"I’ll personally be on the 6 o’clock bus": 60-year-old Jim Harbaugh shows his youthful spirit for Disneyland and Rose Bowl in charming quote
Jim Harbaugh and his Michigan Wolverines side have arrived in California for their College Football Playoff encounter with the Alabama Crimson Tide at the Rose Bowl on Monday.
The Wolverines were honored with a parade down Main Street, USA, at nearby Disneyland in Anaheim yesterday.
During this day out, the 60-year-old Harbaugh showed his youthful spirit in a quote reported by Michigan Wolverines insider Alejandro Zúñiga on X.
“Guys who want to stick around till 4 o’clock, we’ll have a bus. 5 o’clock we’ll have a bus. I’ll personally be on the 6 o’clock bus,” Harbaugh said.
Zúñiga, a reporter for 247 Sports, states that when asked about the rides at Disneyland, Harbaugh would want to stay in the park for as long as possible, even after his players have left.
For Harbaugh, this shows his “fun side”. This is something that we do not normally see from the 60-year-old veteran coach of a Michigan Wolverines program that has made the last three college football playoff semi-final games but never advanced to the championship.
Harbaugh hopes to change this this year. The Wolverines come into the Rose Bowl as the number-one-ranked team, having enjoyed an unbeaten season.
But days like this could be seen as a distraction for Harbaugh from the many issues that surround the Wolverines football program.
The Scandals of Michigan
This season, the Wolverines have been without Jim Harbaugh for 6 of their 12 games.
Harbaugh missed the first 3 games as he was suspended by the University for alleged violations in recruitment. This meant that Harbaugh missed the Wolverines victories against 3 inferior teams to the Wolverines.
But later on in the year, Harbaugh would again be suspended for 3 games for the allegation that the Wolverines stole their opponents’ signs, allowing them to gain a potentially unfair advantage. This scandal later blew up, with Michigan claiming that other teams had stolen their signs.
Scandals like this have always plagued Harbaugh's time at Michigan. So much so that it has entered into popular culture. Just last week, The Simpsons parodied his involvement with Bart teaching a class on how to cheat at the “Jim Harbaugh Center for Competitive Imbalance”
It seems like wherever Harbaugh goes, he is constantly vilified and reminded of the errors of his program.
Days like the one he had at Disneyland are a welcome distraction from all of the scandals and the pressure that the Michigan Wolverines are under.