Don Hansen's Football Gazette
Covering...
NCAA 1-AA - 1-AA Mid-Major - Division II - Division III - NAIA - NCCAA

1 + 4 = 5 Rimington Honors

For College Football Offensive Centers

When it comes to honoring college football players, Nebraska's Dave Rimington, one of the game's great centers, is second to none.

In 2000, he created the Rimington Trophy for the outstanding NCAA Division 1-A center, as determined by a consensus of four major All-American teams, and in 2003, he launched the Rimington Award for the center of the National Weekly Football Gazette's Division 1-AA, II, III and NAIA All-American teams, which are compiled by its editor and publisher Don Hansen.

Rimington's accolades are sponsored by the New York City-based Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF), which that former high octane quarterback established in 1993 to raise funds --- over $50 million to date --- for treatment and research of cystic fibroses, a genetic disease his teenage son inherited 14 years ago. Rimington, the foundation's president, and Esiason were NFL teammates at Cincinnati from 1984 through '87.

Rimington began honoring NCAA centers shortly after a San Francisco sportswriter, Syd Russell, who was researching a series of articles about college football awards at the time, informed him and Esiason that there were none for centers - an omission the reporter encouraged the Esiason foundation to rectify by producing and promoting a prestigious trophy for Division 1-A players at that position.

Russell also suggested that the proposed trophy be named after Rimington, the most decorated center in college football history. In 1981 and '82, the 6-foot-3 285-pound snapper and blocker was a unanimous All-American and the only double winner of the Outland Trophy as the NCAA's best interior lineman. The husky Husker also received the 1982 Lombardi Trophy as the NCAA's best all-around lineman. Because a statement in this article's fourth paragraph said there were no awards for centers, it's to be noted that the Outland and Lombardi trophies are for linemen, not centers per se.

In addition to putting a national spotlight on athletes who deserve such recognition, the BEF's decision to sponsor the Rimington Trophy was based on the revenue the award's presentation banquets would generate --- over $848,000 since 2000 --- for the fight against cystic fibroses. Esiason's foundation, the most successful of its kind, promotes 21 annual sports-related charity events, including 10 golf tournaments, in seven states, Canada and Costa Rica.

During the past seven years 23 blue-chip NCAA and NAIA seniors plus one junior, South Dakota's Christian Morton, have been honored by Rimington in the following order.

College Football's Rimington Award