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Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh stopped to help an Ann Arbor police officer move a fallen tree during an ice storm on Wednesday night.
“Ann Arbor police officer Howard Cooper was an hour into his 12-hour shift and dealing with a downed tree during Wednesday night’s ice storm when he got an unexpected assist from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh,” reported The Detroit News.
At the time, Cooper had been trying to remove a large tree blocking the Devonshire and Londonderry roads. That’s when Harbaugh pulled up in a van to help.
“I was waving off the van like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to turn around, the tree is blocking the road,’ and then he got out, and I was like, ‘That’s Jim Harbaugh,’” Cooper told the Detroit News on Thursday. “I was like, ‘No way.’ And the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Hey, let’s try to move this.’ It was just kind of cool that he just hopped out. I would have never thought Jim Harbaugh, of all people, would hop out to help out.”
The Ann Arbor Police Department later posted a bodycam video of the event, which confirmed Cooper’s account. It took about ten minutes for the two to clear the lane for traffic.
In Ann Arbor last night: Passerby stops to help police clear a downed tree. It was football coach Jim Harbaugh, who recently faced calls for his termination for publicly saying, “In God’s plan, each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love.” https://t.co/plJuIhcWeq
— Mary H. FioRito (@maryfiorito) February 23, 2023
Cooper said that Harbaugh’s help was greatly needed because so many officers were being called to handle downed trees at the time.
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“It was really tough because we’re spread thin,” Cooper said. “We’re each responding to calls, so to have someone be willing to hop out and say, ‘Hey, let’s to do this together,’ that was awesome.”
“It was heavy, that’s for sure,” Cooper added. “I think Harbaugh’s got his in-season football strength going.”
Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates following the game against the Purdue Boilermakers in the Big Ten Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 4, 2022, in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Cooper described the famous coach as humble and gracious.
“We started walking back to our vehicles, he took off the work gloves, he said, ‘What was your name?’” Cooper said, “I said, ‘Cooper,’ and he said, ‘Well, I’m Jim.’ Like everybody in Ann Arbor doesn’t know how Jim Harbaugh. It was a super humble thing. It was really cool.”
At the end of the video, Cooper told Harbaugh, “You’re a good man.” The coach replied: “Feel free to spread the word on that. Don’t feel like you’ve got to keep that to yourself.”
Harbaugh made headlines last year when he publicly spoke out against abortion in defense of the unborn while giving the keynote address at the Plymouth Right to Life dinner.
“I love life. I believe in having a loving care and respect for life and death. My faith and my science are what drive these beliefs in me,” Harbaugh said.
