How Harbaugh got his start with Davis' Raiders

Chargers coach cites his time in Oakland as ‘doctorate degree’ that helped open the door.

- By Sam FARMER

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

CHARGERS COACH Jim Harbaugh still has the play-filled laptop he inherited when he joined the Raiders.

Jim Harbaugh didn’t know if he was coming or going.

Exhausted to the point of collapse and parked in the driveway of his Oakland Hills home, he briefly allowed himself to close his eyes — was it for a minute? An hour? — before jolting awake at 4 a.m. in a foggy panic. Had he just returned from his round-the-clock job with the Oakland Raiders, or was he supposed to be on his way back?

Here he was, a first-round pick from Michigan, a 15-year NFL veteran, and now a coaching grunt for the Silver & Black, ready to do whatever was asked.

“I always remember him with the hair all over his head going everywhere,” recalled receiver Tim Brown. “The veteran guys on the team were saying, ‘Jimmy, you don’t have to do this, bro. There’s other ways you can make money.’ Because he was literally the guy printing the papers, working the copiers. We were like, ‘All right, if that’s what you want to do with your life then OK.”

This was more than two decades before Harbaugh became coach of the Chargers, long before he established himself as a football fireman — a turnaround artist who revived programs at the University of San Diego, Stanford, the 49ers and Michigan. Now, fresh off a season-opening victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, he’s attempting to do the same in Los Angeles.

Harbaugh’s early coaching roots are relevant this week because his 1-0 Chargers visit the Raiders on Monday night.

Everybody’s got to start somewhere, and in 2002, Harbaugh was at the bottom of the food chain in Oakland — the scrubbiest of scrubs, despite the title of quarterbacks coach.