Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Jim Harbaugh a huge fan of P.J. Fleck’s ‘Row the Boat’ slogan

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Add Jim Harbaugh to the list of college football personalities who are fans of P.J. Fleck and his “Row the Boat” slogan.

Fleck’s slogan, which was started at Western Michigan and has traveled with him to Minnesota, has become one of the phrases associated with B1G football today. During Harbaugh’s radio show, he talked about how much he like the motto and gave Fleck a lot of credit for bringing it to the conference.

He even broke out in song on his radio show.

“I like it. I like it a lot,” Harbaugh said. “I like row the boat. I’ve always been a big fan of the jingle, row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

“You’re working, you’re rowing your boat, you’re taking your responsibilities is the way I interpret that. I would take out merrily and put enthusiastically down the stream.”

Harbaugh and Fleck squared off last Saturday as Minnesota traveled to Ann Arbor to battle Michigan. The Wolverines had no trouble with the Gophers, winning 33-10.

Fleck’s “Row the Boat” slogan hasn’t led to a lot of wins this season — Minnesota is 4-5 — but the Gophers coach is trying to build a culture for the future.

And Harbaugh is just one coach who is a fan of what Fleck is trying to do in Minneapolis.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB