Dot Ford, grandmother of Joe Burrow, elected to NFHS Hall of Fame

The former Smithville standout averaged nearly 50 points a game in the 1949-50 season

Everyone knows Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow comes from a family of athletes, but the Heisman Trophy winner's sports roots go deeper than his football-playing father.

The O.G. in the Burrow family was actually John's mother, Dorothy "Dot" Ford Burrow, who did a Wilt Chamberlain impression for the Smithville Seminoles from 1948 to 1950, averaging nearly 50 points a game.

She was announced as part of the 2024 class of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) National High School Hall of Fame Monday.

How good was the 5-foot-10 forward? The numbers speak for themselves: as a senior in the 49-50 season, she scored 1,481 points in 30 games, a 49.5 average. That total includes an 82-point performance in Smithville’s 88-39 late-season win over Caledonia. 

According to records, she scored 1.76 points per minute, and scored 50 or more points in 12 games.

After high school, Ford married Joe's grandfather James, who started at point guard for the Mississippi State basketball team in the early 1950's. Dot had two sons who were athletes — Joe's dad Jimmy, who started at safety for a national championship Nebraska team, and Joe's uncle Johnny, who started at safety at Ole Miss.

Dorothy "Dot" Ford and her husband John pose for a photo with a framed Sports Illustrated cover featuring their grandson, Heisman-winning LSU quarterback Joe Burrow / Photo courtesy Monroe Co. Daily Journal

In 2020, Smithville named the girls basketball locker room “Dot Burrow Locker Room.”

“(My grandmother) was an incredible athlete and a generational basketball player, and is arguably the best athlete in the family,” Burrow said in a release from the NFHS. “Knowing how great she was motivated me to be the best I could be in all sports. This drive for excellence has helped me achieve my lifelong dream of becoming a quarterback in the NFL.”

Joining Burrow in the 2024 Hall of Fame class are legendary Minnesota Twins (and Cretin-Derham Hall High School) catcher Joe Mauer, Washington County (Georgia) linebacker Takeo Spikes and Dearborn Heights Robichaud (Michigan) multi-sport athlete Tyrone Wheatley.

The four coaches in this year’s class include Dorman High School (South Carolina) volleyball coach Paula Kirkland, legendary Tennessee football coach Gary Rankin, Wilson High (Pennsylvania) swimming coach Roy Snyder and J.H. Rose High School (North Carolina) baseball coach Ronald Vincent.

The class also includes David Gore, an Oklahoma referee who called baseball and football games for 37 years, legendary Washington state high school administrator Mike Colbrese and Marie Ishida, the first woman to serve as head of the California Interscholastic Federation.