BOISE, Idaho (10 October 2000) -The Heisman Trophy and the Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame have joined forces to create a new award to be called the "Tradition of Excellence" Award.

The recipient will be a former Heisman Trophy winner who has gone on to a successful career coupled with a strong record of humanitarian efforts. The award will be an extension of the present Heisman Trophy program and is introduced to illustrate that a player's contributions to sport and society do not end in New York at the time of the Heisman celebration but continue through a lifetime.

The Heisman Trophy/Downtown Athletic Club of New York and the Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame are proud to announce their first recipient, former Stanford quarterback Jim Plunkett. Plunkett, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1970, is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was the Most Valuable Player Award winner in Super Bowl XV.

Plunkett now lives in Atherton, California, and is active in the Peninsula Center for the Blind, the Good Tidings Foundation and the Parkinson Institute among his many humanitarian efforts. He also is involved in scholarship fund raising at Stanford.

The Tradition of Excellence Award will be presented to Jim Plunkett at halftime of the Stanford-Southern California football game on Saturday, October 21. Larry Maneely, chairman of the board for the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, will present the award on behalf of the Hall and Heisman Trophy programs. A similar presentation will be made at the Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony on October 25 in Boise, Idaho. Plunkett will take center stage along with this year's Hall of Fame inductees, gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton, basketball player Nate Archibald and baseball star Kirby Puckett.

Contact:

Myron Finkbeiner
President
World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame