James Ballard (born April 16, 1972) 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 wi ...

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 ...

College career

Ballard was a one-year starter at Wilmington College then transferred after his freshman year to

Mount Union College The University of Mount Union is a private university in Alliance, Ohio. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until the spring of 2019. In the fall of 2020, Mount Union had an enrollment of 1,958 undergraduate ...

. While at Mount Union, Ballard broke numerous school, conference and NCAA records en route to leading the Purple Raiders to their first ever Division III National Championship in 1993. A two time First-team All-American Team member in 1992 and 1993, and an Honorable Mention All-American in 1991, Jim shattered 17 Division III records and threw for over 12,000 yards and over 150 touchdowns. The two-time recipient of the Mike Gregory Award, which is given to the Ohio Athletic Conference's top offensive back, he was a three time All-Conference selection and suffered only one OAC loss during his college career. Ballard won the inaugural

Melberger Award The Melberger Award was given annually to an outstanding U.S. college football player in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The award was named after Clifford Melberger, a captain of the 1960 Bucknell University footbal ...

and the

Gagliardi Trophy The Gagliardi Trophy was first presented in 1993 to the Outstanding Division III college football player of the year by the Jostens Company and the J-Club of Saint John's University in Minnesota. Since that time, the award has become one of the ...

as Division III's Player of the Year. He held every Mount Union passing record by the end of his career and still holds the NCAA record for highest number of touchdowns thrown in a playoff game (8). In addition, Jim was selected as the 1993 Joe Fogg Award Winner, given to the top collegiate player in all divisions in the Midwest by the Cleveland Touchdown Club. In 2008, Jim was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Ballard was an

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n at

References

External links

Ballard wins 1993 Melberger Award
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballard, Jim 1972 births Living people American football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks Buffalo Bills players Buffalo Destroyers players Indiana Firebirds players Las Vegas Outlaws (XFL) players London Monarchs players Mount Union Purple Raiders football players Scottish Claymores players Saskatchewan Roughriders players Toronto Argonauts players Wilmington Quakers football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Sportspeople from Summit County, Ohio Players of American football from Ohio Players of Canadian football from Ohio American expatriate players of American football