The Walter Byers Scholar (also known as Walter Byers Scholarship, and Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship) program is a scholarship program that recognizes the top male and female
student-athlete in NCAA sports and that is awarded annually by the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
(NCAA). It is considered to be the NCAA's highest academic award. The NCAA initiated the Walter Byers Scholarship program in 1988 in recognition of the service of
Walter Byers
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Career
Byers was the first executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He served from ...
. The award is a postgraduate scholarship program designed to encourage excellence in academic performance by student-athletes. The recipients each year are the one male and one female student-athlete who has combined the best elements of mind and body to achieve national distinction for his or her achievements, and who promises to be a future leader in his or her chosen field of career service. Winners receive scholarships for postgraduate study.
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Details
, the stipend for each Byers Scholarship was $24,000 for an academic year. The scholarship amount is adjusted for the cost of living. The grant may be renewed for a second year based on academic progress. Financial need is not a factor in the granting of these scholarships. United States citizenship is not required to satisfy eligibility requirements. Awards from other sources will not disqualify an applicant, except that an awardee may not use more than one NCAA postgraduate scholarship.[
The five-person Walter Byers Scholarship Committee, established by the NCAA membership and appointed by the NCAA Divisions I, II and III Management Councils, administers the program. The committee membership is required to include at least one man and one woman, at least one member from each division and subdivision of Division I, and one member each from Division II and ]Division III
In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below.
Association football
*Belgian Thir ...
.
Among the most recognized for post-athletic career accomplishments are Randal Pinkett
Randal D. Pinkett (born 1971) is an American business consultant who in 2005 was the winner of The Apprentice (U.S. season 4), season four of the reality television show The Apprentice (US TV Series), ''The Apprentice''. Pinkett is the first Afric ...
and Rob Pelinka
Robert Todd Pelinka Jr. (born December 23, 1969) is an American basketball executive, lawyer, sports agent, and former college basketball player from Lake Bluff, Illinois (suburban Chicago). Pelinka is currently the vice president of basketball ...
. Of the winners the one most notable for having gone professional in his or her sport is National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
veteran Rob Zatechka, who later went on to medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...
.
Several winners have won other notable awards. The following are lists of dual winners of a selected set of notable awards:
*Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
- Henderson, Thigpen, Pinkett
* Top VIII Award - Black, Roethlisberger, Busbee, Carney
* NCAA Woman of the Year Award - Black, Bersagel
Winners
The historical winners are as follows:
See also
*Academic All-America
The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...
*List of Academic All-America Team Members of the Year
List of Academic All-America Team Members of the Year is a list of the annual selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America and its Academic All-America sponsor of the individual athlete selected as the most outstanding of the ...
*Elite 89 Award
The Elite 90 Award or more formally The Elite 90 Academic Recognition Award Program, originally the Elite 88 Award and later the Elite 89 Award, is an award by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recognizing the student athlete w ...
*NCAA Sportsmanship Award The NCAA Sportsmanship Award is given to men and women in National Collegiate Athletics Association sports who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, respect and responsibility. It was ...
(student-athletes who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship)
* Today's Top VIII Award (NCAA) (outstanding senior student-athletes)
* NCAA Woman of the Year Award (senior female student-athlete)
* Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) (former student-athletes)
Notes
External links
Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship Program
{{Student athlete
NCAA awards
College sports trophies and awards in the United States
Student athlete awards in the United States
Scholarships in the United States
Awards established in 1988