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.
James Unger, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, was a champion debater at St. Ignatius High School, where he was coached by Rev.
Unger's influence on the stylistic and academic structure of policy debate in the United States was even greater than is reflected by the competitive success of the teams he coached at Georgetown and American.
For many years, Unger was the director of, as well as an instructor at, the Georgetown University summer institute for high school debaters.
Through these institutes, on a cumulative basis, over ten thousand motivated and articulate high school students from throughout the nation were exposed directly to Unger's theories and practices.