Michael U. Imoh (born July 21, 1984) is a former professional football player, a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

for the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canad ...

of the

Canadian Football League 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 ...

Early years

Born and raised in

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C., Imoh attended

Robinson Secondary School James W. Robinson, Jr. Secondary School is a six-year public school in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Known as Robinson Secondary School, it is located in Fairfax County, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C. Opened in ...

and starred as a tailback in football and a sprinter in track. As a senior, he led the

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

in Blacksburg in 2002.

College career

Imoh was moved to receiver in his first two seasons at Virginia Tech, as the Hokies had lost all-

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

receiver André Davis to 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 ...

, and were in desperate need of help at flanker. In 2003, Imoh became the first Hokie to return a kickoff for a touchdown since 1992 with his 91-yard return against

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. Imoh finished the 2003 season as the top

kick returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another positio ...

in the

and the third highest kick returner nationally. Following the 2003 season, Imoh and two teammates –

Marcus Vick Marcus Deon Vick (born March 20, 1984) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at Virginia Tech, following the career path of his older brother Michael. However, several legal infractions and unsportsmanlike play le ...

and Brendan Hill – were convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly serving alcohol to three underage girls. Imoh was suspended for three games following the incident. As a junior in 2004, Imoh moved back to tailback. Following his suspension, he quickly won the starting job. Against

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, Imoh broke the Virginia Tech single game rushing record set the previous year by Kevin Jones. Due to a record keeping error with the official statistics, Imoh was originally credited with only 236 yards – five short of Jones' total – but Tech's radio statistician noticed a discrepancy between his notes and the official total and was able to have the error corrected.

Notes

External links

*
Mike Imoh's Virginia Tech profile

Mike Imoh's Montreal Alouettes profile
1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Fairfax County, Virginia African-American players of Canadian football American football running backs Robinson Secondary School alumni Virginia Tech Hokies football players Canadian football running backs Montreal Alouettes players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people {{runningback-1980s-stub