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

Am Football / omaha beef

Why Judd Harrold Should Be in the IFL Hall of Fame

Why Judd Harrold Should Be in the IFL Hall of Fame

Why Judd Harrold Should Be in the IFL Hall of Fame