The Trophy ,The Origin, Selection Process/Committee

The Lou Groza Award features a full-sized football adjoined to a slightly arched column. The entire trophy is cast in bronze and weighs approximately 30 pounds. It was designed and created by Levy Awards in Tampa, Florida, in 1992, and they have provided the trophy every year since. The main trophy sits in the offices of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Judd Davis, 1993 Groza Award winner, best summed up the award by saying, “It is the best looking trophy of all the awards; a rustic version of the Super Bowl Trophy.”

The Trophy ,The Origin, Selection Process/Committee

At the beginning of the 1990’s, the college football landscape featured several postseason awards that were presented for exemplary play at a specific position, including quarterback, running back, and linebacker. However, no such award was presented to the nation’s top place-kicker. This slight was discovered by Jim Watt, a Palm Beach County Sports Commission board member. Watt decided to bring some attention to this by mentioning it at a Sports Commission meeting during the summer of 1991 and suggesting that the possibility of creating and presenting such an award be looked into.

The decision to create a place-kicking award was something that was immediately embraced by the board members. “We think this award has been lacking in college football for a long time,” then-Sports Commission president Richard Ellington said. It was then decided that it would first be awarded following the 1992 college football season had been completed.

The last major decision that remained was what to name the award. After some discussion, the choice was made to name it in honor of the original true place-kicker in football history, Lou Groza. Lou played 21 seasons for the Cleveland Browns and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974, becoming the first kicking specialist blessed with enshrinement. (Lou was also an All-Pro tackle before an injury in 1960 ended his career at that position.) He was delighted that the Sports Commission chose him to serve as the namesake. Lou said at the time of the announcement, “All these things happen and I wonder to myself, ‘How lucky are you?’”

The Sports Commission asked the sports editor of the Palm Beach Post to assemble a panel of sports writers from across the country to select the winner of the award. A 15-member voting committee was established to determine who the inaugural recipient of college football’s newest award would be.

On December 3, 1992, the Sports Commission announced that Joe Allison, a junior from Memphis State University, had made history by winning the first-ever Lou Groza Award. A relative of the famous auto-racing family, Allison received the congratulatory phone call, but had trouble understanding what was going on – not because he was unfamiliar with the award, but because he had just undergone an emergency appendectomy.

Allison recovered enough to make the trip to West Palm Beach a week later where, during a black-tie banquet with Lou standing next to him, he formally received the trophy. “My sophomore season, everything went wrong. The (1992) season seems more like a dream than anything,” Allison said.

Three things happened in the mid-1990’s that were crucial in propelling the Lou Groza Award into the consciousness of the sporting public. In 1995, the FedEx Orange Bowl signed on to become the presenting sponsor of the award. Associating with such a renowned bowl game gave the award an instant credibility factor for both fans and journalists.

The next year, 1996, ESPN added the Groza Award to its Home Depot College Football Awards Show. Being part of the nationally broadcast program made it possible for everyone in the country to see whom the winner was. “When we made it to ESPN,” Watt said, “that was a quantum leap.”

Due in large part to the exposure on ESPN the previous year, 1997 marked not only the first time that all three finalists were invited to the award banquet in West Palm Beach, but also the first time that the recipient of the award was not announced prior to the banquet. “That was what we had always envisioned,” Groza Committee member Bill Davis said.

Today, the Lou Groza Award calls upon over 250 people, including all Division I coaches and previous award finalists, to determine who the nation’s best place-kicker is. Each December, a sold-out awards banquet that draws people from all over the country honors the three finalists for the award, and witnesses the presentation of the Groza Award to the year’s winner.

The Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award went from what was originally an idea thrown out at a Palm Beach County Sports Commission meeting to one of the most prestigious awards handed out in college football. As the legacy of the Lou Groza Award continues to grow, it's amazing to look back at the humble roots of the award’s beginning and the heights that it continues to reach.

The Trophy ,The Origin, Selection Process/Committee

A national panel of all Division I-A head football coaches, sports writers and sportscasters from across the country, conference representatives, NFL kickers, NFL alumni, and all previous award finalists is assembled every year in order to select the winner of the Lou Groza Award.

After approximately two-thirds of the national schedule has been played, a list of the 20 award semifinalists is announced based upon field goals made, field goal percentage, the length of both made and missed kicks, etc. The selection panel at that point is given a ballot and is asked to vote for whom they believe to be the top three kickers from that group. The three top vote getters then become the award finalists. The members of the panel are given an updated ballot, and then asked to place the finalists in the order they believe they should be ranked. The results are tabulated and weighted on a 5-3-1 scale.

The Trophy ,The Origin, Selection Process/Committee

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