James David Laughlin (born July 5, 1958) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. 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 ...

as a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

. Laughlin was the eighth pick in the fourth round of the

1980 NFL Draft The 1980 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1980, at the New York She ...

(91st overall) by the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

Playing career

Laughlin played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

Charles F. Brush High School Charles F. Brush High School is a public high school in Lyndhurst, Ohio. The school is named for Charles F. Brush, the Ohio-born inventor of the arc light. Brush has 1,334 students as of the 2017–2018 school year. The school, which is situa ...

in his hometown of

Lyndhurst, Ohio Lyndhurst is a small city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The population was 14,050 at the 2020 census. A small part of Lyndhurst was originally part of Mayfield Township. History The land currently c ...

. He graduated from Charles F. Brush High school in 1976. As a team captain during his senior year of 1979 at Ohio State, Laughlin (along with Mike D'Andrea) had a share in a blocked punt against

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, which was returned for what eventually proved to be the winning touchdown by

Todd Bell Todd Anthony Bell (November 28, 1958 – March 16, 2005) was an American football safety in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears during the early 1980s. College After graduating from Middletown High School, in Middletown, Ohio, ...

. The play put the Buckeyes on top 18–15, sending the team to the

1980 Rose Bowl The 1980 Rose Bowl was It was the 66th edition of the college football bowl game, played on Tuesday, January 1, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The USC Trojans, champions of the Pacific-10 Conference, defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes, ...

. In 1979 Laughlin was the Buckeyes MVP and an Academic All-

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

honoree. He was also a 1979 winner of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Scholarship, awarded annually to the top 13 players in college football.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laughlin, Jim 1958 births Living people American football linebackers Atlanta Falcons players Green Bay Packers players Los Angeles Rams players Ohio State Buckeyes football players Ohio State University alumni Players of American football from Cleveland National Football League replacement players