I played against the Harbaughs in high school … and it wasn’t pretty (for me)

One of the beautiful things about high school athletics is you never know who you’ll cross paths with in a game.

For instance, during my senior football season for Lansing Harry Hill High School (which, sadly, closed in 1981, the year after I graduated), Lansing Waverly’s starting quarterback was Steve Schmidt, who went on to play basketball for Central Michigan University and later for the Washington Generals, the team that traveled with the Harlem Globetrotters.

I also attended CMU — the Harvard of the Midwest, BTW, for those unaware (wink!) — to pursue a degree in journalism, not, unfortunately, to play hoops or football.

And just a few years back, after covering a high school basketball game as a sports writer for a metro-Detroit media outlet, I interviewed Westland John Glenn’s Head Coach Rod Watts.

Falling under the “It’s a Small World” category, it turned out Rod was a standout defensive back for Waverly and we had actually played against each other back in 1979.

For the record, Rod thankfully did not intercept one of my wounded ducks, er, passes.

Back in the day

In reflection, the most-famous person (at least as far as I know) I faced off against on a high school football field may be coaching against the Detroit Lions in Super Bowl LVII a couple weeks from now in Las Vegas.

Although the furthest road trip Lansing Hill usually made for a football game was Eaton Rapids, we trekked to Ann Arbor Pioneer for the third game of the 1978 season.

I still vaguely remember the excitement that grew inside the school bus as we motored down I-96 on the way to the game.

This was a big deal for a bunch of high school students who looked at the game as an opportunity to put our six-year-old school on the map by upsetting a perennial state power that played in the shadow of the University of Michigan’s “Big House”.

Let’s just say the ride back to Lansing wasn’t as exciting.

Star-studded opponents

Led by future Wolverine star defensive back and eight-year NFL player Keith Bostic, the Pioneers handed us a 33-0 setback.

Little did I know then that Pioneer had another pretty good defensive back on their roster who would go on to play football at Miami of Ohio. His name was John Harbaugh, the ultra-successful head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.

As the quarterback for Hill, I can proudly state that neither Harbaugh nor Bostic intercepted one of my passes — probably because I only threw a handful. But I’m sure they planted some decent-sized bruises on my less-than-Herculean body when I unwisely decided to scramble out of the pocket.

John’s younger brother, Jim (you may have heard of him), I’ve learned, was called up from the junior varsity the week we played Pioneer to serve as a backup quarterback. He earned his first varsity start as a sophomore the following week and, well, the rest is history.

I highly doubt John Harbaugh remembers the game he played against Lansing Harry Hill High School in the fall of 1978 — or the skinny quarterback that he failed to record an interception against.

But the skinny quarterback he held to minimal yards passing won’t soon forget the game he played against a future Super Bowl-winning coach.

Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.

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