Rimington Trophy Will Honor Centers

NEW YORK - College football has a new national award. The Dave Rimington Trophy, named after Nebraska's two-time consensus All-America center, will be given to the Most Outstanding Center in college football. Rimington, the only player to earn two John Outland trophies, is widely considered to have been one of the best centers in the history of college football. The Trophy is sponsored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which that former NFL quarterback created in 1993 to support research and treatment of cystic fibrosis- a deadly genetic disease afflicting his son, Gunnar.

"A trophy honoring outstanding NCAA Division 1-A centers is long overdue," according to Esiason, "because only three of them have received a national award since the first one, the John Heisman Trophy, was presented by New York City's Downtown Athletic Club in 1935."

Those centers, all of whom are in the College Football Hall of Fame, are Rimington (Outland Trophy, 1981 and '82; Vince Lombardi Trophy, 1982), Jim Ritcher of North Carolina State (Outland Trophy, 1979), and Chuck Bednarik of Pennsylvania (Bob Maxwell Trophy, 1948).

Penn State's Glenn Ressler was also a national award winner, having received the Maxwell Award in 1964 after playing center for the Nittny Lions. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

Rimington, a two-time academic all-American, and Esiason, a record setting passer at Maryland, were teammates while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL from 1984-1987. Proceeds from the Rimington Trophy Presentation banquet will benefit cystic fibrosis research.