Former Penn State football linebacker Jack Ham was recognized in the present for his outstanding play in the past as the Football Writers’ Association of American (FWAA) named the Hall of Famer to its 75th Anniversary All-America Third Team.
The team celebrates the FWAA’s All-America teams from near the end of World War II through the 2014 season. The FWAA, which was founded in 1941, has picked an annual All-America team since the 1944 season, making it the second-longest continuously selected team in major college football.
A nomination ballot with selected players from all FWAA All-America teams was sent to the entire membership this spring. In order for a player to be considered for the FWAA’s 75th team, he had to be on a previous FWAA All-America team.
As a senior co-captain, Ham earned All-America honors in 1970 after making 91 tackles and intercepting four passes. He still shares a pair of defensive records for blocked punts: four in his career, three in his final season. Ham had 251 career tackles (143 solo).
The Johnstown, Pennsylvania, native became the 10th Nittany Lion to be enshrined in the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 1990. Ham is the only Penn State product in both the college and professional football halls of fame.
All eight decades in which the FWAA teams have been selected are represented on the 75-man team, starting in the 1940s with SMU’s Doak Walker all the way through Alabama’s two-time All-America Barrett Jones, the 2011 Outland winner. In all, there are 56 members of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame and 41 schools are represented on the three 25-man teams.
