Originally published on Jan. 6, 2025
By Zane
Miller
After a
successful college football career with the Mount Union Purple Raiders, including
a Division III championship in 2008, wide receiver Judd Harrold would be
traveling almost 1,000 miles from his home state of Ohio to eastern Nebraska,
as he joined the Omaha Beef in 2012 for the start of his Indoor Football League
career. However, what was not known at the time was that Harrold would
eventually become one of the finest receivers in IFL history.
While I
introduced him as a wide receiver in the opening paragraph, moving from the
outdoor game to the indoor game would necessitate a position change, as he had been
listed as a tight end during his time at Mount Union. His career saw a modest
start in 2012, as he caught four touchdowns and put up 214 receiving yards.
However, the Beef achieved mixed results during Harrold’s rookie season,
finishing on the outside of the playoffs with a 6-8 record. In 2013, the Beef moved
over to the newly-formed Champions Professional Indoor Football League, as
Harrold also left with the team. The Beef made the playoffs that season with a
10-2 record, with Harrold putting up 10 touchdowns and 506 receiving yards. He
also had his first taste of indoor football postseason action, though this
ended in the first round with a 31-25 loss to the Wichita Wild.
With a
couple seasons of experience now under his belt, Harrold would return to the
IFL in 2014. However, this would not be with Omaha, as he instead moved to the neighboring
state of South Dakota to play for the Sioux Falls Storm. By 2014, the Storm had
established themselves as the most successful franchise in the IFL’s existence,
winning the United Bowl (now IFL National Championship game) three years
straight following the back-to-back championships won by the Billings Outlaws
in the league’s first two seasons in 2009 and 2010. Paired with future Hall of
Famer James Terry at wide receiver, Harrold had his breakout season as the
Storm continued their run of dominance. Harrold amassed 14 touchdown catches
and 591 receiving yards, which helped enable quarterback Chris Dixon to earn
Offensive Player of the Year Honors.
Of course,
Sioux Falls easily captured the best record in the league at 13-1, making the
playoffs and facing the conference rival Cedar Rapids Titans in the first
round. Harrold was a top receiving target in the red zone, catching two
touchdowns with 38 receiving yards as the Storm steamrolled the Titans 73-36.
The Storm would face the Nebraska Danger in the United Bowl on June 28th,
having home field advantage in what would be the team’s final game at Sioux
Falls Arena before moving into the Denny Sanford Premier Center. Harrold
struggled in his first title matchup, managing just one catch for six yards.
However, Dixon still threw for six touchdowns (five of which to Terry) and 157
yards as the Storm outlasted the Danger 63-46. Despite the game not being one
of his best, Harrold still claimed his first career United Bowl ring.
With the
Storm determined to repeat as champions in 2015, Harrold contributed 818
receiving yards while hauling in 22 touchdown passes, earning offensive player
of the week honors during the May 8th game against the Green Bay
Blizzard in which he scored four touchdowns with 112 receiving yards. As a
result of the fantastic season, Harrold was named as a first-team All-IFL member
at wide receiver, joining Steven Whitehead of the Tri-Cities Fever and Kyle
Kaiser of the Colorado Ice. As for the Storm themselves, they followed up their
United Bowl title with an undefeated regular season, winning all 14 games
played. This was not the only time in IFL history this had been done as the
Storm also accomplished this feat in 2012, where they would go on to complete
the perfect season with a United Bowl win.
Looking to
match their unblemished campaign from three years prior, the Storm again took
on the Titans in the first round. Just like a year before, the Titans stood no
chance against Sioux Falls, with the Storm winning 34-12 to reach their fifth
straight United Bowl. Harrold led the team in receiving yards with 36 on four
catches, while the defense did the rest by holding Cedar Rapids to less than
100 total yards of offense.
On July 11th,
the Storm capped off an incredible inaugural season for the Denny Sanford
Premier Center by hosting the Danger in the United Bowl for the second year in
a row. Unlike the previous season, though, this one would be even more
lopsided, with the Storm defeating Nebraska 62-27 in what was the largest
margin of victory in the United Bowl until 2024. Harrold made a pair of
receptions for one touchdown and 39 yards on the way to his second United Bowl
ring as a major contributor to the perfect season.
With all
the momentum in the world now on his side, you might think that Harrold would continue
posting impressive numbers in 2016, leading the way to another United Bowl
title for the Storm. While the Storm did indeed win their sixth consecutive
championship, it would be without Harrold at receiver as he had stepped away
from playing pro football entirely. Instead, he took a teaching job at Avon
High School near Cleveland, Ohio, while also serving as assistant coach for
football and track. During this time, the Avon Eagles had an undefeated regular
season of their own in 2016, putting on a masterclass in the process as they
only had one win decided by less than two possessions. However, this did not
result in playoff success as the Eagles fell to the Avon Lake Shoremen in the
opening round 27-26.
For much
of the 2017 IFL season, Harrold continued teaching and coaching at the high
school level. In the meantime, the Storm were still a force to be reckoned
with, finishing with a 14-2 record to take a run at their seventh consecutive
United Bowl trophy. Before the start of the playoffs, however, Storm head coach
Kurtiss Riggs talked with Harrold about the possibility of returning to the
team. With summer break now in effect, Harrold was back in Sioux Falls’ lineup
for the first round matchup on June 24th against the Iowa Barnstormers.
Despite
being out of the league for nearly two years, Harrold wasted no time integrating
himself back into the offense, making two touchdown grabs for 30 yards as the
Storm manhandled the Barnstormers in the 66-32 win. Less than a month after
wrapping up the school year as a teacher, Harrold had a shot at his third
United Bowl championship.
The Storm
remained at home on July 8th to face the Arizona Rattlers for the title. While
this was the first IFL season for the Rattlers franchise, they were already an
established name in arena football as a whole, playing in the Arena Football
League for 24 seasons and winning five ArenaBowl titles before making the jump
to the IFL. At first, Sioux Falls seemed overwhelmed by the new challenger,
falling behind 34-7 at halftime. However, the Storm found their footing in the
second half, thanks in part to two Harrold touchdown grabs for 22 yards. In the
end, though, the valiant comeback effort was not quite enough as the Rattlers
held on to win 50-41 to snap Sioux Falls’ consecutive championships streak at
six.
Perhaps reinvigorated,
Harrold opted to stay with the Storm for the 2018 campaign. This turned out to
be an excellent decision for both sides, as he once again played lights out
throughout the season. In just the second game of the season, Harrold had
possibly the best game of his career on multiple levels, scoring his second
career offensive player of the week award after putting up five touchdown
catches and 81 receiving yards against the Titans, while also proposing to his
future wife Molly at halftime. The Storm ended the regular season in a
three-way tie for best record at 11-3, as Harrold claimed 17 touchdown catches
and 681 receiving yards to earn another first-team All-IFL nod. However, the
tiebreaker system meant that the Storm would be on the road throughout the
playoffs.
June 23rd
saw the Storm travel to Phoenix to take on the Rattlers, in an offensive
showdown for a United Bowl spot. Both teams traded blows for the duration of
the first half, culminating in Arizona taking a 48-38 lead at halftime. Not to
be outdone, a pair of touchdown runs by quarterback Lorenzo Brown in the third
quarter briefly gave Sioux Falls the lead, but the Rattlers jumped back out in
front right before the end of the frame at 55-52. Nobody would get the edge in
the fourth quarter as the teams were even at 62-62 to bring up the first
overtime playoff game in IFL history. The Rattlers got on the board first with
a touchdown pass, but Sioux Falls forced a crucial blocked extra point. Wide
receiver Damien Ford caught the tying touchdown for the Storm, with the game-winning
extra point going through for the 69-68 overtime victory. Harrold was held to
just one catch for four yards on the evening, but would have an opportunity to
bounce back in two weeks.
For the
second year in a row, the Storm would face a former AFL team in the United
Bowl, as they headed to Des Moines to challenge the Barnstormers on July 7th.
The first half started out similarly to the game against the Rattlers, with
both sides trading touchdowns back and forth, with Iowa hanging onto a slim
21-17 lead at the half. This trend continued well into the second half, with
Sioux Falls grabbing the lead late. However, with just 13 seconds left on the
clock, Barnstormers running back Jamal Tyler ran in from eight yards out for
what would be the deciding touchdown. The Barnstormers claimed their first
United Bowl championship 42-38, as Harrold made two catches for 35 yards.
The tricky
thing about analyzing IFL careers (aside from spotty statkeeping) is that the
careers tend to be relatively short due to the lack of long-term contracts seen
in many other pro sports leagues, and unfortunately Harrold’s is no exception. He
has not played in the IFL or pro football in general since the 2018 United Bowl,
effectively finishing his career with a total of 57 receiving touchdowns and 2,304
receiving yards to go along with two United Bowl championships.
While he definitely
had an outstanding career, the question remains as to whether it was a Hall of
Fame career. Of course, the title tells you the answer to my opinion on that
question, but I feel like the best way to explain in this case is to look at
the other wide receivers who have previously been inducted. Four receivers have
gone into the IFL Hall of Fame as of this writing, those being the
aforementioned James Terry along with Bryan Pray, Carl Sims and Clinton
Solomon. While it must be acknowledged that all four were able to produce
significantly higher stat totals as Harrold’s career was relatively short by
comparison, when viewing the numbers by average, he actually fits in quite
nicely with this group as his 14.25 touchdowns and 576 yards per year closely
matches Sims’ 14-touchdown and 635-yard yearly average, while also not being
far off from the 14.75-touchdown and 702-yard average set by Pray.
Now it’s
time to go over the accolades. Thankfully, this is much more straightforward as
the IFL’s website has a list of each weekly and year-end award winner since
their inaugural season in 2009. Harrold won offensive player of the week and first-team
All-IFL two times each, again mirroring Sims who also had two first-team
All-IFL honors to go along with one OPotW award and one special teams player of
the week award. In addition, Solomon is the only other player in this group of
five to win first-team All-IFL more than once, as well as the only one besides
Harrold to earn multiple OPotW nods.
Finally, I’ll
cover the team championships aspect. Personally, I weigh these heavily when
deciding who I would hypothetically vote for on an HoF ballot because the
ultimate goal of winning a championship should be more important than any
individual accolades, and obviously Harrold’s career does not disappoint in
this regard with a pair of United Bowl wins and four United Bowl appearances in
total. Unsurprisingly, most of the four receivers in the Hall have multiple
United Bowl rings, as Terry won it five times and Sims three times. However, Solomon
also finished his career with two championships, while Pray did not win the
United Bowl during his career, giving Harrold another advantage in his Hall of
Fame candidacy with the perfect season in 2015 also not to be overlooked. With
all these factors in mind, I believe that Judd Harrold belongs in the IFL Hall
of Fame.
List of
sources:
https://lastwordonsports.com/2018/05/15/judd-harrold/
https://athletics.mountunion.edu/sports/football/roster/judd-harrold/707
https://goifl.com/sports/2020/11/22/annual-award-winners.aspx
https://www.joeeitel.com/hsfoot/teams.jsp?teamID=150&year=2016
Various
statistics pages from Omaha Beef & Sioux Falls Storm websites
Sadly, the
Sioux Falls Storm announced that they would be on hiatus for the 2025 season,
but hopefully this is just a bump in the road and they can return in 2026.
Also, finding stats for this article was a bit of a nightmare so apologies in
advance for any errors.
No comments:
Post a Comment