The Jim Thorpe Memorial Trophy was an American football award presented by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) to the

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

(MVP) of the National Football League (NFL) from 1955 to 2008. It was the only NFL MVP award whose winner was chosen by a poll of NFL players. By 1975, the Jim Thorpe Trophy was described by the '' TimesDaily'' as "one of the pros' most coveted honors." In 1983, the '' Del Rio News Herald'' called it the "highest professional football award, period." Earl Campbell was the first player to win the award in consecutive seasons, capturing three straight from

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

. Quarterbacks Charlie Conerly (

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

) and Roman Gabriel (

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

) won the trophy despite not being voted to the NEA's All-Pro first team in their respective seasons—

Johnny Unitas John Constantine Unitas (; May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Following a career that spanned from 1956 ...

was named to the first team over Conerly, while Sonny Jurgensen got the nod over Gabriel. The award was founded by Murray Olderman, a sportswriter and cartoonist for the NEA. It was named in honor of Jim Thorpe, a professional football pioneer who was a player and the first president of what became the NFL. At the award's inception, Olderman sent ballots to every player in the league. Coaches joined the players in the voting process in 1975. Starting in 1987, the award became a joint project between the NEA, Jim Thorpe Association, and National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Olderman also left the NEA that year and ended his association with the award. The NFLPA took over the balloting and added Pro Football Hall of Fame members to the voting panel in place of coaches. The first recipient of the Jim Thorpe Trophy was Harlon Hill of the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, who was presented the trophy by NEA sports editor Harry Grayson in a televised halftime ceremony from the

1956 Pro Bowl The 1956 Pro Bowl was the National Football League's sixth annual all-star game which featured top performers from the 1955 season. The game was played on January 15, 1956, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California in front ...

in Los Angeles. In addition to Pro Bowl halftimes, subsequent years also saw the presentation televised on the final regular season weekend in either a pregame or halftime event. It was even on '' The Ed Sullivan Show'' in 1958. The presentation moved to the pregame show for the NFL championship game starting in 1961. In 1967, the winner was presented the trophy in a party at

CBS Television City Television City, alternatively CBS Television City, is an American television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. Designed by architect William Pereira and Ch ...

in Los Angeles for NEA's All-Pro selections, which was filmed and shown nationally during halftime of the Pro Bowl. In subsequent years, CBS aired a half-hour special before the Pro Bowl featuring the Jim Thorpe Trophy winner along with the All-Pros. After years of holding an awards banquet in New York, the ceremony was discontinued around 1980. Olderman and the NEA sought a sponsor. The Jim Thorpe Association of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, took over the presentation of the trophy in 1987, presenting it at the existing awards banquet for their Jim Thorpe Award, which honors the top

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

. The NFL trophy was redesigned that year to feature a bronze statuette of Jim Thorpe.

References

External links

Newspaper Ent. Assoc. NFL Most Valuable Player Winners
at Pro-Football-Reference.com {{NFL awards National Football League trophies and awards

See also

References

External links