Fathers, sons, and brothers

For each of the past two NFL seasons, it has been my hope to see the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers meet in the Super Bowl.

That hope met with a bit of a dilemma in game one Sunday afternoon.

The Atlanta Falcons have a quarterback named Matt Ryan.

I have a son named Matt Ryan.

A few years ago, I lost an NFL wager with my good friend John Fuller when he bet on the New York Giants because they have a quarterback named Eli.

John has a grandson named Eli.

What's gambler to do?

As my son and I began watching the Falcons/49ers game, it occurred to me that I also have a son named Colin. (I'm a sharp one.)

San Francisco's quarterback is named Colin. As in Colin Kaepernick. Problem solved. (I knew Coach Jim Harbaugh benched QB Alex Smith for a good reason.)

Of course, there's another reason why I wanted the Ravens and Niners to meet in the Super Bowl. I like their respective coaches: brothers John and Jim Harbaugh and their dad, longtime coach Jack Harbaugh.

Coach Jack Harbaugh has an Ohio pedigree, too. Guys like Jim Horne and Bob Patton will know this.

Jack Harbaugh played college football at Bowling Green State University Falcons from 1957-60, where he was a three-time letterman. In his junior year, the Falcons finished the season 9-0 and were named the small college division national champions.

After a brief professional career, Jack Harbaugh coached the Eaton (Ohio) High School football team and the Xenia High School football team.

From 1982-86, he was the head football coach at Western Michigan University before accepting the coaching position of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

From 1989-2002, Harbaugh was the head football coach at Western Kentucky. His 2002 team won the NCAA Division I-AA national football championship.

Not quite a decade earlier, Hillsboro High School graduate Sean Longstreth – a member of the 1992 10-0 Indians coached by Jim Horne – played defensive back (No. 26) for Jack Harbaugh at WKU in Bowling Green, Ky.

Today, Sean is a successful businessman (and former New York actor) in Washington, D.C.

We talked last fall at the 1992 team's 20-year reunion. We laughed about an interview I had had with Sean some two decades ago at the old Hillsboro High School.

It seems upon visiting Western Kentucky's football coach for the first time, young Sean noticed a large poster of NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh on a wall in Coach Jack Harbaugh's office.

"Are you a big Jim Harbaugh fan?" Sean asked his new college football coach.

I remember laughing before Sean could finish his WKU orientation story.

"You could say that," Coach Harbaugh replied. "He's my son."

Oh, yeah…never mind.

* * *

In 2011, Jeff Arnold, writing for www.thepostgame.com, published a story entitled: "Patriarch of Passion: How Jack Harbaugh raised two of the nation's best football coaches."

He quoted Jim Harbaugh's memory of their dad's daily message as he drove the young brothers to school: "OK, men, grab your lunch boxes and attack this day with an enthusiasm UNKNOWN TO MANKIND."

I like that.

Mr. Arnold quotes the senior Harbaugh as follows: "In this world, you can choose to be positive or you can choose to be negative. You can choose to see things through a set of eyes that sees good or you can choose to see things in life that aren’t so good. Let the lens of your eyes be positive."

One last thing that all Ohio State fans can appreciate. Mr. Arnold shares that Jack Harbaugh wanted sons John and Jim to learn for themselves, living by words he once heard from Ohio State coach Woody Hayes: "Don't do for your kids what they can do for themselves."

"That's the way we kind of looked at it," Jack said. "We didn't understand what it meant at the time, but let them do for themselves what they’re capable of without trying to mask things or sugarcoat things or make it look better.

"Jack Harbaugh told his kids that life wasn't about what happened, but how you dealt with it. That, he believed, defined you as a person," Arnold wrote.

Good words.

* * *

To further complicate matters, when it comes to Super Bowl XXVVVLXXCIX*@!47, there are other considerations. I was born in Baltimore, and learned early on that Johnny Unitas was the greatest quarterback who ever threw a touchdown pass to Raymond Emmett Berry.

When Robert Irsay sneaked the Colts out of Baltimore en route to Indianapolis, Unitas kept his football loyalties in Maryland and later became a Ravens fan.

Then again, I've won some nice wagers on the 49ers courtesy of Joe Montana and Steve Young.

Our sports editor hates to see highlights of "The Catch" when Montana connected with Dwight Clark to beat his beloved Dallas Cowboys in January 1982. The local sports guru (Mr. Forsha) wasn't born at the time. I was. And I won $100 on that game.

My heart says big brother John Harbaugh wins the Super Bowl. My head says younger brother Jim wins.

We'll see.

Either way, I am happy for Father Jack Harbaugh.

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.