In 1920, Leech was selected third-team All-American by Walter Camp. On the All-Southern team's neglecting of Leech, one writer asks "Is Virginia in the South? If so, any judge that fails to put Jimmy Leach (sic), of V. M. I., on an All-Southern eleven is worse than crazy. Leach was a better football player than Flowers, of Georgia Tech, or McMillan, of Centre. He was easily the greatest back in the South, unsurpassed anywhere. He could kick, pass, crash through a line, or circle an end. In the nine game he played he scored 210 points, including twenty-six touchdowns. He carried the ball for 1,723 yards and hurled forward passes for 48 yards. He made seven runs from fifty to eighty-five yards, several against Pennsylvania. He is one of the greatest broken field runners the country has ever seen."[3]