![\"KSOO-AM](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/attachment-512-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nYou don’t often see DII, DIII or NAIA players make it to the NFL, much less stay for a decade.<\/p>\n
CJ Ham was an undrafted free agent signee after a rookie minicamp tryout with the Vikings all the way back in 2016 and officially announced his retirement from the game on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the time, Ham was just the 5th ever Augustana Viking alum to sign with an NFL squad.<\/p>\n
Ham didn’t record any stats during his 2016 campaign in Minnesota but was a key part of the roster the rest of the way, starting 42 games and appearing in 141 over his 10-year career.<\/p>\n
Support came pouring in on social media following Tuesday’s news:<\/p>\n
Here’s a video tribute of Ham’s career:<\/p>\n
Ham was a star here in Sioux Falls at Augustana<\/a> from 2010-2015, and departed the program with numerous accolades:<\/p>\n 2015 (Senior):\u00a0Named All-NSIC South Division Second Team … earned Academic All-NSIC honors … named NSIC Glen Galligan Award recipient …\u00a0started all 12 games at running back … rushed for a career-high 1,097 yards and 16 touchdowns … tied the single season record for rushing touchdowns (16) … led the NSIC in rushing touchdowns and yards … became just the fourth running back at Augustana to rush for 1,000-plus yards in a single season … rushed for 100-plus yards in three games in 2015 … rushed for 50-plus yards in 11 of 12 games … had 15 or more carries in all 12 games, including 20-plus carries in six games … had seven multi-touchdown games … rushed for 62 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries in season-opener at Bemidji State … matched career-high with three rushing touchdowns at MSU Moorhead on Sept. 19 … rushed for 138 yards on 25 carries at MSU Moorhead …\u00a0rushed for 81 yards and a score and hauled in five passes for 65 yards and a touchdown against Minot State on Sept. 26 … rushed for a career-high 160 yards and a touchdown against SMSU on Oct. 3 … ran for 91 yards and a score and hauled in three passes for 68 yards and a touchdown against Wayne State on Oct. 17 … recorded a career-high 30 carries while picking up 96 yards and three touchdowns at Winona State on Nov. 7 … rushed for 54 yards and a score while catching three passes for 24 yards and a touchdown in the NCAA Playoffs at Humboldt State on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Ham ran for 2,662 and 29 scores during his time at Augustana. In the NFL, Ham finishes his career with 119 rushing yards, 681 receiving yards, and 8 total touchdowns.<\/p>\n Off of the field, Ham has been constantly involved in charitable efforts, and has hosted youth football camps in both Duluth and Sioux Falls for multiple years.<\/p>\n Congrats to CJ Ham on a tremendous career!<\/p>\n Sources:\u00a0GoAugie.com – CJ Ham<\/a>,\u00a0JasonHarmonNFL on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0VikingzFanPageX<\/a><\/p>\n The Last Ten Winners of the Summit League Women’s Basketball Tournament<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Bert Remien<\/p>\n The Top 10 Medal Winning Countries in Winter Olympics History<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Bert Remien<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You don’t often see DII, DIII or NAIA players make it to the NFL, much less stay for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2073],"tags":[1104,7,233,259,2529,4438,6,1666,9,266,234],"class_list":["post-728291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-articles","tag-football","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-newsletter","tag-nfl","tag-overtime","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116011264520913777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}