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Rice University Athletics
Dillard Earns Football Writers' All American Honor
12/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 13, 2008
For the first time in 50 years, the Football Writers Association has selected a member of the Rice Owls to be included on their All American team.
Rice senior Jarett Dillard, who owns the NCAA career record for touchdown receptions (59) and a host of other national, conference and school records for receiving and scoring, was announced as part of their 65th annual team during a one-hour special that aired nationally on ABC Saturday afternoon.
Dillard is the first Owl to earn the distinction from the writers since Buddy Dial in 1958. In the first 15 years that the FWAA announced an All American team, a total of six Rice players were honored, beginning with Weldon Humble in 1946. He was followed by Froggy Williams and Joe Watson (1949), Kosse Johnson in 1953 and Dicky Maegle in 1954.
In addition to his record for touchdown receptions, Dillard also holds the NCAA career mark for games with a touchdown catch (37) and joined with Chase Clement to set the record for most career touchdown passes by the same passer and receiver (50). He also holds the NCAA marks for most games with a touchdown reception in a season (13) and most consecutive games with a touchdown catch (13), set in 2006.
He leads the nation with 19 touchdown receptions this season and is the first player in NCAA history to have a pair of seasons with at least 19 (his career high was 21 in 2006). He is sixth in receiving yards (1,224), sixth in yards per game (102.0), tied for eighth with an average of 9.5 points per game and tied for18th with 6.58 catches per game. Became the 10th receiver in NCAA history to top 4,000 yards in receiving and now holds the C-USA career mark with 4,052. He also became the 13th receiver in NCAA history to record three seasons with at least 1,000 yards receiving.
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| Rice's three FWAA All Americans met prior to the UTEP game in 2007 (l to r) Froggy Williams, Buddy Dial, Jarett Dillard. Dial passed away in February of 2008 |
Dillard will have one final chance to add to his record totals when the Owls meet Western Michigan in the 2008 Texas Bowl on December 30 at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
The 25-man FWAA All-American Team, the second longest continuously published team in college football, has been a staple of the college football scene since 1944. First selected three years after the organization was formed, the FWAA's inaugural team included Army's Heisman Trophy tandem of Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis and Georgia Tech's Frank Broyles, who later became Arkansas' head football coach and athletic director.
Over the years, the FWAA Team has highlighted all the game's great players in several media forums.
From 1946-1970, LOOK Magazine published the FWAA team and brought players and selected writers to New York City for a celebration. During that 25-year period, the FWAA team was introduced on national television shows by Bob Hope, Steve Allen, Perry Como and others.
After LOOK folded, the FWAA started a long association with NCAA Films (later known as NCAA Productions), which produced a 30-minute television show and sold it to sponsors. The team was part of ABC Television's 1981 College Football Series. From 1983-90, the team was either on ABC or ESPN, and now has returned to the national spotlight on ABC.
The FWAA team has included most of the Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award winners over the years and nearly all the Outland Trophy winners. Those are the three oldest awards in major-college football.
For more than six decades the FWAA has selected an All-America team with the help of its members and an All-America Committee which represents all the regions in the country. From that All-America team, the FWAA also selects the Outland Trophy winner (best interior lineman) and also the Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner (best defensive player).
Some of the true greats of the writing profession have helped to select this team over the years...Grantland Rice, Bert McGrane, Blackie Sherrod, Furman Bisher, Pat Harmon, Fred Russell, Edwin Pope, Murray Olderman, Paul Zimmerman and the list goes on and on. It is a team steeped in tradition and history and selected by a writers' group with the same attributes.
