One hundred years later, the Chicago Tribune Silver Football remains one of the highest honors a Big Ten player can receive.
The list of winners includes future Pro Football Hall of Famers and Super Bowl MVPs along with others less remembered in the sport’s annals. But all have individual stories of perseverance and determination that made them into the men they were.
Originally intended for the “player of greatest value to his team” and not necessarily the “greatest player,” the Tribune’s football trophy was “to give the self-effacing chap who labors only for teamwork and team success an opportunity as nearly equal as possible to the ball carrier out in the limelight,” Chicago Daily Tribune sports writer Harvey Woodruff wrote.
“Success of the stars is made possible by the work seldom revealed to the spectators, of men who are blocking opponents and offering interference.”
Here’s what to know about the award — and all of its winners.
Who has won the Silver Football?
The Tribune hoped the annual award, which preceded the Heisman Trophy by 11 years, would “become a much sought honor surpassing any now possible for these hard-working gridiron heroes whose efforts afford pleasure to so many thousand people.”
Meet all the winners.
Catching up with Jim Grabowski, the 1965 Silver Football winner from Illinois
A quick power runner who bulled his way into the record books, Jim Grabowski entered Illinois out of Taft High School in Chicago in 1962.
Three years later he became the fifth Illini to receive the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Big Ten’s best player — and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting — but Grabowski doesn’t look back on his time in Champaign in terms of individual accomplishments.
“I had such great coaches, guys that I developed a real friendship with afterward. In some…
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Author : Chicago Tribune
Publish date : 2024-08-11 12:30:00
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