Jack Harbaugh was first introduced to the idea of a team being inducted into an athletics hall of fame back in the 1970s when he was an assistant football coach at Michigan.

“I was there for seven years and not a day passed that we didn’t talk about the team, the team, the team,” Harbaugh told the Daily News on Friday. “I think it’s a fantastic thing to honor teams.”

One of Western Kentucky’s most revered coaches will be in Bowling Green on Saturday for the inaugural induction of two football teams into the WKU Athletics Hall of Fame.

WKU’s 2002 NCAA I-AA National Championship team, coached by Harbaugh, and the 1952 Ohio Valley Conference and Refrigerator Bowl champions will be the first inductees since the Alumni W-Club announced the expansion to include great teams in WKU’s Hall of Fame.

Members from both teams will be honored on the field during halftime of WKU’s game against Florida Atlantic on Saturday.

Harbaugh told the Daily News he spent the day visiting with families of past coaches and others he built relationships with during his 14 years as head football coach at WKU.

Harbaugh and close to 60 members associated with the 2002 team will be in attendance Saturday.

“It was always about the team,” Harbaugh said in the phone interview. “I’m not just talking about players. I’m talking about coaches, graduate assistants, trainers and equipment people. I’m talking about all those people that labor for the team. I think whoever came up with the idea, I think it’s a fantastic idea and I look forward to more teams being inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

The formal induction will occur at a private reception for team members and their guests Saturday morning.

The 2002 NCAA I-AA (now FCS) champions started 2-3 and went on to win 10 straight for the national championship. That Hilltoppers unit, captained by Sherrod Coates, Peter Martinez, Jason Michael and Chris Price, defeated McNeese State in the national championship played in Chattanooga, Tenn.

This weekend is the second time Harbaugh has visited Bowling Green since that team was honored for its 10-year title anniversary in 2012.

“I haven’t been back near enough and it’s so exciting and so rewarding to be back and touch base and come home again after the 14 fantastic years we spent at Western Kentucky University,” Harbaugh said.

The man who hired Harbaugh in 1989, Jimmy Feix, was a player on the 1952 team also being honored Saturday. Feix was the quarterback who led the team to outscore its opponents by an average of three touchdowns per game. That WKU squad went 9-1 overall and defeated Arkansas State in the Refrigerator Bowl in Evansville, Ind.

“Beautiful thing, to think that two teams 50 years apart could be connected,” Harbaugh said. “Almost like divine intervention for coach to be on that ’52 team and for me to be a member and part of that 2002 team.

“To be linked with coach Feix and the 1952 team is more of an excitement and reason to be here and celebrate this day.”{&end}