Kyle Larkin Named Candidate for 2011 NFF Scholar-Athlete Award

St. Louis, Mo., September 29, 2011 — Washington University in St. Louis senior linebacker Kyle Larkin has been named a candidate for the 2011 National Football Foundation (NFF) National Scholar-Athlete Award, presented by Fidelity Investments. Larkin is one of 127 semifinalists who hail from all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, including 30 from Division III.

The 127 nominees also comprise the list of semifinalists for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation.

Larkin has been active in the Washington University community throughout his career on the Danforth Campus. Through his involvement as the president of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, he oversaw the recruitment of 46 new members and established a relationship with a faculty member to become the chapter’s Scholarship Advisor and created an incentive-based system to increase academic success of the members. He has been involved with Habitat for Humanity, Campus Y Field Day, and the Boy Scouts to help raise money for local charities.

Outside his fraternity involvement, Larkin has been active as a marketing/event planning intern for the Preclarus Mastery Academy, a rising charter school in St. Louis city. He also has been involved in the Jason Foundation, serving as one of the pioneer members of the Washington University Jason Foundation Speaker Series.

Larkin, a 2011 Allstate American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team nominee, is a three-year letterwinner for the Bears. He earned first-team All-University Athletic Association (UAA) honors during the 2010 season, and is fourth this year in tackles (22) and second in tackles for loss (4.5). Larkin is also a three-time member of the UAA All-Academic Team.

2003 Washington University graduate Brandon Roberts was selected as the 2002 William V. Campbell Trophy Award winner, becoming the first and only non-Division I student-athlete to receive the award. 1998 graduate Brad Klein and 2004 graduate John Woock were selected as finalists in 1997 and 2003, respectively.

Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a grade point average 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 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.

The NFF Awards Committee will select up to 16 recipients, and the results will be announced via a national press release on Wednesday, Oct. 26. Each recipient will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and they will vie as finalists for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy.

Each member of the 2011 National Scholar-Athlete Class will also travel to New York City be honored Tuesday, Dec. 6, during the 54th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. Named in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit, 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 increases the amount of the recipient's grant by $7,000 for a total post-graduate scholarship of $25,000.

Launched in 1959, the NFF scholar-athlete program became the first initiative in history to award post-graduate scholarships based on both a player's academic and athletic accomplishments. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program's mystique, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and five first-round NFL draft picks. 



Past recipients of the Campbell Trophy include: Air Force's Chris Howard (1990); Florida's Brad Culpepper (1991); Colorado's Jim Hansen (1992); Virginia's Thomas Burns (1993); Nebraska's Rob Zatechka (1994); Ohio State's Bobby Hoying (1995); Florida's Danny Wuerffel (1996); Tennessee's Peyton Manning (1997); Georgia's Matt Stinchcomb (1998); Marshall's Chad Pennington (1999); Nebraska's Kyle Vanden Bosch (2000); Miami's (Fla.) Joaquin Gonzalez (2001); Washington University’s Brandon Roberts (2002); Ohio State's Craig Krenzel (2003); Tennessee's Michael Munoz (2004); LSU's Rudy Niswanger (2005); Rutgers' Brian Leonard (2006); Texas' Dallas Griffin (2007); Cal's Alex Mack (2008); Florida's Tim Tebow (2009); and Texas' Sam Acho (2010).