Vintage Chicago Tribune: Celebrating 100 years of the Silver Football

“What football player of the Big Ten is of greatest value to his team?”

In October 1924, Chicago Daily Tribune sports writer Harvey Woodruff wrote that the newspaper had “authorized” him to answer that question.

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,” 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.”

Chicago Tribune Silver Football: What to know about the Big Ten’s highest honor, 100 years later

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.”

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.

Here’s what to know about the award, including a decade-by-decade look at all the winners.

How the Silver Football was born — and how the selection process has evolved over 100 years

One hundred years after its inception, the Chicago Tribune Silver Football remains one of the highest honors a Big Ten player can receive.

Column: Silver Football winners, from Red Grange to Marvin Harrison Jr., are the definition of greatness

The elite fraternity of Chicago Tribune Silver Football winners includes athletes of every size and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/vintage-chicago-tribune-celebrating-100-190000882.html

Author : Chicago Tribune

Publish date : 2024-08-15 19:00:00

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