Chris Zurbrugg battled Jim Harbaugh to be Michigan QB1 on way to life's work as teacher, coach

EDITOR'S NOTE: Months of research led to a series, " Year of the Quarterback ," being presented in three waves. The first wave — 10 articles covering the volatile new world of the transfer portal — was published recently. This is the eighth story in the second wave, which t r acks then-and-now journeys of 10 Stark County quarterbacks.

Dick, Dan and Denny were Stark County's three "Ds" of Michigan football.

Dick Kempthorn (Canton McKinley) anchored the defense of a dynamo that won the 1948 national championship.

Dan Dierdorf (Canton Glenwood) plowed a path from All-American on Michigan's offensive line to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Denny Franklin (Massillon Washington) quarterbacked a Wolverine machine that went 30-2-1 from 1972-74.

"Z" aimed to add an Alliance accent to their Ann Arbor exploits.

Chris Zurbrugg grew up when anything seemed possible for a "Carnation City" quarterback. He was 6 when Alliance's favorite son, Len Dawson, was a Super Bowl MVP with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Zurbrugg's dad, Ralph, played at Miami (Ohio) University when Woody Hayes was head coach and Bo Schembechler was a graduate assistant. Ralph became a high school coach in Muncie, Indiana and a college assistant at Northern Illinois .

In 1976, the family moved to Alliance, near Ralph's boyhood home of Sebring. Chris spent fifth grade at the local Catholic school, Regina Coeli, before enrolling at State Street Middle School.

He made the Alliance High School varsity as a freshman kicker. It was painful at the time when he missed a point-after in a 13-13 tie with McKinley.

"It went straight over the right upright," he sighs.

Quarterback Clay Brown graduated. Zurbrugg took over as a sophomore for head coach Julius "Juice" Tonges.

He was still the kicker.

"We were at Louisville in the last game of the season," he said. "At the end, I threw one to DeAndre Jackson for a touchdown to make it 19-19.

"I was going to quick change into my square-toed kicking shoe, but I couldn't find the shoe. I made the extra point without it, but Louisville was offsides, so it was a dead ball. We had to kick again and I missed, so it ended in a tie. "

He attended a quarterback camp in Oxford, where he bonded with Miami QBs coach Jim Tressel .

"Chris was big and strong," said retired Mount Union head coach Larry Kehres , the Purple Raiders' offensive coordinator then. "He looked like a D1 quarterback."

Joel Cockley became Alliance's head coach when Zurbrugg was a junior.

“Every once in a while you get a talent like that," Cockley said. “His dad joined my coaching staff. Chris was a very good student and a very good person.”

The Aviators got lost in the Stark County clouds.

The local headliners were McKinley (coming off a 1981 state championship ) and Massillon (steaming toward the 1982 state finals). Coaching names now prominent in local lore were in the wind.

Ed Glass had replaced Don Hertler Sr. at North Canton Hoover. Keith Wakefield was in his first year at Perry. Bob Commings had cycled from Massillon to the University of Iowa to GlenOak. Terry Forbes left McKinley after winning the 1981 state title and was succeeded by Thom McDaniels.

Louisville, in the latter days of Coach Paul Starkey's run , beat Alliance 22-15 when Zurbrugg was a junior and 19-0 when he was a senior.

"My senior year, if we won at Louisville, we were in the playoffs," Zurbrugg said. "It was really cold. The ground was frozen. It was like pulling teeth to do anything."

The loss didn't cool off college recruiters.

"(West Virginia's) Don Nehlen practically camped out in our gym," Cockley said.

Another energetic suitor was Michigan State.

"Nick Saban was on the staff," Zurbrugg recalls. "He had played for Kent State and he was very familiar with this area.

"He was at my house several times. He was such a tenacious recruiter."

Penn State, Michigan and Syracuse were in hot pursuit.

Cockley warned Zurbrugg about having to jockey for position if he chose Michigan. Jim Harbaugh would be in his second year as a quarterback hopeful and was the son of Jack Harbaugh , a Schembechler confidant.

Tressel had relocated from Miami to Syracuse.

"He was the first coach to start recruiting me," Zurbrugg said. "He would send birthday cards. I really liked him.

"I was getting ready to take my visit to Syracuse, and he comes to my house wearing Ohio State stuff."

Tressel had just become Earle Bruce's new quarterbacks coach in Columbus.

Zurbrugg liked Michigan's offense, which resembled Cockley's in accenting play action with a mobile QB.

He was swayed by a persuasive Michigan assistant, Milan Vooletich.

Schembechler was as big a personality as there was.

"I loved Bo," Zurbrugg said. "He was a real connector in his recruiting and the way he treated his players."

Harbaugh was a Michigan freshman in 1982. Zurbrugg arrived in 1983.

"Maybe I was naive," Zurbrugg said. "I went up there to compete. I wasn't taking a back seat to anybody.

"Steve Smith was the senior starter in 1983. Jim Harbaugh was third string behind Steve and David Hall, another senior.

"The only quarterbacks going into the next season were Jim and me and a couple of other recruited guys."

Harbaugh vs. Zurbrugg was the story heading into 1984 spring practice.

"Jim and I were running the ones and the twos and going against each other," Zurbrugg said. "It was a lot of fun. It was very competitive."

Schembechler told the Detroit Free Press, "Harbaugh is having a pretty good spring. Zurbrugg has emerged as a good prospect. There's kind of a battle in there."

In a 2022 NFL Network interview, Harbaugh said Schembechler told him, "Jim, you might be the best quarterback we’ve ever recruited, oryou might be the biggest mistake."

Zurbrugg didn't make it to the spring game after suffering a back injury.

"It came at a really bad time," he said. "I felt like I was having a great spring. I happened to be with the ones in a situational scrimmage. I dove at the goal line to get in and got hurt.

"It put me out for the rest of the spring."

The season arrived. The job was Harbaugh's.

His debut was a 22-14 win over Miami (Florida), ranked No. 1 and coming off a national championship. His passes wobbled and he threw two interceptions, but Hurricanes QB Bernie Kosar coughed up six.

"I've never played this bad anywhere, any time," Kosar told Sports Illustrated.

Harbaugh's second start was a loss to Don James' Washington Huskies, followed by wins over Wisconsin and Indiana. Five games in, facing Michigan State, he broke an arm.

Zurbrugg got the majority of the playing time in the remaining seven games.

Harbaugh healed and had Schembechler's favor. He started every game in 1985 and 1986, when the Wolverines went 10-1-1 and 11-2.

Zurbrugg was the only other quarterback to play in either year, but he seldom saw the field.

"Jim came was ready for spring ball," Zurbrugg said. "At the beginning I suppose it was an open competition. I think he was ready to go with it.

"Of course I wanted to play, but The No. t thing is − and I always felt this way − it’s about the team. I knew I was a play away, but it was about us doing well and winning ... and Jim was a fantastic quarterback."

The Wolverines might have won a national championship but for a 3-3 tie with unranked Illinois in 1986 and a 20-17 loss to unranked Minnesota in 1987.

Harbaugh beat Ohio State both years before closing his career with a bowl loss to John Cooper's Arizona State Sun Devils on New Year's Day 1987. By New Year's day in 1988, Cooper was the Buckeyes' new head coach.

"I always felt I was right there with Jim, competing," Zurbrugg said. "Bo knew I wanted to play."

It turned out 1984 was his only shot.

With Harbaugh out, Russ Rein started in a 31-0 win over Northwestern, but the next game was a 26-0 loss at Iowa.

"Bo called me up to his office on Monday morning," Zurbrugg said. "He told me I was going to start the next game. I said, 'That’s what I came here for.'"

Zurbrugg's debut against Illinois ended well. His 51-yard touchdown brought down the house in a 26-18 win.

The next week, in a 31-29 loss at Purdue, he passed for a Michigan record of 259 yards.

It was an odd game, in which Jim Everett led Purdue to a 24-0 lead. Zurbrugg had a big second half, starting with an 80-yard touchdown drive. Another chance ended at the goal line on a Rod Woodson interception.

Zurbrugg threw three touchdown passes in the final five minutes.

His second start at Michigan Stadium brought a 31-7 rout of Minnesota in front of 100,000-plus.

"You tune the crowd out," he said. "I hardly even knew it was there. When you’re out on the field, it’s 11 on 11."

The regular-season finale was a 21-6 loss at Ohio State, which soon lost QBs coach Tressel to Youngstown State.

Zurbrugg made the last start of his life as part of college football's story of the year, the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

At 6-5, Michigan played for pride. At 12-0, Brigham Young played for all the marbles, such as they rolled in that era.

Many believed Brigham Young shouldn't be playing for a national championship, given a semi-tough schedule, but if pollsters voted the Cougars No. 1, the crown was theirs.

Schembechler gave the media a pregame a rundown on Zurbrugg:

"When Harbaugh got hurt, we went with Rein because Zurbrugg had two cracked vertebrae in his back last spring and missed time. We went to Zurbrugg in the Illinois game. He's a competitive, smart kid. He just hasn't had a lot of work.

"He's played some decent football, but he is a freshman.

"It hasn't been easy for him or for us, but I think we can win the football game with him."

The QB duel was Zurbrugg vs. Robbie Bosco. A Michigan defense that included former Canton McKinley star Garland Rivers controlled much of the game.

Zurbrugg threw a TD pass to Bob Perryman. He led a drive to a field goal that provided a 17-10 fourth-quarter lead. Bosco struck back with two touchdown drives, the latter ending with just over a minute left.

Brigham Young won 24-17 and was voted No. 1 in the polls. Washington, which beat No. 2 Oklahoma 28-17 in the Orange Bowl to finish 11-1, came in at No. 2.

Would Zurbrugg have voted BYU No. 1?

"I think so, since they beat us," he said.

After the next two seasons, Harbaugh left for the NFL. Zurbrugg had a year of eligibility left. His rivals in 1987 spring practice were redshirt juniors Demetrius Brown and Michael Taylor.

"I had a pretty good spring," he said. "I kind of felt Michigan was getting ready to go in a different direction, and I also had some other aspirations."

He left the team during the summer.

"It wasn't on bad terms," he said. "I felt it was probably the best thing at the time. I was getting ready to graduate."

For a while, it appeared the Wolverines could have been better off with Zurbrugg. Brown lost the opener to Notre Dame, 26-7. In Game 5, Brown threw seven interceptions in a 17-11 loss to Michigan State.

“I felt bad their season wasn’t going as good as they may have wanted it to go, but I never looked back,” Zurbrugg said.

He coached high school football in Ann Arbor for a season and then joined Bill Mallory as an Indiana University graduate assistant.

He was in his 20s when he returned to Ohio, where he has built a life with his wife, Christina (they met in Ann Arbor) and their children, four daughters and a son. He is in his 35th year as a teacher and coach, including head football coaching stints at Sebring, Wintersville, Edison, Carrollton and Alliance.

As he nears retirement, his son, Brendan, takes his first steps in college football, at Oklahoma.

"Brendan is taller than his dad, and his dad had good size," said the retired Mount Union coach, Kehres. "He's about as smooth a passing quarterback as I've seen in a while. He was worthy of the big D1 offers."

Brendan has his own Jim Harbaughs with whom to contend.

Oklahoma has cranked out No. 1 overall NFL draft picks Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray within the last 17 years. The 2024 Sooners have played sophomore Jackson Arnold and freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. in 2024.

With his dad as his position coach, Brendan set Alliance records with 6,736 passing yards and 63 TD passes. He also ran for 2,141 yards on legs that took him to the 300-meter finals in the 2023 state track meet.

Chris says he believes in his son as a person and as a player. Brendan says he values his dad's advice, particularly this:

"Stay confident. Things are going to be good and things are going to be bad. When the times are bad, do the best you can to stay confident, and keep pushing."

How does the elder Zurbrugg feel about his college days? How has life turned out?

"My time at Michigan was a great experience," he said. "I got a chance to play, not as much as I would have liked to, but I never felt I was out of competing for the job.

"I’m thankful for everything that I have ... five kids and a wife and a good job here in Alliance ... a good family surrounding me.

"I’m still coaching, quarterbacks in football, hurdlers in track. I enjoy every bit of it."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Chris Zurbrugg battled Jim Harbaugh to be Michigan QB1 on way to life's work as teacher, coach