'He was a different dude': Looking back at Jim Harbaugh's career-best season with the 1995 Colts

OCT. 4, 1992, marked one of the most infamous days of Jim Harbaugh's NFL playing career.

Then the quarterback of the Chicago Bears, Harbaugh had been playing a perfect game -- he went 16-of-25 for 171 yards and one touchdown through three quarters. The Bears were leading the Minnesota Vikings 20-0 early in the fourth quarter, when Harbaugh audibled from a play that coach Mike Ditka called.

Harbaugh subsequently threw an interception to cornerback Todd Scott that was returned for a 35-yard touchdown. When Harbaugh reached the sideline, an enraged Ditka berated him.

The Bears went on to allow 14 more points unanswered and lost the game. Harbaugh told reporters that Ditka banned him from calling audibles moving forward. Ditka confirmed: "I'm not going to put 47 players' futures in the hands of one player who thinks he knows more than I do."

After that season, Ditka was fired. A year later, Harbaugh was released by Chicago, the team that had drafted him in the first round in 1987. That day in Minnesota was a microcosm of the peaks and valleys that defined Harbaugh's 14 seasons in the NFL.

For most of his career, Harbaugh was an average quarterback, known for his scrambling ability and toughness. But for one season in 1995 -- three years after the infamous scolding in Minnesota -- Harbaugh was one of the league's best players. As a 32-year-old for the Indianapolis Colts, he outdueled Hall of Famers like Dan Marino and Steve Young, and he engineered comeback after comeback en route to the AFC championship, earning him the moniker, "Captain Comeback."

Harbaugh -- who finished fourth in MVP voting and the league's highest passer rating that year -- never reached the heights of that 1995 season again, but he remains a fixture in Indianapolis. He was added to their ring of honor in 2005.

"That was like being dipped in magic waters," Harbaugh said of that season.

He continued: "I say it was dipped in magic waters, because I mean there was some magical moments. There was some magic made. As a player, by far my favorite season was the '95 season."

Thirty years after that magical season, he'll face his former team on Sunday in his second season as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, when they take on the Colts at SoFi Stadium (4:05 p.m. ET on CBS).

"He was a different dude. He never bragged and said how good he was ever," former Colts fullback Roosevelt Potts said. "He got up every day knowing that he was a super kid, but he never acted like it -- that's why we loved and respected Jimmy."

AFTER THE BEARS released Harbaugh, the Colts signed him ahead of the 1994 season. He started nine games that year, finishing with a 4-5 record, nine touchdowns and six interceptions.

Indianapolis wasn't satisfied with Harbaugh, and that offseason, they traded their 1996 first-round pick for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Craig Erickson and agreed to a three-year, $6 million deal with Erickson. Ahead of minicamp, Colts coach Ted Marchibroda named Erickson the team's starter. Harbaugh told reporters, "I appreciate the honesty."

In Week 1, the Colts took on the Cincinnati Bengals. Erickson struggled mightily. He had thrown three interceptions before the opening drive of the fourth quarter. With the Colts losing 21-13, Marchibroda benched Erickson for Harbaugh.

With 59 seconds remaining in the game, facing fourth-and-19, Harbaugh scrambled to his left as Cincinnati's pressure broke past the offensive line, throwing a perfect 34-yard pass to running back Marshall Faulk that was just past Bengals cornerback Darryl Williams. Two plays later, Harbaugh led the Colts to a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

The Colts went on to lose the game in overtime, but Harbaugh's play sparked a quarterback controversy in Indianapolis. And in Week 2, Harbaugh got his job back -- for good.

The Colts took on the New York Jets, and Erickson struggled to get the offense going again. After a fumble with 14:50 left in the third quarter, Marchibroda benched Erickson again. Harbaugh entered the game on the following drive with the Colts down 24-3 and 13:08 remaining.

Harbaugh led the Colts to tie the game at 24 and head into overtime for the second week in a row. After the Jets failed to score on the opening drive, Harbaugh led Indianapolis on a game-winning drive that included a scrambling highlight throw 24 yards downfield between Jets defenders to wide receiver Sean Dawkins.

Two plays later, kicker Mike Cofer made a 52-yard field goal for the win. Harbaugh finished 11-of-16 for 123 yards and two touchdowns.

"That kind of set the tone for the rest of the season," former Colts tight end Ken Dilger said. "That's how he got the nickname 'Captain Comeback.'"

AFTER LOSING TO the Buffalo Bills in Week 3, the Colts went on a three-game winning streak, beating some of the league's best teams.

It began with a 21-18 win over the St. Louis Rams, the first game of the season with no Captain Comeback-esque heroics needed from Harbaugh. The next win came over Marino and the Miami Dolphins, in one of Harbaugh's best games.

The Colts were down 24-3 at halftime, and Harbaugh again led them back. The Colts scored 24 unanswered points to win the game over the previously undefeated Dolphins in overtime. Harbaugh finished with 319 yards and three touchdowns, which was then the most passing yards in a game in his career.

The next matchup was an 18-17 victory over the defending champion San Francisco 49ers. It was the biggest win of the season for the Colts, a franchise that had been stuck in mediocrity since they moved from Baltimore in 1984.

"Embarrassed," 49ers linebacker Rickey Jackson told reporters. "We're more embarrassed than anything. We let the Colts beat us? This is a team we are supposed to jump on, get down and keep down."

"Nobody has such a high opinion of me as a quarterback," Harbaugh told reporters after the win. "I'll never be a Dan Marino or a Joe Montana. I just do it in my own ugly style."

That ugly style, defined by his perpetual scrambling and finding receivers that was reminiscent of backyard football, had a team with little expectations believing they could contend. And beyond his play on the field, Harbaugh's teammates rallied around him because of his demeanor.

"It wasn't like the typical quarterbacks that you were seeing back in the nineties, like the Dan Marinos and the Steve Youngs, but he was clutch and it was just like that all season," wide receiver Aaron Bailey said. "Jim was unstoppable. And it rubbed off on the rest of the team."

THE HARBAUGH OF today -- the confident, outspoken man who leads the Chargers in postgame sing-alongs and breaks into stories during news conferences about anything from remembering the day he was born to fights with his older brother John -- was different back then.

Teammates saw two sides of Harbaugh: one closer to the man he is today, and the other more quiet and reserved.

"Just kind of maybe aloof," Dilger said, "nothing really excited him."

Harbaugh was defined by his toughness and physicality. Teammates remember Harbaugh staying late with other position groups in the weight room, or playing with a bloody jaw or broken fingers. They didn't mind that he wasn't a loud and vocal leader.

"His strength was his humility and his toughness," former Colts linebacker Steve Grant said. "That is what I remember about Jim, just being one of the guys."

He continued: "He never tried to separate himself and say, 'Hey, I'm the quarterback, so I get special privilege'. I think that's why he was so respected in the locker room."

But some players got to see a different, more fun side of Harbaugh. Among them was Potts, who remembers Harbaugh listening to anything from the rapper Ice Cube to the composer Beethoven and reading anything from the Bible to books about biology. He said Harbaugh was beloved but did "weird stuff," like heading into the team facility to watch film after a night out, and once he challenged a teammate to a naked race.

"He was a fun guy to be around," Potts said. "Never been around a quarterback that just jokes as much as you do. Man, a lot of quarterbacks be off to themselves. Jimmy wasn't like that."

THE COLTS FINISHED that season with a 9-7 record, beating the New England Patriots, 10-7, in the season finale to earn the franchise's first playoff appearance since 1987.

Harbaugh finished fourth in NFL Most Valuable Player award voting behind Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice and Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith. He ended the season with the league's highest passer rating (100.7) and became the 15th QB to finish with a passer rating over 100.

"The only thing I thought I'd be catching this year is splinters on the bench," Harbaugh told reporters.

By then, the Colts had become a team with multiple monikers. He was Captain Comeback, and the team had embraced the phrase "Let 'er rip,' started by Marchibroda, who implored Harbaugh and the team to play freely.

"We rolled that the whole year, man, just 'Let 'er rip,'" former Colts linebacker Devon McDonald said. "And then Jim personally, man, his dedication was very high, man."

The Colts won two of their past three games to get into the playoffs as the fifth seed, and they embraced an underdog mentality. "There are 12 teams in the playoffs, and we are probably 12th in a lot of people's minds," Marchibroda told reporters. "I know nobody will pick us to win."

But their magic continued.

Harbaugh led the Colts to a 35-20 first-round win over the San Diego Chargers, then a 10-7 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. In the next round against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship, the Colts were down 20-16 with five seconds remaining.

Harbaugh launched a ball from the 29-yard line into the end zone as time expired. The ball bounced -- for what felt like forever -- off Steelers defenders and onto Bailey, the Colts receiver's chest, then leg, then chest again and into his hand. Both teams were celebrating -- but the ball had hit the ground. The Colts' season was over.

Harbaugh wasn't an MVP candidate the following season, but the Colts made the playoffs again, this time losing in the AFC wild-card round to the Steelers. The Colts took a step back in 1997; Marchibroda left Indianapolis ahead of that season for the Baltimore Ravens after a contract dispute, and the team finished 3-13.

After that season, in February of 1998, the Ravens traded a third and swapped a fourth-round pick for Harbaugh. Two months later, the Colts selected future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning with the first pick in the 1998 draft. Manning went on to win a Super Bowl in 2006.

"It's one of those seasons that kind of set us forward on a path of, 'Hey, I think the Colts organization is back,'" said Dilger, who played in Indianapolis from 1995-2001. "I think we kind of built towards what Peyton Manning took over in '98 for the rest of his tenure, and we just kept on going from there. That started with Jim."