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The Paul Hornung Award is annually given by the Louisville Sports Commission to the most versatile player in major college football in memory of Kentucky native Paul Hornung, a versatile player at Notre Dame and then in the NFL.
This year’s winner is Colorado sophomore cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter. He was a consensus All-American and should have been at the athlete position since he played offense, defense and special teams — and averaged a mind-boggling 119.2 snaps per game. He played cornerback mostly on defense but also played linebacker and safety and had a team0high three interceptions, 31 tackles and five pass deflections.
On offense he was used at receiver, tight end and fullback and had 57 catches for 721 yards and five scores despite missing three games when he was injured.
With that versatility, it’s only fitting that the featured speaker at the awards ceremony on March 8 a the Galt House in Louisville will be TV personality Laura Rutledge. She’s well known to sports fans for being on ESPN’s year-round weekday NFL Live and is also the host for SEC Network’s SEC Nation.
She joined ESPN in 2014 as a reporter and became host of NFL Live in 2020 while also hosting SEC Nation. She is also a NFL sideline reporter and is heavily involved in coverage of the Pro Bowl Games and the NFL draft.
She was a regular contributor to Get UP, a morning show on ESPN, and has been a SportsCenter anchor. She has also covered college basketball, gymnastics, baseball and softball.
I first met Rutledge when she was working for Rivals.com after graduation from the University of Florida where she won the 2011 Red Barber Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. She became a fixture at SEC Media Days.
For anyone interested, limited tickets remain to the awards ceremony. Corporate tables of eight are $2,000; single tickets are $150 each.
For more information regarding tickets, contact Julie Howell at 502-587-6742 or jhowell@louisvillesports.org.
2 Responses
This is an outstanding event and have been to several when Paul was with us.
Howard Schnellenberger would give out an award there in his name also. It will interesting to see if Travis Hunter’s coach attend’s. That would be Coach Prime !
I bet Prime Time just might make it Ripper