A Pro Football Hall of Famer, College Greats and More Part of 2026 OHSAA Circle of Champions

Five former Ohio high school sports standouts will be honored as part of OHSAA’s Circle of Champions recognition program this weekend.

The honorees will include Pro Football Hall of Famer Orlando Pace (Sandusky), former football stars Paris Johnson Jr. (Cincinnati) and Brady Quinn (Dublin), former Ohio State basketball All-American Frani Washington (Toledo) and current collegiate football official and former basketball official Dr. Dennis Morris (Elida).

The 2026 Circle of Champions will be recognized at the OHSAA Division VII state final on Saturday. A list of other OHSAA award presentations this weekend can be found here.

Orlando Pace, Sandusky

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Pace was a basketball and football standout for the Blue Streaks before he had an accomplished football career as an offensive tackle at Ohio State. Pace was a two-time unanimous All-American, a two-time winner of the Lombardi Award, won the Outland Trophy and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Pace was named the 1996 Big Ten Player of the Year. The top pick in the 1997 NFL Draft, Pace played 13 years in the NFL with the St. Louis Rams and the Chicago Bears. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl and five-time all-Pro selection and helped the Rams win Super Bowl XXXIV during the 1999 season. Pace was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

Paris Johnson Jr., Princeton

Johnson, a Cincinnati native and a 2019 Princeton High School graduate, was a two-time All-Ohio offensive tackle first team honoree. He attended Ohio State, where he started as a freshman in the College Football Playoff championship game against Alabama in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

Johnson started every game as a sophomore and junior, was named All-Big Ten and was a unanimous All-American as a left tackle at the end of his third season. He was selected sixth by Arizona in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. In the last two seasons, Johnson has started 43 games at left tackle for the Cardinals.

Brady Quinn, Dublin Coffman

Quinn threw for more than 4,300 yards and 46 touchdowns his last two years at quarterback for the Shamrocks. He also helped Dublin Coffman win the 2001 state baseball title.

Quinn was a four-year star QB at Notre Dame. He was an All-American as a junior and senior, and won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and the Maxwell Award in his career. He also finished in the top four in Heisman Trophy voting twice.

A first-round draft pick by the Cleveland Browns in the 2007 NFL Draft, he spent parts of seven seasons in the NFL with six different teams. Since 2019, Quinn has served as a college football analyst for Big Noon Kickoff on Fox, and he does additional work analyzing or discussing both college football and the NFL for Fox and other networks.

Frani Washington, Toledo Woodward

Washington was a pioneer in girls sports in the 1970s. A three-sport star at Toledo Woodward High School, she was first team All-Ohio in basketball as a senior and was named the Toledo City League Player of the Year.

As a junior, Washington competed in the first OHSAA girls state track and field tournament and was on state championship and state runner-up relay teams. She also led the Polar Bears to their first-ever OHSAA big-school girls state basketball championship in 1976.

Washington went on to play basketball at Ohio State. She helped the Buckeyes win the Big Ten championship in 1978 and became the school’s first All-American in women’s basketball a year later.

Dr. Dennis “Denny” Morris, Elida

Morris is a distinguished football and basketball official. In basketball, he has served as an OHSAA basketball rules interpreter since 2005 and has been the association’s director of officiating development for basketball since 2010. During his career, he has officiated the OHSAA state boys basketball finals three times.

In football, Morris officiated at the high school level for more than four decades, moved to the Mid-American Conference in 1997 and has been a back judge in the Big Ten Conference since 2002. He has also officiated 24 postseason bowl games.

A graduate from Elida High School, Bowling Green State and the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine, Morris retired three years ago as the chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs for the Lima Memorial Health System.

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