Jim Popp

Year Inducted: 2024

Jim Popp, a 1983 graduate of Mooresville High School, starred in four sports, football, basketball, baseball and golf, earning 11 letters. He earned all-conference in all four sports and as a high school senior won team MVP honors in football, basketball and baseball. He was inducted into the inaugural Mooresville High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Popp earned athletic scholarships in football and baseball to attend Michigan State but an injury curtailed his playing career but not his ability for continued success in the field of athletics. He coached at the college level at Michigan State, The Citadel, North Carolina, Alabama State and UNC-Charlotte. He also coached a year in NFL Europe for the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks.

Tremendous success for Popp came as a general manager for 21 seasons in the Canadian Football League, directing three different franchises to five Grey Cup (the CFL’s Super Bowl) titles in 11 appearances. Popp is the winningest general manager in CFL history with five Grey Cup titles. The first was with Baltimore, the only American-based franchise to ever win the Grey Cup, in 1995. He won three with Montreal in 2002 and back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010. The fifth Grey Cup came with Toronto in 2017. Toronto’s first-place finish in the CFL East that year marked the 12th time his team topped a CFL division. Popp’s teams reached the divisional championship game 18 times. He ranks second all-time in CFL history with 263 regular-season wins as general manager. Popp also served as Montreal’s head coach, leading them to the 2006 Grey Cup.

Popp recently served as vice president of the USFL. The USFL recently merged with the XFL to create the UFL. Popp is vice president of player development for the new league.