Ben Sankey (born December 5, 1976) is a former

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He was signed as a

street free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

by the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

in 2000. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at Wake Forest. Sankey also played for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

Tennessee Valley Raptors The Rock River Raptors were a professional indoor football team based in Rockford, Illinois. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. The franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a c ...

Rock River Raptors The Rock River Raptors were a professional indoor football team based in Rockford, Illinois. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. The franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a ...

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

Omaha Beef The Omaha Beef is an indoor football team and a charter member of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, the Beef play their home games at Liberty First Credit Union Arena in nearby Ralston. History First 13 seas ...

Omaha Nighthawks The Omaha Nighthawks were a professional American football team based in Omaha, Nebraska, which played in the United Football League, joining the league as an expansion team in 2010. During their first season, the Nighthawks played their home gam ...

Chicago Slaughter The Chicago Slaughter were an American professional football team based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Having been inactive since 2013, the franchise was a part of the CIFL from 2007 to 2009, winning the championship in 2009. The Slaughter joined ...

Wichita Wild The Wichita Wild were a professional indoor football team based in Wichita, Kansas. They were members of the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL). The team was founded in 2006 as an independent indoor football franchise. In 2008, ...

and

Allen Wranglers Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univ ...

Early years

Sankey attended Chicago's

Whitney Young Magnet High School Whitney M. Young Magnet High School (locally known simply as Whitney Young) is a public magnet high school and middle school located in the Near West Side neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Whitney Young is operated by the Chicago ...

where he excelled in football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. Sankey, a youth sports enthusiast, enjoys harassing 13 year old umpires in little league baseball.

College career

Sankey also attended

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

from 1996 to 1999. He played his first three years as

Brian Kuklick Brian Kuklick (born May 23, 1976) is an American former quarterback for the Orlando Rage of the XFL. Early life and education A star top-ranked football player in Pennsylvania, Kuklick became a two-sport athlete at Wake Forest University. In a ...

's back-up, finally becoming the starter in 1999. He led the

Demon Deacons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

to the

Aloha Bowl The Aloha Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) college football bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. History The Aloha Bowl was established in 1982 by Mackay ...

, winning convincingly over

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. He was named most valuable player in the game.

Statistics

Sankey's career statistics are as follows:

Professional career

Sankey went undrafted in the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Thea ...

, and signed a contract with the

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

in 2000. He dressed for 16 games and did not see any playing time until the final game of the season against the

. He completed all four of his pass attempts. In 2001, he was named the Stampeders' starting quarterback, however a sprained thumb caused him to miss several games.

Marcus Crandell Marcus Crandell (born June 1, 1974) is a former professional Canadian football quarterback and coach. He was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Saskatchewan Huskies of the University of Saskatchewan. He played 11 seasons for the Edmont ...

took over and led the Stampeders to their fifth

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championship. His play was promising enough for the

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

to take interest in him: he was signed to a contract before the 2002 season. He did not receive any playing time with the Texans, so he returned to the Stampeders later that season, playing in seven games. He returned to the Texans in 2003, however he was relegated to the

practice squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

and saw no playing time. In 2004 he returned to the CFL, this time with the

, however, again, he saw no playing time. Discontent, he signed a contract with the

United Indoor Football United Indoor Football (UIF) was an indoor football league in the United States that operated from 2005 to 2008. Ten owners from the National Indoor Football League, including one expansion (the Dayton Warbirds, which never played a game in UIF ...

in 2005. He returned to the franchise in 2006 after it had relocated to

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

, finishing the season with 47 touchdown passes. He was named the league's most valuable player. He returned to the CFL with the

British Columbia Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

under coach

Wally Buono Pasquale "Wally" Buono (born February 7, 1950) is the vice president of football operations, alternate governor and the former head coach of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and one of the most successful head coaches in leag ...

, who originally brought him to the CFL with the Stampeders seven years before. Again he saw no playing time, placed on the practice roster. The Stampeders were in need of a quarterback after

Henry Burris Henry Armand Burris Jr. (born June 4, 1975) is a gridiron football coach, former professional quarterback, and a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. He is currently an offensive quality control coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the ...

fell to injury and

Akili Smith Kabisa Akili Maradufu Smith (born August 21, 1975) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round (3rd overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft, the third quarterback in the first three choices, beh ...

and

Barrick Nealy Barrick Nealy (born August 7, 1983) is a former American and Canadian football quarterback who played for the Calgary Stampeders. Nealy is currently the Wide Receiver Coach for the San Marcos Baptist Academy in San Marcos, TX. College career A ...

proved ineffective. He returned to the Stampeders in relief of Smith on October 8, in a game against the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

. He completed 19 of 25 passes for 262 yards and 2

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s. In three appearances he threw for 818 yards and five touchdowns for a

quarterback rating Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football Leagu ...

of 106.6. He began the 2008 CFL season with the Stampeders but was sidelined with an injury. Upon recovering from his injury Sankey appeared to be the fourth quarterback on the Stampeders' depth chart and was released in July 2008. This did not last as

Dave Dickenson David Dickenson (born January 11, 1973) is a Canadian football head coach with the Calgary Stampeders and former professional player with the Stampeders and the BC Lions where he won the 2006 Grey Cup and was named the game's MVP. Dickenson als ...

was injured for the remainder of the season and Sankey was brought back to the Stampeders. On May 4, 2009, Sankey was released by the Stampeders. He later signed with the

of the United Football League in July 2010. From August 2015 through May 2016 he was at

Saint Ignatius College Prep Saint Ignatius College Prep is a selective private, coeducational Jesuit college-preparatory school located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The school was founded in Chicago in 1869 by Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J., a Dutch ...

in Chicago, Illinois working as Resident Physical Education Teacher. He then became the athletic director and history teacher at St. Thomas More High School in

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

during the summer of 2016. He vacated this position at the end of the school year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sankey, Ben 1976 births Living people Players of Canadian football from Chicago Players of American football from Chicago American football quarterbacks Whitney M. Young Magnet High School alumni Wake Forest Demon Deacons football players American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks Calgary Stampeders players BC Lions players Omaha Beef players Allen Wranglers players Wichita Wild players Chicago Slaughter players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Houston Texans players Rock River Raptors players