Dec. 3, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Senior Jarious Jackson received Notre Dame’s ’99 MVP award Friday night at the 80th annual Notre Dame Football Banquet sponsored by the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley.
ABC television personality Regis Philbin served as guest speaker at the event, which attracted approximately 1,000 people.
Jackson, a quarterback from Chicago, Ill. was selected as the MVP for the Irish, with his award coming from the Notre Dame National Monogram Club via vote of the players.
This is Brad Williams… He also won the Lineman of the Year Award from the Moose Krause Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.
The 6-3, 275-pounder finished the ’96 season with 61 tackles, nine sacks, six other tackles for losses plus two fumble recoveries. He started all 11 games in ’96 while helping the Irish rank 11th nationally in total defense while permitting 270.0 total yards per game.
Lamont Bryant won the Nick Pietrosante Award–also voted on by the players–as the individual who best exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and pride shown by the late Irish All-America fullback. Pietrosante died of cancer on Feb. 6, 1988.
James Caputo (3.702 in history) received the Knute Rockne Student-Athlete Award from the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley. He owns a 3.095 grade-point average as a finance major in the College of Business Administration.
A 6-1, 239-pound tight end from Fort Wayne, Ind., Carretta made 265 appearances with the Irish kicking teams in ’96, more than any other player. He caught five passes for 91 yards as the backup Irish tight end, rushed three times for nine yards and a touchdown and also made 17 tackles on special teams.
Senior split end Bobby Brown (2.833 from College of Arts and Letters, with three majors, government, socilogy and computer applications) earned the State Farm/Mutual Broadcasting Student-Athlete of the Year Award.
One of 12 weekly winners announced on Mutual during radio broadcasts of Irish games in ’96, the 6-6, 300-pounder from Washington, D.C., has a 3.288 grade-point average with majors in economics, communications and computer applications in the College of Arts and Letters.
Akers was an all-district pick as a GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American in ’96 and also was a nominee for post-graduate scholarships from the NCAA and National Football Foundation. He earned mention on the College Football Association’s Scholar Athlete team and was the Burger King Scholar Athlete of the Week, earning a $10,000 grant for the University’s scholarship fund. He started nine games in ’96 at offensive guard for the Irish.