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The NCAA’s Honors Celebration, held annually at the Association’s January Convention, covers the Theodore Roosevelt Award; Today’s Top X Award; the Silver Anniversary Awards; the NCAA President’s Gerald R. Ford Award; the NCAA Flying Wedge Award; the Diversity in Athletics Award; the Award of Valor and the Inspiration award. Listed below are brief descriptions of each award, and members of Notre Dame history who have won these awards. For full lists of each award winner, please click the name of the award.
| Theodore Roosevelt Award |
| The highest honor the Association may confer on an individual, is presented each year to a distinguished citizen of national reputation and outstanding accomplishment who was a varsity letter-winner in college. |
| Alan C. Page |
Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court |
University of Notre Dame, 1966 |
| NCAA Top X Award |
| The Today’s Top X Awards provide the Association with the opportunity to honor ten outstanding senior student-athletes of the preceding calendar year. From 1973 through 1985, this award was known as the Today’s Top V Award; from 1986 through 1994, it was known as the Today’s Top VI Award and from 1995-2012 it was referred to as the Top VIII Award. |
| Ruth Riley |
2002 Recepient |
Women’s Basketball |
| Jen Renola |
1997 Recipient |
Women’s Soccer |
| NCAA Silver Anniversary Award |
| Recognize up to six distinguished former student-athletes on their 25th anniversary as college graduates. |
| Tim Brown |
2012 Recepient |
Football |
| Greg Meredith |
2005 Recepient |
Hockey |
| Kenneth MacAfee |
2003 Recepient |
Football |
| Dave Casper |
1999 Recepient |
Football |
| Robert Thomas |
1999 Recepient |
Football |
| Joe Theismann |
1996 Recepient |
Football |
| Bill Hurd |
1994 Recepient |
Track and Field |
| Jim Lynch |
1992 Recepient |
Football |
| Alan Page |
1992 Recepient |
Football |
| Aubrey Lewis |
1983 Recepient |
Football/Track and Field |
| Richard Rosenthal |
1979 Recepient |
Men’s Basketball |
Other NCAA Awards:
Complete List NCAA Award Winners 
| NCAA President’s Gerald R. Ford Award |
| The award, named in recognition of former President Gerald Ford, honors an individual who has provided significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics on a continuous basis over the course of their career. |
| Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. |
2004 (Inaugural) Recipient |
| NCAA Flying Wedge Award |
| The Flying Wedge is symbolic of the historic origin of the NCAA in 1906. A life-size sculpture is the signature piece found in the NCAA Hall of Champions. The reproduction of The Flying Wedge is awarded as one of the NCAA’s highest honors exemplifying outstanding leadership and service to the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There have been nine recipients of The Flying Wedge honored by the NCAA Leadership Advisory Board of Directors to date, including New York Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner and former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney. |
| Rev. Edward A. “Monk” Malloy, C.S.C. |
| Diversity in Athletics Award |
| The NCAA and the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport at Texas A&M University are dedicated to producing and disseminating research related to all forms of diversity within intercollegiate athletics. Together they established the Diversity in Athletics Award for NCAA Division I, II and III institutions. The Diversity in Athletics Award has and will continue to demonstrate statistically and objectively what people have been proclaiming anecdotally for a long time – diversity and inclusion within the NCAA contributes to intercollegiate athletics success. |
| Diversity Strategy |
2007-08 Recipient: University of Notre Dame |
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