The Davey O'Brien Award, officially the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, named after
Davey O'Brien
Robert David O'Brien (June 22, 1917 – November 18, 1977) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) with the Philadelphia Eagles for two seasons. He played college football for the TCU Horned Frogs, w ...
, is presented annually to the
collegiate American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
player judged by the Davey O'Brien Foundation to be the best of all
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
quarterback
The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
s. The Davey O'Brien Hall of Fame is housed at The Fort Worth Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The annual awards dinner and trophy presentation is held there as well, usually in February.
In 1977, directly after the death of O'Brien, the award was established as the Davey O'Brien Memorial Trophy, and was given to the most outstanding player in the Southwest.
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
running back
Earl Campbell
Earl Christian Campbell (born March 29, 1955), nicknamed "the Tyler Rose", is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, primarily with the Houston Oilers. Known f ...
won the trophy in 1977,
Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
running back
Billy Sims
Billy Ray Sims (born September 18, 1955) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for five seasons with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1980 to 1984. Sims played college football fo ...
won it in 1978, and
Baylor linebacker
Mike Singletary
Michael Singletary (born October 9, 1958), nicknamed "Samurai Mike", is an American former professional football player and coach. He played as a linebacker for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). After playing college foo ...
won it twice in 1979 and 1980. In 1981, the award was renamed the Davey O'Brien Award. Since then, only four players have won the award more than once:
Ty Detmer of
BYU,
Danny Wuerffel
Daniel Carl Wuerffel (born May 27, 1974) is an American former American football, football quarterback who played college football for the Florida Gators football, Florida Gators and professional football in the National Football League (NFL). ...
of Florida,
Jason White of Oklahoma, and
Deshaun Watson
Derrick Deshaun Watson (born September 14, 1995) is an American professional football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Clemson Tigers, leading the team to a national ...
of Clemson.
Winners
References
External links
Official website
{{College football award navbox
College football national player awards
Awards established in 1981