Marlon Walls to Participate in National Football Foundation’s 60th Annual Awards Dinner in New York City
12/4/2017 4:45:00 PM | Football
Senior safety Marlon Walls heads to New York City for the prestigious National Football Foundation Annual Awards Dinner and 28th William V. Campbell Trophy® presentation
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – For the first time in the history of Stephen F. Austin football, a Lumberjack student-athlete will be taking part in the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame's Annual Awards Dinner in New York City. Senior safety Marlon Walls, who was named one of 13 finalists for the coveted William V. Campbell Trophy® presented by Fidelity Investments® on Nov. 1, will be heading to the New York Hilton Midtown in downtown New York City for the 60th NFF Annual Awards Dinner and presentation of the 28th Campbell Trophy® held Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. CST.
The induction of the 2017 College Football Hall of Fame Class and presentation of several major awards will be held in conjunction with the 60th NFF Annual Awards Dinner, where Walls' accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. He will be anxiously awaiting to see if his name is called when the award announcement is made between 7:40 and 8 p.m. CST. The entirety of the awards dinner will be streamed live from 7:30-9:30 p.m. CST on ESPN3 available on the ESPN app.
A press conference featuring Walls and the other Campbell Trophy® finalists Tuesday morning will also be streamed live on ESPN3 available via the ESPN app. The press conference will get underway at 8 a.m. CST from the third-floor Trianon Ballroom at the New York Hilton Midtown with Campbell Trophy® finalists taking the podium at 10:15 a.m. CST, where Walls will have an opportunity to speak with the media.
ESPN broadcaster Joe Tessitore will emcee the 60th NFF Annual Awards Dinner, while ESPN broadcaster Holly Rowe will serve as the moderator for the morning's press conference.
The first Lumberjack to be named to the elite NFF Scholar-Athlete Class, Walls has a chance to become the first football player from the FCS ranks to win the Campbell Trophy®. Including Walls, there are just three finalists for the celebrated award from FCS institutions. With SFA already having a Walter Payton Award winner in quarterback Jeremy Moses (2010), the 'Jacks would become the first football program in the nation to have both a Walter Payton Award and Campbell Trophy® winner.
Owning an unblemished 4.0 grade point average, Walls is the lone scholar-athlete of the 13 finalists with a perfect GPA. In fact, of the 27 previous Campbell Trophy® winners, only six have held 4.0 GPA's.
Walls was chosen a finalist for the distinguished award out of an exceptional 181 semifinalists from among all NCAA divisions and the NAIA. The reigning Southland Conference Football Student-Athlete of the Year, Walls became just the ninth Southland student-athlete to earn the designation of NFF National Scholar-Athlete.
A native of Pearland, Texas (Pearland H.S.), Walls is a three-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District First Team selection. Majoring in engineering physics and minoring in mathematics, Walls became the first SFA football player to claim CoSIDA Academic All-American First Team honors in 2016. He will be graduating later this month after only three and a half years of study at SFA and completed an internship at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory this past summer. While there, he joined other students from institutions such as MIT, Stanford and Yale to assist with the Europa Propulsion Module, a NASA space probe joint project. Upon graduating, Walls plans to return to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to gain more work experience before pursuing a graduate degree in mechanical engineering next fall. Being a part of the 2017 NFF Scholar-Athlete Class, Walls will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship to help further his education.
The 28th Campbell Trophy® is named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, the former chairman of Intuit, a former player and head coach at Columbia University, and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal. The award comes with a 25-pound bronze trophy and a $7,000 increase in postgraduate funds for a total scholarship of $25,000. A total distribution of $241,000 in scholarships will be awarded, pushing the program's all-time distributions to more than $11.3 million.
The NFF National Scholar-Athlete program, launched in 1959, became the first initiative in history to award scholar-athletes postgraduate scholarships for their combined athletic, academic and leadership abilities. Including the 2017 recipients, the NFF has honored 841 individuals with National Scholar-Athlete Awards. The honorees have used the financial support to earn more than 150 medical degrees, 100 law degrees, 80 MBAs and 43 PhDs. Continuing their excellence on the field, more than 200 recipients have played in the NFL with an average career of six seasons or double the length of a typical NFL player. Past recipients also include 13 Rhodes Scholars.
Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The national scholar-athlete class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.
Previous Campbell Trophy® winners include some of the most well-respected names in college football, including Peyton Manning (Tennessee), Tim Tebow (Florida) and Danny Wuerffel (Florida). Zach Terrell, a senior quarterback at Western Michigan University, won the acclaimed award in 2016 with a 3.66 GPA as a finance major.
The finalists for the 28th Campbell Trophy® include Sam Benger (Carnegie Mellon [Pa.]), Braxton Berrios (Miami [Fla.]), Mason Hampton (Boise State), Justin Jackson (Northwestern), Micah Kiser (Virginia), Justin Lea (Jacksonville State), Brad Lundblade (Oklahoma State), Marcus Martin (Slippery Rock [Pa.]), Chandon Sullivan (Georgia State), Blaise Taylor (Arkansas State), Marlon Walls (Stephen F. Austin), Chris Weber (Nebraska), and Jake Wieneke (South Dakota State).
Members of this year's College Football Hall of Fame Class include notable names in the sport such as Bob Crable (Notre Dame), Marshall Faulk (San Diego State), Kirk Gibson (Michigan State), Matt Leinart (Southern California), Peyton Manning (Tennessee), Bob McKay (Texas), Dat Nguyen (Texas A&M), Adrian Peterson (Georgia Southern), Mike Ruth (Boston College), Brian Urlacher (New Mexico) and coaches Danny Ford (Clemson, Arkansas), Larry Kehres (Mount Union [Ohio]) and Steve Spurrier (Duke, Florida, South Carolina).
The recipients of the 2017 NFF Major Awards include UCLA Athletics Director Dan Guerrero (NFF John L. Toner Award for excellence in athletics administration) and the Voice of the UTEP Miners Jon Teicher (NFF Chris Schenkel Award for excellence in broadcasting).
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