Who Is Jim Harbaugh's Wife? All About Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh

Mar. 15, 2025

Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh in 2010.Photo:David Livingston/Getty

David Livingston/Getty

Jim Harbaughand his wife, Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh, weren’t always head over heels for each other.

After meeting at a P.F. Chang’s restaurant in 2006, Jim had to work to impress Sarah, which eventually paid off. The two wed in 2008 and now share four kids together: daughters Addison and Katherine and sons Jack and John.

The couple began their lives together in California, where Jim coached the University of San Diego, Stanford University and the San Francisco 49ers throughout his career. In 2015, they moved to Jim’s hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., when he became head coach of his alma mater,the University of Michigan. After eight seasons with the Wolverines, the Harbaugh clan headed back to California when Jim signed on as head coach ofthe Los Angeles Chargersin January 2024.

Sarah has been a major supporter of her husband, turning up for major games like the2024 NCAA National Championshipand the Super Bowl. Sarah is so supportive of her husband’s career that she toldAnn Arbor Familyin 2015 that she “cannot go online.”

“I just can’t because, if I see something negative, I just know him as who he is, as a great person and a great dad, and then you see someone say whatever they might say and I just want to punch that person. I just can’t do that anymore. I will lose sleep," she said, adding that she still wants “to be involved” and “supportive.”

Here’s everything to know about Jim Harbaugh’s wife, Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh.

She grew up near Kansas City

Jim Harbaugh and Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh in 2015.Jim Harbaugh/X

Jim Harbaugh/X

Sarah grew up in Belton, Mo., asouthern suburb of Kansas City, and dreamed of being a big rig driver. She had six sisters and four brothers. She toldAnn Arbor Familyin 2021 that she lost two of her brothers to colon cancer.

When Jim and Sarah met in 2006, she was living in Las Vegas and working in real estate, perBleacher Report. Jim was visiting the city for a coaching convention.

In the almost two decades they’ve been together, Jim’s head coaching gigs took them from California to Michigan, and his newest job with the Chargers took them back to the Golden State. But Ann Arbor will always hold a special place in both Jim and Sarah’s hearts, as long before he became head coach, Jim grew up in the college town and played quarterback for Michigan.

“There’s just something about the Midwestern people, so down to earth. So, I’m thankful for that,” Sarah toldmgoblue.comin 2015 of returning to the Midwest. “In the NFL, you are kind of away from everybody. I don’t know if it’s good or bad [yet], but you’re engrossed in everything in Ann Arbor. It’s community.”

She met Jim at a restaurant

Jim and Sarah met at a restaurant in 2006. At the time, Jim was recently divorced and coaching at the University of San Diego.

In an interview onHBO’sReal Sports, Jim shared that Sarah was getting takeout (according toPlayer Wives, they were at a PF Chang’s), and he went up to her and asked if he could “meet her,” to which she replied, “Sure, you can meet me."

“I didn’t believe her at first. I thought it was one of those fake numbers she was giving me. But I called her, multiple times. Like, nine times before she returned my call,” Jim recalled, adding, “I could tell she was a winner all the way.”

This commitment worked — the pair wed in January 2008.

She shares four children with Jim

Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh and daughter Katherine in 2014.Gregory Shamus/Getty

Gregory Shamus/Getty

Jim and Sarah have four children together, daughters Addison and Katherine and sons Jack and John. The boys are named after their grandfather, former college football coach Jack Harbaugh, and uncle,Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, respectively.

When news broke in 2016 that Jim and Sarah were expecting their fourth child together, the former NFL star told theDetroit Free Pressthat he was “attacking this pregnancy with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

John arrived a month early and spent 19 days in NICU. Two and a half months later, the newborn was healthy enough to travel out of the country and was baptized in Vatican City (it was a dream of Jim’s to meet Pope Francis, which happened earlier on the same trip.)

“That was something I could never in a million years have imagined would happen,” Sarah toldESPN. “The whole thing, you felt like you were in a different world. You were just there in the moment and it was beautiful.”

During Jim’s time in San Francisco, he couldn’t have as much family time as he would’ve liked, but that changed when the Harbaugh clan moved to Michigan in 2015.

“The kids are so much happier when he is around,” Sarah toldAnn Arbor Familyshortly after the move.“And I can take the kids to the office. They love it, running around on the field … They are already way more involved with his life, and that is going to be really good.”

Jim also has three children from his first marriage to Miah Harbaugh: sons Jay and James and daughter Grace.

She starred in a Dockers ad mocking Jim’s “dad pants”

Jim is well-known for rocking pleated khakis, a look Sarah has disavowed, going as far as saying she “will not take blame for his outfits.”

“I’ve thrown [his pants] away many of times,” Sarah told 99.7 NOW in 2014. “I threw them out, and when he went to the [NFL scouting] combine, he found a Walmart. They were $8!”

Though Sarah wouldn’t force him to change his pants preference while his 49ers were on a roll (superstition matters to Jim), she did poke fun at him in a2014 PSA-style ad for Dockers.

“Dad pants can affect almost any man, and the suffering it can bring upon a family and loved ones can be significant,” Sarah joked at the beginning of the ad, which ends with a grinning Jim manning a grill in his new pleat-free pants.

They publicly support each other

Jim Harbaugh and Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh with their kids in 2013.Ezra Shaw/Getty

Ezra Shaw/Getty

Sarah is an avid supporter of her husband and gets (almost) as worked up about the football season as Jim.

“I get really stressed, I mean really stressed. When Jim got the [Michigan] job, [I] felt nauseous and I still feel unsettled about the pressure he is under,” Sarah toldAnn Arbor Family. “He is so calm about things that it helps me, but I am still worried about him because there is a lot of expectation here. The thing about Jim is, he is confident and he is good at what he does, and I realize that, but you just don’t know.”

Jim has lavished praise on his wife as well — often in football terms.

“I was thinking just the other night that two people in my life, my wife and our [then-Stanford] quarterback, Andrew Luck, have a lot in common in that they’re just both perfect,” Jim told reporters in 2010, perESPN.com. “With most people you say … you wish they could do this, or you wish they could do that. But I don’t do that with my wife, Sarah, or Andrew Luck. They are just absolutely perfect the way they are. For a football coach that’s pretty great — to have a great wife and a great quarterback.”

She is a proponent of local nonprofits

Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh in 2016.Jeff Haynes /Sports Illustrated/Getty

Jeff Haynes /Sports Illustrated/Getty

Sarah has admitted that it isn’t always easy being a coach’s wife, and it took the naturally reserved mom of four time to feel comfortable at public events.

“It’s hard, extremely hard to be married to a coach; people warned me about that. It’s hard because even the times when they’re home, they’re not home completely,” she told theDetroit Free Press.

An avid supporter of nonprofits, Sarah has worked through her fears because she has said that helping her community makes the hard times worth it.

Sarah is on the Board of Directors ofChadTough, which funds research and helps families battling two kinds of aggressive and rare brain tumors that most often affect children and are generally fatal. Both she and Jim have also publicly supportedThe Hope Clinic, which provides free medical care to residents of Ypsilanti, Mich.

Sarah and Jim together have donated to causes they care about, including matching donations for a 2017 event supporting the mental illness nonprofitFresh Start Clubhouseand sending $100,000 to theUnited Way for Southeastern Michiganin 2020 to support their COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

She helped Jim work on his first book

During a book signing in Ann Arbor, Sarah told theDetroit Free Pressthat she helped Jim fine-tune the essay.

“He worked for a long time and really, probably every night before bed, ‘Can you read this,’ or ‘Listen to this, is this okay?,’ so he took it really seriously,” she explained. “Every single word he put in there, he was really serious about. It was neat to finally see it in print.”

She doesn’t love technology

Jim Harbaugh and Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh in 2017.Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire/Getty

Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire/Getty

While her four kids know their way around a screen, Sarah knows she’s “behind the times,” though she tries to keep up with email and texts — just not around her kids.

“It makes me nervous. I am always worried about it. I don’t know what is going on. My phone is never updated and it is always screwing up. I wish I was more savvy with it,” she toldAnn Arbor Family, adding, “I just found an Xbox while unpacking (I think EA Sports gave it to Jim), and it made me consider, do I want them to start playing with those games?”

Eschewing technology has given Sarah more time to play the piano Jim gifted her 15 years ago.

source: people.com