Column: Harbaugh and Crean share winning blood

The NFL Coach of the Year could only stay silent for so long.

After spending all of IU’s 75-56 win against North Carolina Central sitting on the bench, fulfilling the duties of a manager, 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh had to respond when his brother-in-law, IU Coach Tom Crean, was asked about Harbaugh’s role.

“I was trying to contribute!” a booming voice yelled from the back of Assembly Hall’s press room.

Sure enough, Harbaugh, clad in his signature NFL gameday attire — khaki pants with a black, long-sleeve 49ers shirt — had to reveal his position and answer for himself.

“Oh, there he is, there he is,” Crean said among a sea of laughter. “I didn’t even know he was in here.”

Harbaugh, who spoke to the Hoosiers before and after the game Wednesday, sat at the very end of IU’s bench, doing his best to fold up stools before and after timeouts — duties that were all Harbaugh’s idea.

It was the most bizarre sight.

The same man who marched up and down the sidelines of Candlestick Park in the NFC Championship game exactly a month ago, January 22, was now watching his brother-in-law do the same in Assembly Hall, as he played the role of assistant.

“Well, I’ve never sat on the bench before, so I felt like I should be contributing in some way,” Harbaugh said.

A former quarterback at the University of Michigan and then for the Colts, Harbaugh proved that competition knows no bounds.

It was evident, even doing so little, that this coach and former player still wanted to win.

“I think you bring up something like that,” Crean said in response to a question about Harbaugh folding the stools. “And it goes to show why he’s a very successful leader as a player and certainly now as a coach because there’s no job above him, there’s no job beneath him. It’s all about winning.”

There must be something to it.

As Crean pointed out in his postgame press conference, the last time Harbaugh and his brother, Ravens’ Head Coach John Harbaugh, spoke to the team was before the win at Purdue.

IU sophomore guard Victor Oladipo said it was an “honor” to have the NFL Coach of the Year setting up stools during the huddle.

“For him to speak to us and sit on our bench, I know he’s relatives with Coach Crean, but at the end of the day, he’s still who he is,” Oladipo, who scored 16 points, said. “For him to come in and talk to us and motivate us, it’s a blessing.”

But there still lingered that whole Michigan connection. Espionage, perhaps?

“No, he’s not a Michigan spy, trust me,” a joking Crean said, but he needed reassurance. “Are ya?”

“Hell no!” Harbaugh once again shouted from the back.

“Yeah, no worries there.”

­— azaleon@indiana.edu