LATEST: John and Jim Harbaugh are grateful to their parents for inspiring them to pursue football.

Jim Harbaugh, a son, recently led the University of Michigan to a national title and was appointed as the Chargers’ head coach.

The other, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, is guiding his team to yet another AFC title game.

For parents Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, who are far more content now than they were eleven years ago when John’s Ravens defeated Jim’s San Francisco 49ers on the greatest stage of the NFL, life couldn’t get much better.

Longtime college assistant coach Jack, 84, recalled the Super Bowl as “it all took on an entirely different meeting once the ball was kicked off and was rolling down the field.”

We were aware that one of them would win, and having been a coach in the past, I understand what it’s like in the other locker room. In my career, I’ve been in way too many of them.

However, this is completely different, with each person on their own road. The entire family is currently providing them with a great deal of assistance.

After being married for almost 63 years, Jack and Jackie have been residing in Baltimore with their oldest child, John, to enable them to attend the AFC Divisional Playoffs game against the Houston Texans last week and the conference championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

Jim, their middle kid, has been traveling the nation in search of NFL coaching interviews. His journey came to an end on Wednesday when he was appointed head coach by the Chargers. Before the Ravens’ game against the Texans, he was on the sidelines with pal Peyton Manning.

Joani, the youngest of the Harbaugh siblings, is a fervent fan of her brothers and resides in Florida with her husband, collegiate basketball coach Tom Crean. It’s forbidden to criticize coach Harbaugh in front of Joani, whether it’s Jim or John.

Without a doubt, Jack stated. When it comes to that, Joani has the same anger as her mother. You remain silent on Jackie’s children.

These days, the main focus is on the Harbaugh brothers, with Jim getting ready to rejoin the league he left after parting company with the 49ers after the 2014 season, and John two victories away from winning his second Lombardi Trophy.

For the Harbaughs, who attended the Rose Bowl three years in a row (1977, ’78, and ’79) while Jack was an assistant coach at Michigan under Bo Schembechler, this year’s game held special significance. When Jim was Michigan’s quarterback in 1987, the Wolverines lost all three of those games before losing once more.

Jackie recalled that Bo Schembechler once compared bowl games to the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. “Because you put in a lot of effort to get there, and that represents the fruit of all of your labor.” Therefore, I believe that even though I wanted my team to win, I also considered what it took to get here when we didn’t. That’s something to be thrilled about.

Even yet, the couple had some anxiety when they arrived at the Pasadena stadium this year for Michigan’s game against Alabama because of their past.

Jack remarked, “We didn’t have very good memories walking into that stadium.” “But that was all kind of wiped away for us when Michigan won and the way the game ended, with the Wolverines winning 27–20.”

Parents are aware of the subtleties. Washington was defeated 34–13 by Michigan in the national championship game. Last week, the Ravens defeated the Texans 34-10 to match that winning point total.

“What does that portend, I’d like to know,” Jackie said.

“What it tells me is to buy a lottery ticket,” Jack said. “Find a ticket that’s got a 34 on it.”

It was Chiefs coach Andy Reid who gave John Harbaugh two early breaks in NFL coaching. First, after he took over as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999, he retained the young assistant who had spent a season on the previous staff. Harbaugh was the special-teams coordinator at the time.

Harbaugh wanted to be a head coach, but it was highly unusual for a special-teams coach to make that kind of leap. So in 2007, Harbaugh’s final season with the Eagles, Reid gave him the opportunity to bolster his resumé by assigning him the defensive backs under legendary defensive coordinator Jim Johnson.

“John does a phenomenal job. He knows the whole game,” Reid told reporters this week. “He was a great special-teams coach, a great secondary coach and he’s been a great head coach. Very proud of him and all he’s done and accomplished.”

John is 15 months older than Jim, and though they battled like typical siblings, they were fiercely supportive of each other too.

Jack vividly remembers when John was in 11th grade at Pioneer High in Ann Arbor and a talented cornerback. Jim was a ninth grader, too young to play on varsity, watching from the stands.

“I can remember the play like it was yesterday,” Jack said. “They threw an out-route against John, and he jumped all over it. He knocked the ball loose, knocked the receiver down. Great play and the crowd was excited.”

His brother was the most eager of them, sensing an out-and-up way that he thought might deceive John.

“Dad, the out-and-up, the out-and-up,” Jim exclaimed, according to Jack. “Well, go down and tell him,” I responded. Jim then ran down the bleachers, reached the fence dividing the bleachers from the field, and yelled, “John!” Away with it! “Out and up!”

Big brother was ahead of the game.

“As expected, they executed the out-and-up,” Jack remarked. John was engrossed in it. fit like a glove over it. Jim grinned broadly as he made his way back up the bleachers. He was lending his brother some help.

When they discussed it later, John naturally replied, “Jim, I was all over it.” I was fully aware of their intended course of action.

Jackie had a more concise favorite recollection from those years. It happened the next season, with John as a senior wide receiver and Jim as a sophomore quarterback starting.

“There was a call during the game,” the player recalled, and the announcer exclaimed, “Harbaugh to Harbaugh!” It doesn’t get any better than that, I thought to myself.

Jack describes those years’ memories as “magical.”

“For us at the time, that was the Super Bowl,” he remarked. I want to convey to people that you, as parents, are already communicating it to your kids. Have fun with it. Avoid being sucked into thinking about the next action or the upcoming five or ten years. Savor the present moment and the time you spend with your kids.

“You see so many times parents — and we’ve got grandchildren now going through Pop Warner, Little League and travel teams — and I believe many of them are looking, `Will this mean he or she will have a chance to play college basketball? Does this mean there might be a pro career?’ Just enjoy the moment, and the next moment and the next one.

“Whether they go to the NFL or play high school football, or it all ends at the junior high school, those moments are the ones that you’ll be sharing over the dinner table and laughing about and remembering with your family.”

In truth, Jack Harbaugh doesn’t remember a lot of the details of those games his sons played in their youth. What he recalls much more clearly are those times traveling to and from the games.

“I can’t remember who won or lost,” he said. “I can’t remember how many hits they got or how many tackles they made. I remember the rides to the game. I remember turning off the radio in the old days — you didn’t have a cellphone — and just sitting with them and you’re riding to the game.”