In the future (hopefully very distant future), what does Michigan do to honor Harbaugh?
In the vein of what players from today will be the coaches in 20 years...
Yost Ice area
Crisler area (sorry, it will never be center to me)
Schembechler Hall
Lloyd Carr Tunnel
Give Coach Harbaugh's last three years and the National Championship, let's start the speculation on what Michigan would do to honor Harbaugh? Some new building on the athletic campus? Renaming something?
January 19th, 2024 at 3:45 PM ^
The University of Michigan (Jim's Version)
January 19th, 2024 at 4:17 PM ^
The Harbaugh Campus.
All street entrances get overhanging signs with "Who's Got It Better Than Us?" with speakers continuously blasting "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".
January 19th, 2024 at 6:02 PM ^
All the crosswalk buttons have a speaker that says "Whoooooose got it better than us?" every time you push them. Lights only change if the mic picks up "Noooooobody"
These entire thread is stupid and I'm here for it
January 19th, 2024 at 3:46 PM ^
Let's wait till that very distant future to decide.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:48 PM ^
Nope. No man is bigger than The Team. No coach is bigger than The Team…
Ok, maybe the locker room since that’s where The Team gets together before/after games?
January 19th, 2024 at 6:09 PM ^
The Jim Harbaugh vast network of advanced scouting. This would be the official name of the department for all the coaches who serve as analysts. LFG!
January 19th, 2024 at 3:50 PM ^
Replace the Shembechler statue and rename the Hall after Harbaugh since he doesn't have cover-ups of diddling in his past.
January 19th, 2024 at 4:19 PM ^
This is correct. Take down the statue, and rename the hall.
January 19th, 2024 at 4:28 PM ^
Harbaugh Hall, Crisler Center, Yost Yicefield, etc.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:04 PM ^
Sorry he has to stay for that and despite all the negative talk from mgoblog fans far too many former players still admire Bo and vocalize it. One of those former players is Jim Harbaugh.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:26 PM ^
"Got to," huh?
It's a wonder, given that the victims of Dr. Robert Anderson were their own teammates. There is no compelling reason to keep the statue or the name. Might give these men a chance to learn and grow.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:36 PM ^
You and I can duke this out on a forum but you don't hear Bo's former players calling for his statue to be removed. Those players have greater influence with the University than you or I. Bo, himself, wouldn't have like the idea of a statue anyway. When the team was winning a national championship we were inundated with Bo Schembechler statements.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:50 PM ^
Jon Vaughn isn't a former Bo player? Huh.
The "Bo's Boys" faction has always held outmoded weight, and in this instance they're exceptionally out of touch with basic humanity. Don't really care what they think, frankly, and just because Harbaugh quotes Bo doesn't make their cruel nostalgia and victim-blaming any better.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:57 PM ^
I also don't believe those guys have that much sway anymore beyond Warde and Jim themselves... who is listening to Jim Brandstatter in 2024?
January 19th, 2024 at 6:02 PM ^
The next time you encounter the "Bo boys," let them know what is on your mind. I am sure they will appreciate you more for it.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:52 PM ^
man you need to be 40 years old for there to even be half a chance you remember Bo coaching a game. 50+ to have been reverential of him growing up. Generational change will bring that name and statue down. His last game as coach is further removed from the lives of today's fans than Fritz Crisler's was from the lives of the Boomers who still form the Cult of Schembechler.
When Jim is gone and Warde is gone, the people who replace them will almost certainly have no deep personal connection to Bo. And those replacements will be under immense pressure to yeet him from his place of honor.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:10 PM ^
History repeatedly teaches us the lesson that building statues to “great” men is doesn’t always age well. Men are highly fallible and the past sometimes renders a verdict very far in the future. Forget the statue. Something with a light touch like naming a hall or a field is a little less risky IMHO.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:47 PM ^
Yes, when Jim is gone (be it next week, next year, or next decade) there needs to be a serious effort to de-Schembechlerize the program with Harbaugh in his place. Replace the Bo quotes with "who's got it better than us?" and "an enthusiasm unknown to mankind", rename the building Harbaugh Hall. I'm torn on the statue because I almost think it should be moved to the UMMA and recontextualized in a way that honors the victims, but tearing it down would suffice.
This would also alter things so the only coaches with pieces of infrastructure named after them are ones who won national titles (Yost, Crisler, Kipke, Oosterbaan, Carr, Harbaugh) which is also what, say, Alabama does
January 19th, 2024 at 6:03 PM ^
Harbaugh Hall is a pretty storng name
January 19th, 2024 at 3:50 PM ^
Renaming it Crisler Center always reeks of the Dave Brandon "if it isn't broken fix it" energy. Needless, stupid change for the sake of something.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:51 PM ^
Strongly disagree. Crisler was a dump before the renovations.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:53 PM ^
I'm with you -- not even taking the concourse into account -- the lighting itself used to be absolutely horrible, like a downtrodden middle-school gym.
Crisler looks great.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:54 PM ^
Pretty sure the comment was directed at renaming it from Arena to Center, not the renovation itself.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:55 PM ^
yep- renovations I'm good with, just don't like the name. When I was there in the 80s/90's, the lighting and seating always felt like a bad run down movie theater.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:58 PM ^
Ah, then I agree. "Center" is communist.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:27 PM ^
By this I mean "Crisler Arena" to "Crisler Center." But, yes, the renovations look great.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:40 PM ^
And it's missing some banners.
January 19th, 2024 at 6:04 PM ^
I'm still wondering if the university is going to follow through on the recommendation to rename Yost... it feels like a lot of schools set up committees on monuments after the BLM summer and then quietly mothballed the suggestions
January 19th, 2024 at 3:51 PM ^
If Paterno taught us anything, it's that you don't name/build shit for living people.
January 19th, 2024 at 4:07 PM ^
If Paterno taught us anything, it's that you don't name/build shit for living people
Living or dead. What difference would it had made if Joe Pa had died before it was named?
January 19th, 2024 at 4:28 PM ^
Well once a person has died, it's less likely something terrible will be revealed about him or her. Certainly far from impossible, but less likely.
January 20th, 2024 at 11:33 AM ^
Privacy laws loosen after death. If there's anything that was being hidden or held back, it's more likely to come out after death.
Also gives a chance to make sure those we honor pass the test of a more enduring, hopefully evolved moral code.
January 19th, 2024 at 4:10 PM ^
Many men have taught us this lesson. We need a baseball hall of fame type rule... No bronze until 5 years after retirement (from earth)
January 19th, 2024 at 4:13 PM ^
That's a good point but I do like that Michigan did something for Carr while he is still with us
January 19th, 2024 at 6:04 PM ^
Yeah unless he turns out to be a Jew hater.
January 19th, 2024 at 4:39 PM ^
Disagree. Great and morally good people ARE among us, and that combination should be celebrated. It can inspire folks to higher aspirations. And these sort of decisions (Hall of Fame inductions, naming things, building statues, etc) are all reversible.
Reversing a decision does require people and society to admit when they were wrong. Which - yes - many of us are not very good at admitting that, and society as a whole seems to be getting worse at that.
January 19th, 2024 at 5:49 PM ^
People pick and choose whose sins they choose to see and whose sins they choose not to see. That’s an universal trait of humans.
People will justify or diminish immoral conduct based upon their affection/animus towards the parties involved. While doing so they will present themselves as morally beyond reproach. Narcissism is an innate trait of our species.
Your great and moral people also struggle(d) with serious moral issues. People want to accept the admirable part of a person while forgetting the ignominious portions of their character. Again, an universal trait of humans.
Our country hasn’t yet figured out how to handle its past nor for that matter has any other country.
January 19th, 2024 at 6:03 PM ^
There is a solution to this
January 19th, 2024 at 3:51 PM ^
The "You Can't Fire Me For Cause Head Football Coach Presented by Jim Harbaugh and Rotel"
January 19th, 2024 at 3:53 PM ^
A statue of the man in front of the Big House that reads:
"Oakland was NEVER in play"
January 19th, 2024 at 5:51 PM ^
Put up a gated and inaccessible black and silver jungle gym in a corner of the concourse with a gilded sign reading "Oakland."
January 19th, 2024 at 3:56 PM ^
Should be like Roman emporers with Caesar and all subsequent football coaches assume the title of "Harbaugh."
January 19th, 2024 at 3:56 PM ^
Harbaugh burger lounge at the bottom of South quad!
January 19th, 2024 at 4:00 PM ^
Approved
January 19th, 2024 at 4:14 PM ^
Will be in bronze... obviously.
January 19th, 2024 at 4:42 PM ^
I'm thinking Har-burgers at the stadium.
January 19th, 2024 at 3:59 PM ^
The AD's title will be "The Jim Harbaugh and Family Usurper Athletic Director, Warde Manuel"
January 19th, 2024 at 4:00 PM ^
Immortalized at Blimpy Burger?
January 19th, 2024 at 4:00 PM ^
How about the AD putting a maize Harbaugh Halo on the stadium? /s