Oh boy! With the threat of no NFL season this year looming over 2 die-hard football fans, imagine our complete surprise and delight to be contacted by HBO Sports to ask if they could film at the Inn for their special segment on head coaches John and Jim Harbaugh!
John Harbaugh has been the Baltimore Ravens' head coach since 2008, and his brother Jim will take over the head coaching position in San Francisco this year for the 49'ers. Together they are the first pair of brothers to serve as NFL Head Coaches. Their teams will face each other for the first time this Thanksgiving Day, which also happens to be their parents Jack & Jackie's 50th wedding anniversary!
The entire Harbaugh family visited Gettysburg for the day in late June to tour the Battlefield, and they were followed by the team from HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" while they were in town. We had the privilege of being the filming site for correspondent Andrea Kremer'sinterview with Jack & Jackie Harbaugh. They talked about raising their family and dealing with the ins and outs of Jack's extensive college football coaching career, including his head coaching jobs at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky Universities. To say football runs in the blood lines in this family is quite an understatement!
During the shoot the entire family was here, relaxing and having fun. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more genuinely friendly and down to earth group of folks. We did give full disclosure: Your innkeepers are well-known and permanent members of the Steeler Nation, and at the time of the shoot our house was FULL of black & gold fans (Good Timing!).
Coach John was an incredibly good sport about it, chatting with everyone and signing some autographs. What a class act.
We were fortunate to have beautiful weather, and the shot was completed in the back yard. Todd's Mom would have been over the moon to see her flowers getting filmed for national TV! We got a quiet chuckle out of that.
We were very excited to hear both Coaches express confidence that there WILL be an NFL season this year. And now there really must be, as the Ravens' home opener is against none other than their division rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers!
The crew from HBO Sports was just incredible, when they were finished you would never even have known they were here (to the extent that one of the crew carried Molly's stuffed toy inside to be sure the whole area was cleaned up!). We finished with a great group photo.
The Gettysburg segment will be featured on the July 19th episode of HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel", airing at 10 pm. Be sure to check it out!
