(James) Jamie Hosford excelled in multiple sports at Creston High and Grand Valley State, then coached and impacted youth as an administrator with a 25-year career in education with the Rockford Public Schools.
He won nine letters at Creston, proving perhaps most capable in football and wrestling, but he went on to Grand Valley State where he won an unprecedented 12 varsity letters in five sports, including football, wrestling, track, baseball and golf.
He was the first athlete at Grand Valley to win 12 letters and also the first to earn All-American honors in two sports (football and wrestling), and he remains the most decorated athlete in that athletic program’s storied history.
In football he was a hard-to-tackle compact fullback who set seven records including the then single-season rushing mark of 1,313 yards and then total career yards mark of 3,157. He rushed for more than 100 yards in 14 games during his career. Hosford also earned NCAA Division II and NAIA All-American honors and was the Male Athlete of the Year at Grand Valley in 1976-77.
In wrestling, he was a four-time All-American and won the 1976-77 NAIA national championship at 190 pounds while also finishing among the top four in the nation his other three years in college. He amassed a career record of 113-12.
After college he returned to Creston to teach while coaching football and wrestling from 1977 to 1983, and then worked for the Rockford schools where he eventually became the assistant superintendent of human resources. His twin sons Dan and Tom were also standout football players for Grand Valley.
He passed away in March of 2014 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 58. A Hosford Family Excellence in Academics and Athletics Endowed Scholarship assists Rockford graduates who have excelled in academics and athletics and are planning to attend Grand Valley. The Jamie Hosford Football Center, which opened in July of 2019 at Lubbers Stadium to house the football program, is named in his honor. He was named to the Grand Valley State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987, just 10 years after he graduated.