Through the years, with a few stops made in foreign towns and communities, I learned that the respect for an American education was over the top with most everybody, especially the Europeans.
With the passing of time, I learned that it was not only the major universities that brought foreign influence to the campuses, but also the smaller schools—including Western Kentucky.
One appealing feature, of course, was the cost, and in WKU’s case it has always had a beautiful campus. Bowling Green is a very pretty area of the Bluegrass State.
When it comes to sports, the Hilltoppers are best known for their basketball program. A few Athens’ old timers will remember WKU coming to Athens for the regional tournament in 1971. The Hilltoppers defeated Kentucky in the semi-finals, 107-83, and Ohio State in the finals, 81-78.
That was stiff competition for WKU, but they were keen on the opportunity to advance to the Final Four, which came about. They were led by 7-foot center and consensus All-American Jim McDaniels.
Years later, Jack Harbaugh, who had coached for Bo Schembechler at Michigan, coached Western Kentucky to the Division 1-AA national championship in football.
Everybody knows that his sons, John and Jim, have enjoyed great success in the National Football League. John is the head coach of the New York Giants and Jim is the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Each has a former Bulldog on the roster, Ladd McConkey with the Chargers and Andrew Thomas with the Giants. The Harbaughs’ sister, Joani, is married to Tom Crean, who spent time in Athens as the UGA head basketball coach.
I got to know Jack Harbaugh years ago when he was at Marquette and invited him to Athens to speak to the Athens Touchdown Club. He stayed with us, and it was fun listening to his coaching stories, including the time he spent in Bowling Green.
He naturally had a lot of interesting stories about coaching at Michigan with Bo Schembechler, who was one of the most fundamental coaching enthusiasts ever in the business.
Running the football was the best route to victory in Bo’s estimation, and he believed in running off tackle and using the run to set up timely passes—a fact which did not endear him to the Wolverine fan base.
He and Woody Hayes had some head-knocking games that were like two heavyweight fighters slugging it out for four quarters. When Bo retired from coaching, his record was just shy of 200 wins, but he won 13 Big Ten championships and made 10 trips to Pasadena at the time when the Rose Bowl participants were the champions of the Big Ten and the Pac 10 conferences.
Bo didn’t fare too well in Pasadena, winning only twice, and the most astounding thing about his career is that he never won a national championship.
When Western Kentucky faced a budget crisis soon after Jack Harbaugh became the coach, the school came very close to shutting down its football program. In fact, Coach Harbaugh was told not to hold spring practice in 1992. The players voted to assist with fund-raising, featuring a campaign to sell season tickets and solicit contributions. The community saved the football program.
Both of Harbaugh’s sons, John and Jim, stepped in to assist with recruiting and scouting to assist their dad in the effort to save Western Kentucky University Hilltopper football.
The community’s efforts were duly rewarded in 2002 when Coach Jack Harbaugh finally won the national championship.