Jim Harbaugh's contract at Michigan is being reported as worth $37 million for seven years, plus bonuses. That's quite an inflationary spiral over the past three decades, when you consider we were all astounded when Texas A&M gave Jackie Sherrill a six-year deal for a total of $1.7 million in January 1982.
The assertion was that this was the first million-dollar contract guarantee for a college coach. The Aggies came up with this historic deal to take the 38-year-old Sherrill away from the Pittsburgh Panthers.
As I said, it was astounding, to the point that my sports editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press sent me to College Station, Texas to write a Sherrill piece and cover his first game on Sept. 4, 1982.
I got to sit with Sherrill for a half-hour or so at Tom's BBQ. I have to say, the barbecue was laid out on butcher paper and it was fantastic.
The Aggies' opponent for this game was Boston College. The Eagles were an Eastern independent of modest repute. For years, they had been scheduled by the major conference teams in much the same way that teams from the Sunbelt Conference or the FCS level are scheduled today.
Boston College would come to town, takes its defeat, accept its check and head back to Chestnut Hill.
The idea that the Aggies, with their million-dollar coach, would lose this first game to BC did not occur to anyone in A&M's 12th Man crowd.
Except, the Eagles had this sophomore quarterback, a little bit of a fell'er called Doug Flutie, and he threw over and scrambled through Sherrill's defenders as if they were standing still.
