The former RedHawk football defensive back, who graduated from Miami in 1984, won a Super Bowl in 2013 while coaching the Baltimore Ravens and was inducted into the school’s “Cradle of Coaches” honor plaza with a statue next to Yager Stadium in 2014.
This May’s spring commencement, which will be held in the stadium where he once played, will be a special day for the high-profile NFL coach.
“It’s a great honor to be Miami’s commencement speaker,” Harbaugh said of the upcoming May 16 ceremony. “I just have so much respect for Miami, for the administration, for the university, for everything it stands for, for everything it did for me.”
In announcing the speaker, school officials emphasized the deep ties the acclaimed coach has for Oxford-based university, which is the largest college in Butler County and its biggest employer.
Officials said Harbaugh recently recalled feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment at his own commencement from Miami.
“I felt a sense of accomplishment because I felt like I was at a great place, and I felt like I learned a lot. I felt like I grew up a lot,” he said.
Harbaugh was head coach of the Ravens for 18 seasons, from 2008 until January 2026, when he was then hired as the Giants’ head coach.
He previously served as special teams coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1998 to 2007 before moving to defensive backs coach for his final season in 2007.
Harbaugh will be among the current and former NFL and college coaches featured in an upcoming documentary on Miami’s storied history as the nation’s most prolific producer of championship football coaches.
The documentary will cover many nationally known names, including such notables as Cincinnati Bengals’ founder and NFL Hall of Fame Coach Paul Brown, fellow Super Bowl championship coach Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and college greats such as Notre Dame University’s Ara Parseghian, University of Michigan’s Bo Schembechler and Ohio State University’s Woody Hayes.
Harbaugh described college as “probably the most formative years in one’s life,” a transformative time for many students, including himself.
“Miami was my place. Miami is always my place because that’s the place where I grew the most, changed the most, was challenged the most, made the best friends of my life,” he told school officials.
He said he enjoyed playing football at Miami and liked being a part of something bigger than himself.
Asked by Miami officials what lessons he took from his time at the school that helped him throughout his NFL career, Harbaugh said, “I learned the value of friendships, learned the value of relationships, learned the value of great teachers, great coaches. But probably more than anything, what I think I learned at Miami was just the value of persistence.”
Looking back, Harbaugh believes his academic career went better than his athletic career, “and I worked really hard at both.”
Miami helped teach him “the value was in the hard work.”
“It was in showing up every day, trying to do your best every day.”
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