The nominations for the 2023 Armed Forces Merit Award presented by the Football Writers Association of America will continue to be accepted through Fri., Sept. 29.
The Armed Forces Merit Award, coordinated by the staff at the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, was created in June 2012 “to honor an individual and/or a group with a military background and/or involvement that have an impact within the realm of college football.”
Nominations with supporting documents and recommendation letters for the Armed Forces Merit Award *must be submitted to Tim Simmons (bfishinc@aol.com, 303/678-8484), the award’s coordinator.
This will be the 12th recipient of the Armed Forces Merit
Award and will be determined by a selection committee consisting of seven FWAA members and two representatives from
the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.
The 2023 honoree will be announced on Thu., Nov. 9.
“We are pleased to join with the Football Writers Association of America to honor an individual with a military background or group that works with our armed services that has an impact within college football,” said Brant Ringler, executive director of the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.
FWAA Executive Director Steve Richardson echoed Ringler’s sentiments and added “we have an outstanding list of candidates each year and it is difficult to honor only one recipient when there are several individuals and programs that are very deserving of the honor.”
The Paris Johnson Jr. Foundation was selected from a list of 50 nominations (43 individuals and seven programs) as the 2022 recipient.
Other recipients of the Armed Forces Merit Award presented by the FWAA are Nate Boyer of Texas (2012), Brandon McCoy of North Texas (2013), Daniel Rodriguez from Clemson (2014), Bret Robertson of Westminster College (2015), Steven Rhodes from Middle Tennessee (2016), Dr. Chris Howard from Robert Morris (2018), Army West Point assistant coach Mike Viti (2019), Collin O’Donnell of Bluefield College of Virginia (2020) and Damien Jackson of Nebraska (2021).
Kansas State and its football team were honored in 2017 as the sixth recipient of the Armed Forces Merit Award presented by the FWAA for the university’s partnership with the United States Army that created a bond between the school’s athletic department and the Iron Rangers at Fort Riley.