WHO’S THE NATION’S TOP AMATEUR ATHLETE?

Cast Your Vote for the 90th AAU Sullivan Award

March 25, 2020

90045 - The iconic AAU Sullivan Award, which has been handed out annually since 1930 by the Amateur Athletic Union(AAU), will, for the first time in its history, be presented “virtually” this year.  This is, of course, the way 2020 is playing out in the face of the coronavirus.  The ceremony was originally scheduled for April 21st at the New York Athletic Club (NYAC), but “in light of the ongoing situation with COVID-19…the AAU has decided to cancel the onsite ceremony portion…” the president and CEO of the AAU, Roger Goudy and AAU Sullivan Award Chair Melissa Willis, announced this last week.  “Instead, the AAU will recognize the accomplishments of the finalists and announce the winner virtually”.  

More information from the AAU National Office in Orlando, FL will soon follow.  

While the ceremony has been held at different venues since 1930, this is the only time I am aware of that it will not be “physically” staged.  These are unprecedented times, but the coronavirus certainly does not diminish the accomplishments of this year's 10 semifinalists.  After public, media and committee voting concludes on Monday, March 30, the finalists for the award will be revealed.  

You can see the list of 2020 nominees and cast your vote at:  http://www.aausullivan.org/

You can take a walk through history and see the impressive list of past winners at:  http://www.aausullivan.org/History/Winners

I have been involved with the AAU since 1994, when I started conducting beach volleyball tournaments with Gino Grajeda.  I was named to a position on the Sullivan committee in 2015, the year running back Ezekiel Elliott of Ohio State won the award.  I think I was most impressed by the speech Navy's quarterback Keenan Reynolds gave after winning in 2016, articulating to the crowd at the NYAC what is takes to be a good teammate.  I know for sure I was most proud last year when Stanford volleyball great Kathryn Plummer won.  Kathryn had come up thorough AAU volleyball programs, winning the AAU Beach Player of the Year award in 2015.  

I made an argument for Plummer as the greatest collegiate volleyball player ever in my blog post from December 22, 2019, after watching her win a third NCAA title in Pittsburgh.

Blog post:  https://www.sportsstoriespodcast.com/new-blog/the-greatest-everstanfords-kathryn-plummer

I will continue to study the nominees and cast my vote by this weekend.  I’d encourage any sports fans to cast their vote (link listed above) and if you’d like to comment to this blog, I will be sure to take your input into consideration before I cast mine.

  • Denny Lennon is the Host of the Video Podcast, “Sports Stories with Denny Lennon”

Marlee Rice, SSDLComment