The Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Trophy Award was initiated in 1992 to promote academic excellence among young African-American males. As unavoidable role models on the "image" front lines, talented athletes-especially in football, basketball and baseball-define what the emerging generations of African-American males will value, and the aspirations they will have. The Watkins Trophy Award is a means for recognizing exceptionally talented African-American male athletes who, by their example, help promote high academic standards and a commitment to community service.

Background

Since 1992, the top high school seniors have been honored with the title "Premiere African-American Male Scholar Athlete". Three of these have received athletic scholarships from Stanford University (Michael Craven and Marcus McCutcheon). Three of these received athletic scholarships to play for Penn State (Deryck Toles, Ahmad Collins and Shawn Lee). Three more accepted athletic scholarships at Notre Dame (Raki Nelson and Grant Irons) and the University of Pittsburgh (Darnell Dinkins). The first scholar athlete to receive the Jostens trophy, Ronald Curry, selected the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The ninth annual Watkins Award recipient, Marcus Houston, attended the Colorado State. Our finalist are also doing exceptionally well attending such world class institutions such as Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida State and Stanford to name a few.

Because of their concern with helping students recognize the value of education and increasing the awareness and involvement of parents and businesses throughout the community, Jostens Inc., through its Renaissance program, has produced an elegant Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Trophy for the winner and plaques for the runners up. As a tribute to African-American high school seniors for their outstanding achievements in athletics, scholarship, and community service, the Watkins Trophy Award is forcefully demonstrating that academic excellence and community service are valued and rewarded

The Watkins Award ceremony will be held at the prestigious

Los Angeles Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles , California Saturday, February 20, 7 pm - 9:30 pm

Here is a link to the site:

http://www.naaaa.com/watkins.htm