Lombardi Award

Not to be confused with the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is given to the winner of the Super Bowl, the National Football League’s championship game.

The Rotary Lombardi Award is an award for college football in the United States. Awarded by the Rotary Club of Houston, Texas annually to the college football player "who best embodies the values and spirit of NFL's legendary coach Vince Lombardi" the Rotary Lombardi Award program was created in 1970 shortly after the death of Lombardi. The committee outlined the original criteria for eligibility for the award, which remained in place until this day:

Rotary Lombardi Award

Awarded for	The best college football lineman of the year
Location	Houston, Texas
Country	United States
Presented by	Rotary Club of Houston
History
First award	1970
Most recent	Kelvin Banks Jr., Texas (2024)
Website	http://www.rotarylombardiaward.org

History

Following the death of highly regarded football coach Vince Lombardi in 1970 his widow, Marie, authorised the Rotary Club of Houston to establish the Rotary Lombardi Award. The award began as recognition to only interior line positions that Vince Lombardi played while an undergraduate at Fordham University, offensive and defensive guard, and later expanded to include linebackers and tight ends, with the addition of including non-performance values: leadership, courage, desire, respect for authority, and discipline.

To be considered for the award, players must be an NCAA FBS College Football team member and meet the following qualifications:

• Be a down Lineman, end to end, either on offense or defense, setting up no further than ten (10) yards to the left or right of the ball at the time of the snap.
• Be a Linebacker on defense, setting up no further than five (5) yards deep from the line of scrimmage.
• Must not come out of the offensive backfield and set up on the line of scrimmage as a Blocker or a Receiver or listed in the program as an Offensive Back or Receiver.
• Be eligible to participate in the current season.

The voting electorate is made up of the head coaches from all NCAA Division I schools, sports media personnel from across the country, and former winners and finalists of the Lombardi Award. The total number of voters is approximately 500. The Ohio State University holds the record for most Lombardi awards with six. Orlando Pace, the only two-time winner (1995 and 1996), is the most recent offensive lineman to be honored.

Net proceeds from the award activities are contributed to cancer research, awareness, and treatment, on the stipulation of Marie Lombardi.

Expansion of candidates, then retraction

In 2017, the presenting Rotary Club expanded the award's eligibility to include all positions. This lasted until 2021, when they reverted to the original criteria. The winners from 2017 through 2020 are not recognized by the current award committee, although 2020 winner Zaven Collins qualified under the original criteria.

Unrecognized recipients

Year	Player	School	Position
2017	Bryce Love	Stanford	RB
2018	Ugo Amadi	Oregon	S
2019	Joe Burrow	LSU	QB
2020	Zaven Collins	Tulsa	LB

Trophy

The main part of the trophy is a block of granite, paying homage to Lombardi's college days at Fordham University as an offensive lineman when his offensive line was referred to as the "Seven Blocks of Granite".

Winners

Year	Player	School	Position
1970	Jim Stillwagon	Ohio State	MG
1971	Walt Patulski	Notre Dame	DT
1972	Rich Glover	Nebraska	MG
1973	John Hicks	Ohio State (2)	OT
1974	Randy White	Maryland	DT
1975	Lee Roy Selmon	Oklahoma	DE
1976	Wilson Whitley	Houston	DE
1977	Ross Browner	Notre Dame (2)	DE
1978	Bruce Clark	Penn State	DT
1979	Brad Budde	USC	OG
1980	Hugh Green	Pittsburgh	DE
1981	Kenneth Sims	Texas	DT
1982	Dave Rimington	Nebraska (2)	C
1983	Dean Steinkuhler	Nebraska (3)	OT
1984	Tony Degrate	Texas (2)	DT
1985	Tony Casillas	Oklahoma (2)	DT
1986	Cornelius Bennett	Alabama	LB
1987	Chris Spielman	Ohio State (3)	LB
1988	Tracy Rocker	Auburn	DT
1989	Percy Snow	Michigan State	LB
1990	Chris Zorich	Notre Dame (3)	DT
1991	Steve Emtman	Washington	DT
1992	Marvin Jones	Florida State	LB
1993	Aaron Taylor	Notre Dame (4)	OT
1994	Warren Sapp	Miami (FL)	DT
1995	Orlando Pace	Ohio State (4)	OT
1996	Orlando Pace (2)	Ohio State (5)	OT
1997	Grant Wistrom	Nebraska (4)	DE
1998	Dat Nguyen	Texas A&M	LB
1999	Corey Moore	Virginia Tech	DE
2000	Jamal Reynolds	Florida State (2)	DT
2001	Julius Peppers	North Carolina	DE
2002	Terrell Suggs	Arizona State	DE
2003	Tommie Harris	Oklahoma (3)	DT
2004	David Pollack	Georgia	DE
2005	A. J. Hawk	Ohio State (6)	LB
2006	LaMarr Woodley	Michigan	LB
2007	Glenn Dorsey	LSU	DT
2008	Brian Orakpo	Texas (3)	DE
2009	Ndamukong Suh	Nebraska (5)	DT
2010	Nick Fairley	Auburn (2)	DT
2011	Luke Kuechly	Boston College	LB
2012	Manti Te'o	Notre Dame (5)	LB
2013	Aaron Donald	Pittsburgh (2)	DT
2014	Scooby Wright III	Arizona	LB
2015	Carl Nassib	Penn State (2)	DE
2016	Jonathan Allen	Alabama (2)	DE
2017	Bryce Love	Stanford	RB
2018	Ugo Amadi	Oregon	S
2019	Joe Burrow	LSU (2)	QB
2020	Zaven Collins	Tulsa	LB
2021	Aidan Hutchinson	Michigan (2)	DE
2022	Will Anderson Jr.	Alabama (3)	LB
2023	Laiatu Latu	UCLA	DE
2024	Kelvin Banks Jr.	Texas	OT

See also

• Outland Trophy, awarded annually to the best interior lineman in college football
• Rimington Trophy, awarded annually to the best center in college football
• Ted Hendricks Award, awarded annually to the best defensive end in college football
• UPI College Football Lineman of the Year

External links

• Official website