Player Wives & Girlfriends

The Story

• If Tom Crean and his family travel to see the in-laws for the holidays, it must be the most intense Thanksgiving dinner of all time.
  
  Tom Crean was introduced to Joani Harbaugh while coaching at Western Kentucky. Joani was working as an aerobics instructor at the time, but had family in the area. Her father is Jack Harbaugh, who happened to be a colleague of Tom's at the time, as the head coach of the football team at Western Kentucky as well. (See where we're going with this yet??)
  
  Yes, it's those Harbaughs. Joani's brothers, and Tom's brothers in law are John and Jim Harbaugh,... the first pair of sibling head coaches in NFL history. Seriously, think about those events,... four professional coaches and a former aerobics instructor. I know my family get togethers usually wind up with someone screaming, but you can guarantee those do. Some may remember Joani in the lead up to the Thanksgiving game this year when talking about life in the Harbaugh household. When talking about how football was a way of life, they'd often reference that Joani would splice together game film while playing with her Barbie's by the age of 10. In speaking with USA Today, Joani said:

  "I think that was a way to keep me busy while I was tagging along. But I could use the hot splice machine at the age of 10, yes. Impressive, huh? I think I could even go back today and use it."

  Finally, one of the cooler things we've come across recently was finding out how dedicated this couple is to the Hoosier community. Despite his job being in jeopardy following a tough 2011 season, Tom and Joani were ignoring the national level rumors of his dismissal, and joining in the search for missing coed Lauren Spierer. Rather than talk about it, or make a reference, these two were out doing something. Pretty classy to us.