The Growing Urban Legend of Michigan's Jim Harbaugh

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An admitted Ohio State homer, Scott Torgerson has been hosting radio in Columbus for the past six years. The namesake behind The Unnamed Torg Show on 95.5 The Game, Torgerson made national headlines in 2012 for a public feud with Michigan legend Desmond Howard.

Needless to say, Torgerson has an opinion when it comes to the Wolverines' hiring of Jim Harbaugh.

Only it's not what you would expect.

"I'd hate him," Torgerson says. "If he wasn't so damn likable."

Torgerson's sentiment isn't necessarily a unique one in Buckeyes-crazed Columbus, where Ohio State fans take every opportunity they can to bash their archrival. Sure, diehards have found a way to question a perceived slow start on the recruiting trail, but this much the Buckeye faithful can't deny: Harbaugh sure is likable.

And the rest of the country agrees.

The growing legend of Harbaugh may have hit a peak earlier this week, six months before the new Wolverines coach will first pace the sideline for the Maize and Blue.

On Tuesday, Harbaugh sent a congratulatory tweet to daytime TV host Judge Judy that went viral, just minutes before news broke that he had assisted a 53-year-old woman and her 73-year-old mother after they were involved in a car crash on Michigan's I-94.

It was quite the Tuesday for the new Wolverines head coach, not that we've come to expect any less from him in his two-month reign in Ann Arbor.

Starting with the Judge Judy tweet, Harbaugh's relationship with the daytime TV celebrity actually dates back to 2013, when he and his father attended a taping of her popular show. It went viral at the time—shots of Jim and Jack Harbaugh sitting front row and laughing at one of the judge's quips—but Tuesday was as good a time as ever to rehash the now-famous YouTube clip.

This isn't some coincidence or marketing ploy either. Harbaugh is a legitimate fan of the honorable Judith Sheindlin. At the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine, on the heels of his 49ers' loss in Super Bowl XLVII, Harbaugh spoke fondly of Sheindlin, admitting that he incorporates her principles into his coaching philosophy.

"Oh, somebody that's not truthful? That's big to me. I'm a big fan of the Judge Judy show. When you lie in Judge Judy's courtroom, it's over," Harbaugh answered when asked about interviewing prospects with perceived character issues. "Your credibility is completely lost. You stand no chance of winning that case. I learned that from her, and it's very powerful—and true."

As for the crash, Harbaugh was traveling with Wolverines director of football operations Jim Minick to the airport when they noticed a car that had rolled off the icy freeway. Harbaugh and Minick stopped to aid Christine Mowrer and her mother, Katherine Brinkley, each of whom are expected to make full recoveries from their injuries.

"He got coats and blankets on us and put up an umbrella to block the wind," Mowrer told Ben Freed of MLive.com of Harbaugh. "He probably kept me from going into shock. He was very, very nice."

Per Freed, both Harbaugh and Minick declined comment on the event, with a University of Michigan spokesperson stating, "They believe they were doing what any other individual would do for another when they stopped and assisted."

Maybe. But not every person who stops to help play hero is the head coach of Michigan.

The legend of Harbaugh has been growing for more than 30 years now, dating back to his days as the Wolverines star quarterback. Guaranteeing—and backing up—a win over Ohio State in 1986, the Toledo, Ohio, native was the Big Ten Player of the Year in his senior season and one of the best signal-callers in Michigan's storied history.

After a 14-year NFL playing career, Harbaugh quickly became one of the fastest-rising coaches in college football, taking over at the University of San Diego in 2004 before moving to Stanford in 2007. Harbaugh then made the jump to the NFL and the 49ers in 2011, while his alma mater struggled under the direction of Rich Rodriguez and later Brady Hoke.

Cries for Harbaugh's return to Ann Arbor dated back to Hoke's hiring in 2011, but never amounted to anything until the former Michigan coach was fired after a 5-7 season in 2014—the third year of decline for the Wolverines.

When Ohio State lost Jim Tressel, it found the perfect replacement in Urban Meyer. Meanwhile, the Wolverines' version of Urban Meyer was coaching in San Francisco.

Harbaugh topped Michigan's head-coaching wish list—LSU's Les Miles was a distant second—but some believed it was unlikely he would return to the college ranks. That didn't stop T-shirts from being printed and websites from being made, urging Ann Arbor's favorite son to come home.

Needless to say, the announcement of his hiring on Dec. 30 was met with jubilation. Later that night, the Michigan basketball student section held a "khaki out" in honor of Harbaugh's signature pants preference.

His introductory press conference even managed to make waves on the Internet.

Harbaugh has always had his quirks that made him one of football's most entertaining coaches, be it his Judge Judy appearance, his inherent intensity or his consistent clothing choices. When he arrived at Michigan, however, reporters dug into his past and what they found only added to his aura.

Nick Baumgardner of MLive.com was told of how Harbaugh once won a game of laser tag at his bachelor party by systematically seeking out a 10-year-old, while Max Cohen of The Michigan Daily revealed that while at Stanford, Harbaugh smeared the blood of a player on his face like war paint—during a game. "Crazy" and "insane" were used in both stories to describe the new Wolverines head coach, but Harbaugh was simply being himself.

The momentum hasn't died in Harbaugh's first two months of the job either, as he's become college football's top must-follow coach on Twitter. Posting his authentic thoughts multiple times a day, Harbaugh wishes his players happy birthdays, posts selfies with his family and has even apparently subtweeted Meyer during the controversy that surrounded Mike Weber's recruitment.

All of it has added up to nothing but good PR for a Michigan program that's been in need of just that. Dating back to the Wolverines' embarrassing loss to FCS program Appalachian State in 2007, Michigan has been irrelevant in the national picture of college football, while rival Ohio State has gone a combined 38-3 in its first three seasons under Meyer, winning the first-ever College Football Playoff.

But even with the Buckeyes coming off a national championship—and their momentum not slowing down anytime soon—Michigan has created some momentum of its own without even returning to the field. Despite his team's recent track record, Harbaugh has become one of the faces of college football, and that can't be denied.

Not even in Columbus.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.