2-Time Tiffany Gooden Award Winner Drafted by Buffalo Bills in 2008 NFL Draft

James Hardy, a 6'6" 220-pound wide receiver out of Indiana University, was selected by the Buffalo Bills as the 41st overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft on Saturday, April 26th.  Hardy, as a former stand out two-sport athlete at Fort Wayne Elmhurst High School, won the Tiffany Gooden Award in 2003 and 2004.  The Tiffany Gooden Award is presented annually to the most outstanding male or female basketball player in the Summit Athletic Conference as selected by The Journal Gazette sports editers and writers.  Gooden was the first recipient of this award in 1994 when The Journal Gazette created it in her honor after she was named Parade Magazine and Naismith National Player of the Year and Indiana Miss Basketball in that same year.

Hardy was a coveted basketball and football prospect out of high school.  After red-shirting during the 2004 football season and playing basketball on the 2004-05 Hoosier basketball team, Hardy decided to focus his athletic career strictly on football.  During his three seasons on the gridiron at IU, Hardy caught 191 passes for 2,740 yards and 36 touchdowns, making him the only wide receiver in IU history to surpass 2,500 yards, 175 receptions and 35 touchdowns.