Meredith honored as top student-athlete
Ryan Meredith, a defensive end for the Pittsburg State University football team, is one of only 17 collegiate players selected for the National Scholar-Athlete Award, given by the National Football Foundation.
The NFF postgraduate scholarship program recognizes academic, athletic, leadership, and community service excellence of college football players who are senior starters in their final year of eligibility.
Award recipients received $18,000 scholarships from NFF to pursue postgraduate studies.
According to information provided by NFF, Meredith, a management major, earned ESPN The Magazine first team academic All-America honors in 2005, and was a second team pick in 2004.
Meredith has earned numerous honors from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, of which Pittsburg State is a member. He is a three-time first team academic all-conference pick, a two-time first team all-conference designee, a member of the commissioner's honor roll, a presidential scholar, and runner-up for MIAA male student-athlete of the year.
A campus leader, Meredith is president of the Pittsburg State chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and is involved in FCA youth rally speaking engagements. He has devoted considerable time to Pittsburg YMCA youth football. Meredith is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society.
The 17 NSAA award winners attended a banquet Dec. 5 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, N.Y., to discover which one of them would win NFF's Draddy Trophy, as the nation's top scholar-athlete.
Brian Leonard, Rutgers University running back, won the award, which included a $25,000 scholarship.
Meredith, one of only two NCAA Division II athletes honored at the banquet, plans to use his scholarship to attend Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.
Meredith is the son of Ross and Claire Meredith of Bartlesville, Okla., and the grandson of Jim and Donna Fruechting of Marion.
