I'm up-voting all.
Letter aside (I wouldn't expect anything less from Jim Harbaugh when made aware of this), but good luck to your friend. It'll be rough. I'm cheering for him and may his first full sentence be...
GO BLUE!
SC Wolverine- what SC city do you live in?
I am in Greenville, SC.
Thanks!
Greenville also.
If you want to meet up downtown for a coffee any time let me know. Always good to catch up with another M loyalist.
Class.
I recently found a page that gave me to understand that cardiac arrest is not a heart attack, they are totally different but share something very similar. They are so devastating that not only do they hurt the person who suffers it, it hurts the people who love the patient who is impotence not being able to do anything because it is not something that you cure yourself with taking a pill, you know that the person will not do the same again.