The College Football Hall of Fame released its list of inductees for the class of 2025, and one of them is a Wisconsin legend, Montee Ball. He is one of the all-time greats at Wisconsin and one of the all-time greats at the running back position in all of college history, which is why he is making his way into the Hall of Fame. He responded to the honor with a heartfelt social media post today in reply to the Wisconsin X account.
This is such an honor. Thank you so much to all of the voters, the committee, Badger fans, my family, my teammates ❤️, UW football, Thomas Hammock, and all that helped me along the journey. Thank you thank you thank you
— Montee Ball (@MonteeBall28) January 15, 2025
Montee Ball is adding another Wisconsin name to the College Football Hall of Fame.
In his post, he shouted out and was grateful for a whole list of people, including Wisconsin Badgers fans. Ball joins 15 other Wisconsin players/coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame. Ball is the most recent addition from a former Badger since Troy Vincent in 2023.
Ball was a force as a running back and played four seasons for the Badgers, accumulating 5,140 total yards for Wisconsin with 77 rushing touchdowns and six receiving touchdowns. His best year came in 2011, his junior season, in which he rushed for 1,923 yards on only 307 attempts. That season, he also had 33 touchdowns. He came in fourth in the Heisman voting behind Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, and Trent Richardson.
He opted to come back and play one more season for the Badgers, and while it wasn't as impressive as his junior year, his senior year still propelled him to the NFL to be drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round. He rushed for 1,830 yards and had 22 rushing touchdowns. He still holds some records for both the NCAA, Big Ten, and the Wisconsin Badgers.
His 39 total touchdowns in 2011 is the one that gives him the most records as it's a single season most for NCAA (tied), Big Ten, and Wisconsin. He also has the NCAA records for most consecutive games with two or more touchdowns at 13 and most points scored by a non-kicker at 236. Both of those are single-season records. He was an amazing running back and deserving of the Hall of Fame honor.