The Silver Anniversary Awards are given each year by the American National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to recognize six distinguished former student-athletes on their 25th anniversary as college graduates. The Silver Anniversary Awards were first given in 1973, when five distinguished former student-athletes were honored. In 1986, the number of annual honorees was increased to six.

In order to be eligible, the nominee must be a college graduate and a varsity letter-winner at an NCAA member institution and must have achieved personal distinction since his or her graduation. The selection criteria are weighted 40 percent to the nominee’s status as a prominent collegiate

College athletics

College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...

 athlete and 60 percent to the nominee’s career achievement.

Recipients

Recipients of the Silver Anniversary Awards include Joe Girardi

Joe Girardi

Joseph Elliott Girardi is a former Major League Baseball catcher and current manager of the New York Yankees. During a 15-year playing career, he played from 1989–2003 for the Chicago Cubs, the Colorado Rockies, the New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals...

 and Bo Jackson

Bo Jackson

Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson is a former American baseball and football player. He was the first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports, and also won the Heisman Trophy in 1985....

 (both 2011), Doug Flutie

Doug Flutie

Douglas Richard "Doug" Flutie is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. Flutie played college football at Boston College, and played professionally in the National Football League, Canadian Football League, and United States Football League...

 and Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jacqueline "Jackie" Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those four different events...

 (both 2010), Mike Singletary

Mike Singletary

Michael "Mike" Singletary is an American football coach and former professional football player. He is currently the linebacker coach and assistant head coach for the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL....

 (2006), Mark Johnson (2005), John Naber

John Naber

John Phillips Naber is a former American swimmer who specialized in the backstroke and five-time Olympic medallist .-Career:...

 (2002), Steve Largent

Steve Largent

Steven Michael "Steve" Largent is a retired American football player, enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and a former U.S. Congressman, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Oklahoma from 1994 until 2002...

 (2001), Bill Walton

Bill Walton

William Theodore "Bill" Walton III is a retired American basketball player and television sportscaster. The "Big Red-Head", as he was called, achieved superstardom playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early '70s, winning three straight College Player of the Year Awards, while...

 (1999), Sally Ride

Sally Ride

Sally Kristen Ride is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. Ride joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman—and then-youngest American, at 32—to enter space...

 (1998), Jack Youngblood

Jack Youngblood

Herbert Jackson "Jack" Youngblood, III is a former American college and professional football player who was a defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League for fourteen seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He was a five-time consensus All-Pro and a seven-time Pro Bowl...

 (1996) and Jim Ryun

Jim Ryun

James Ronald Ryun is an American former track athlete and politician, who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing the 2nd District in Kansas. In the 2006 election, Ryun was defeated by Democratic challenger Nancy Boyda...

 (1994).

See also

• NCAA Sportsmanship Award
  NCAA Sportsmanship Award
  The NCAA Sportsmanship Award is given each year to one man and one woman in National Collegiate Athletics Association sports who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility...
  
   (student-athletes who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship)
• Today's Top VIII Award
  Today's Top VIII Award
  The Today's Top VIII Award is given each year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to honor eight outstanding senior student-athletes of the preceding calendar year. From 1973 through 1985, this award was known as the Today's Top V Award or the Top Five Award and was given to honor five...
  
   (NCAA) (outstanding senior student-athletes)
• NCAA Woman of the Year Award
  NCAA Woman of the Year Award
  The NCAA Woman of the Year Award was created to honor a senior female student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. Each year, ten finalists are selected from a larger pool of...
  
   (senior female student-athlete)
• Walter Byers Scholarship
  Walter Byers Scholarship
  The Walter Byers Scholar program is a scholarship program that recognizes the top male and female scholar-athlete in NCAA sports and that is awarded annually by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . It is considered to be the NCAA's highest academic award...
  
  (NCAA) (top male and female scholar-athletes)

External links

• NCAA Honors and Awards webpage