James J. Unger

In a nationwide poll of leading intercollegiate debaters, coaches, and speech professionals, Unger was named the Outstanding Debate Coach of the 1970s, his student Rollins was voted the Outstanding Debater of the 1970s and Unger was voted the Outstanding Debate Judge of the 1970s.

From 1968 until 1983, Unger was the debate coach at Georgetown University. During these years, annual coaches' polls ranked Unger's Georgetown teams first in the nation in five different years (1973: Bradley Ziff & Stewart Jay; 1975: Bradley Ziff & Thomas Rollins; 1977: John Walker & David Ottoson; 1978: Thomas Rollins & David Ottoson; 1980: James Kirkland & John Thompson), second once (1976: Thomas Rollins & John Walker), and third once (1973: Jeff Ruch & Tom Devine). These rankings are the same now used to determine the winner of the Copeland Award in college debate—Unger's teams won this distinction five of the first eight years it was offered. The National Debate tournament now awards the Unger Prize to the coach of the Copeland Award winner. Unger's Georgetown debaters also won numerous individual awards at every national tournament, including three NDT top speaker awards (Rollins (twice); John Q. Barrett) and three NDT second speaker awards (Walker; Rollins; Barrett). In 1977, Unger's team of David Ottoson and John Walker won the National Debate Tournament (NDT), the national championship of college-level policy debate.

He began coaching college debate teams, including the Boston College team, while he was a student at Harvard Law School, where he received his J.D. degree in 1967.

James Unger, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, was a champion debater at St. Ignatius High School, where he was coached by Rev. John Miday (a member of the National Forensics League Hall of Fame). He reached the quarterfinals at the NFL national tournament in policy debate. Unger attended Boston College, reaching the final round of the college National Debate Tournament and graduating valedictorian in 1964.

James John Unger (January 28, 1942 – April 3, 2008) was the premier coach, teacher and theorist of intercollegiate policy debate in the United States during the 1960s through the 1980s.