The Southern Indiana based restaurant, Texas Roadhouse has thrown their hat in the ring with another local legend, football icon, Paul Hornung.
The Paul Hornung award is now being sponsored by the Roadhouse, and honors the most versatile college athlete of the year, certainly a term that can be used to describe Hornung, who is a former college standout himself at Notre Dame. The former Packer actually won the Heisman even in the late ‘50’s, going on to be a number one draft pick.
And, the award is certainly a play off of legendary coach Vince Lombardi’s comment that Hornung was “the most versatile man ever to play the game.” And, when a man that saw so much versatility in talent in himself and others says that it’s worth something.
In Lombardi’s time with the Packers alone he saw men like Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Willie Davis just to name a few. Point is, the man knew versatility.
The award itself has local ties being judged by the Louisville Sports Commission (LSC). It began just last year with the honor going to Stanford’s Owen Marecic, who is currently in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns.
This year though, marks the first year that voting for the award will be open for the public, starting in late September anybody who goes to the award’s website will have the opportunity to sound off about their pick.
While there one can also take a look at some of the athletes that the LSC is keeping a close eye on as well. Where differing players will be honored weekly, and a “top fifty” of sorts will be analyzed.
The fan votes will be totaled as a 17th board vote, with the sixteen members of the selection committee counting as the previous votes. A banquet will be held in the winner’s honor in late January to early February.
Image courtesy of Paul Hornung Award on Facebook
