75 years of honoring America's best

Coach and Athletic Director, Oct, 2006 by Bruce Weber

Recognition of great performances goes hand in hand with education. From its earliest issues, Scholastic Coach made honoring great coaches, great players, and great teams part of its game plan.

Back in the early '30s, Scholastic joined with the National Rifle Association to promote the sport, a widely popular activity at the time. Next came baseball, softball (sponsored by Pepsi), and tennis. Outstanding teams were identified every spring, with certificates of recognition going to players in those sports. They even included women's teams, 40 years or so before Title IX made it the thing to do.

The first Scholastic Coach All-American team arrived in September 1951, just as the magazine was celebrating its 20th anniversary. The initial A-A team honored the nation's top high school track-and-field stars, led by future Olympic superstar hurdler Milt Campbell of Plainfield (NJ) and sprinter Ira Murchison of Chicago Phillips. Not unexpectedly, the strength events provided future football greats, like New York Giants' tackle Rosey Grier of Roselle (NJ), shot-putter and javelin-thrower extraordinaire.

That effort was so successful that football joined the ranks following the '51 season. Joe Krupa of Chicago Weber, later a Pro Bowl tackle with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the team heavyweight at a mere 240 pounds, eight pounds more than his NFL playing weight. But the leading lights of that first All-American team were a pair of quarterbacks, Bart Starr of Montgomery (AL) Lanier and Earl Morrall of Muskegon (MI).

It took five more years for the next addition, boys basketball. Oscar Robertson of Indianapolis Crispus Attucks was the clear-cut leader of the initial 1956 team. But who could argue with the rest of the lineup, which included Jerry West of East Bank (WV), Doug Moe of Brooklyn (NY) Erasmus Hall, and Jerry Lucas of Middletown (OH).

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In response to Title IX, both girls basketball and girls track joined the parade in the 70s, with the same stellar results. Adidas came on board as the sponsor of the All-American team program. And by the early '80s, wrestling was briefly added to the list.

In 1980, the U. S. Army worked with Scholastic Coach to create the first mass-market national athletic awards program, the Army Scholar-Athlete program, honoring one male and one female varsity athlete at each high school in America. To qualify, the athlete only needed to be a varsity letter-winner. From among that group, each school then selected its top male and female student-athlete. Within a few years, the program was recognizing close to 17,500 youngsters annually. In the mid-1980s, cosmetics maker Bonne Bell threw its support behind women's distance running, honoring the top10% of female cross-country runners and then selecting an All-American girls cross-country team.

Over the years, other sponsored awards programs have included the Army Reserve MVSP (Most Valuable Senior Player) in boys and girls soccer, the Franklin Life Insurance Coaching Awards (which rostered more than 11,000 winners in its three-year run), the Norelco Tripleheader Scholarship Program (distributing $15,000 in scholarships annually to scholar-athletes), the K-Swiss Scholarships, Schutt Sports' All-American HS Football Team, the Reebok Junior All-Stars (football) and the AFLAC Assistant Coach of the Year program, recognizing outstanding assistant coaches on both the high school and college levels.

But the superstar of Scholastic Coach & AD awards for the last 21 years has been the Gatorade High School Player of the Year program. What began as an idea for a high school football award in March 1985 instantly expanded to include boys soccer, boys and girls basketball, baseball, and boys and girls track & field. Its success subsequently led to the addition of girls volleyball (1995), girls soccer (1997), and fast-pitch softball (1998).

Why has the Gatorade Player of the Year become the most highly-sought high school award? Because it doesn't merely honor young people for their on-field accomplishments. The program's mission, then as now, was to salute great athletes whose character and academic credentials were as impressive as their athletic performance. Those high standards apply to both the State Players of the Year in each sport as well as the National Player of the Year.

Football's Jeff George of Indianapolis (IN) Warren Central won the first Gatorade National Player of the Year award in December 1985. Future North Carolina All-American J. R. Reid of Virginia Beach (VA) Kempsville was named as the first boys basketball winner a couple of months later. Tampa (FL) Hillsborough's Gary Sheffield captured the initial baseball award in June 1986.

The alumni list of state and national winners is a virtual who's who of American sports for the last two decades. Here are some of the highlights of the accomplishments of the national winners since 1985:

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Football: Emmitt Smith of Pensacola (FL) Escambia, the NFL's all-time leading rusher, was the second football winner in 1986. He's a sure-fire future Hall of Famer, as is the 1993 winner, Peyton Manning of New Orleans (LA) Isidore Newman.