Which TV Crime-Stopper & 1986 ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ Was Almost an NFL Quarterback?

College Football: UCLA QB Mark Harmon (7) on sidelines during game vs Nebraska at Rose Bowl Stadium. Pasadena, CA 9/9/1972
George Long /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

Today, Mark Harmon is best known as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a role he played for 18 seasons of the hit procedural NCIS (and is revisiting in voiceover for NCIS: Origins). Before that, he was Dr. Jack McNeil from Chicago Hope, Dr. Caldwell from St. Elsewhere, People‘s 1986 Sexiest Man Alive, and a wide array of big and small screen characters, dating back to his TV debut in 1973 … but before that, he was a football star.

In fact, in the years before he ever graced a television set, Harmon was widely expected to become an NFL star. How did he trade the gridiron for the soundstage? It’s not as strange a story as you might think.

Harmon on the field

Former Michigan football superstar Tom Harmon (L) posing w. his son Mark who is U.C.L.A.'s quarterback.

Mark Harmon and his father, football star Tom. John Bryson/Getty Images

Looking at Harmon’s family, there’s little surprise that he’d pursue a career in sports. After all, his dad was Heisman Trophy-winning football player and broadcaster Tom Harmon (his mom, Elyse Knox, was an actress, which likely influenced his second career).

As a teenager attending L.A.’s Harvard School (now known as Harvard-Westlake), Harmon played football, as well as baseball and rugby, and seemed poised for big athletic achievements. Those plans became temporarily derailed after he broke his elbow as a junior, preventing him from playing varsity football as a senior. Unable to finish his high school football career strong enough to be recruited to a top school, Harmon instead enrolled at Pierce Junior College in Woodland Hills, California, quarterbacking the team to a 7-2 record in 1971 and earning All-America status. His success earned him plenty of scholarship offers, but Harmon opted to play for UCLA and stay in his hometown of Los Angeles.

Harmon’s impact was immediate, leading his team to a huge upset win over the two-time national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers. Over the next two seasons as the team’s starting quarterback, he helped UCLA amass an impressive 17-5 record and received the National Football Foundation Award for All-Around Excellence during his senior year.

Forging a new path

PRINCE OF BEL AIR, Mark Harmon, 1986, (c)Leonard Hill Films/courtesy Everett Collection

Everett Collection

Most expected Harmon to make his way to the NFL after graduating college, but he saw things differently. With a strong dedication to his studies, the gridiron star graduated cum laude in 1974 with a BA in Communications and a 3.45 GPA. He began to pursue a career in business as a merchandising director, but soon, Harmon decided to switch to acting. His first gig was a role on a Kelloggs TV commercial alongside their then-current spokesman – his dad, Tom Harmon (so you might say, he had a bit of an “in”).

The rest is history, but Harmon never forgot his football roots, nor did the sport forget about him. In fact, his old friends at Pierce College inducted him into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010, a fitting accomplishment for a man whose hard work and dedication allowed him to “touch down” on an iconic acting career.

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