Jack Tomlinson grew up playing soccer and baseball, and with a father who had played basketball.

“I knew my grandpa played football, but no one said much about it,” the Bluffton University junior recalls.

But during a visit to his grandparents’ house when he was 9 years old, Tomlinson saw tapes of his grandfather, Elbert Dubenion, playing pro football for the Buffalo Bills in the 1960s. Around the same time, he also saw highlights online from Dubenion’s career at Bluffton, where he remains the career rushing leader and is a charter member of the Athletics Hall of Fame.

“After I saw those highlights, I just wanted to be like him,” says Tomlinson, who, after three years at Ball State University, transferred to Bluffton this year for his final season of college football. “He was like a superhero.”

Playing the same position his grandfather played in the pros—wide receiver—Tomlinson leads the Beavers through nine games with 52 receptions for 779 yards. He also leads the team with 895 all-purpose yards, which include 14 rushing yards and 102 on kickoff returns as well.

His grandfather, concerned about Jack’s small size and potential for injury, thought soccer and baseball were the best sports for his grandson, Tomlinson says. He decided to play football as a seventh-grader, however, “and that’s when I fell in love with it.”

He was both a receiver and a defensive back in junior high and his first two years at Westerville (Ohio) South High School. He became a full-time receiver as a junior and, when he attended a football camp at Ball State the summer before his senior year, was offered a scholarship.

He had two successful seasons at the Division I, Mid-American Conference school, catching a combined 72 passes for 878 yards and eight touchdowns in 2010 and 2011. During the 2012 season, however, his role was reduced, then limited to returning punts, and Tomlinson decided to transfer, hoping to play receiver again elsewhere.

Talking to his family about his next move, their consensus choice was Bluffton, where his grandfather and grandmother, Marilyn (Earl), met and graduated in 1959, and his mother, Debra, had been a student as well.

His grandfather has always been supportive, Tomlinson says, encouraging him to take advantage of opportunities. Dubenion told his grandson that the opportunities he received at Bluffton were a blessing, and he was treated well, with friends and teammates who “had his back,” Tomlinson relates.

Sealing the deal was a campus visit last November, when he watched the Beavers beat Franklin, then ranked ninth in the nation in Division III. “I knew I wanted to come here after that, plus I wanted to keep it in the family,” he says.

“I came here knowing I needed to step up to the plate. I just knew I needed to represent him well,” he adds about his grandfather.

Tomlinson has done just that, according to Denny Dorrel, Bluffton’s first-year head coach.

“Since the first time I met Jack this past April, he has impressed me with his passion for greatness for both himself and his teammates,” Dorrel notes. “Jack is extremely driven, thirsty for knowledge, and is a great example for our players of how to carry themselves both on the field and in the meeting room. Even though he has only been here for one year, he has had a huge impact on our entire program.”

The same could be said, to say the least, of his grandfather, who averaged 9.4 yards per carry while amassing more than 4,700 rushing yards and 53 touchdowns over four Bluffton seasons in the late ‘50s. Dubenion—also a track and basketball standout—ran for 1,311 yards as a junior and 1,288 yards as a senior, when he was named first-team Little All-American.

Moving on to the fledgling American Football League, and to the receiver position, in 1960, he was Buffalo’s Most Valuable Player as a rookie and an AFL All-Star in 1964 and ’65—the Bills’ two league championship seasons. Ending his pro career with nearly 300 receptions for 5,300 yards, Dubenion is also a member of the AFL Hall of Fame and the Bills’ Wall of Fame.

But “to this day, he acts like it was all no big deal,” says Tomlinson, whose family lives near his grandparents in Westerville.

He says his grandfather—who was also a longtime scout for the Atlanta Falcons—has compared his ability, including speed and pass-catching skills, favorably to Dubenion’s own as a college player. “That’s the best compliment you can get, and it makes you want to work harder,” Tomlinson says.

“I want to continue with football as long as I can,” he adds, saying he will train for any opportunities that may arise—whether in the NFL, the Canadian Football League or overseas—while also working toward a degree in sport management. He has an academic concentration in sport communication, aimed toward a career as a sportscaster “talking about what I love.”

Meanwhile, he is growing more accustomed to hearing other people talk about his family connection at Bluffton. “I still get people coming up, saying ‘I didn’t know that was your grandpa,’” he says. “It doesn’t bother me at all.”