Three Wyoming Cowboy Football Players Receive National Honors

The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced on Wednesday its 2011 Hampshire Honor Society Class. This year’s class includes three Wyoming Cowboys. University of Wyoming seniors Dax Crum, Chris Prosinski and Alex Toney all received the national honor.

Requirements for the award are:

•Being a starter or significant contributor in one’s last year of eligibility at an accredited NCAA or NAIA college university;

•Achieving a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average throughout one’s entire course of undergraduate study;

•Meeting all NCAA-mandated progress towards degree requirements.

This year’s Hampshire Honor Society class included a total of 671 student-athletes from 241 schools at all levels of college football.

“This is a very well-deserved honor for Dax (Crum), Alex (Toney) and Chris (Prosinski),” said Wyoming head football coach Dave Christensen. “These three seniors have been great representatives of our football program and our University. Each of them has worked as hard at excelling academically as they have at excelling athletically. We are extremely proud of them for receiving this recognition.”

“Our mission is to see our student-athletes succeed on the field and in the classroom,” said UW Athletics Director Tom Burman. “To see these three young men achieve at the highest level academically is a testament to their hard work and dedication. It is also an achievement that brings great pride to our department and University. At this time of year with graduation approaching, we want to thank all of our graduating student-athletes for their contributions to our athletics department, and we wish them all the best in their futures.”

Dax Crum was part of the Cowboy Football team the past three seasons as a quarterback. A native of Phoenix, Ariz, he achieved a 3.58 cumulative grade-point average in electrical engineering at UW. He was also a semifinalist for the 2011 Wyoming Engineering Society (WES) Student of the Year. Crum was honored as a Mountain West Conference All-Academic selection and as a Mountain West Conference Scholar-Athlete twice during his career. As a senior, Crum was awarded the Brian Lee Scholar-Athlete Award as the team’s top scholar-athlete. The Wyoming Chapter of the National Football Foundation recognized him as one of its two UW scholarship recipients for 2011.

Chris Prosinski is a native of Buffalo, Wyo. He earned Second Team All-Mountain West Conference honors on the football field his senior season, and ended his Wyoming career ranked No. 4 in school history in tackles, with 373. Prosinski was selected in the Fourth Round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He earned a 3.20 cumulative gpa in business administration and graduated from Wyoming with his bachelor’s degree in May of 2010. This past year, Prosinski took postgraduate courses in business while completing his college football career. On a national level, Prosinski was one of 121 semifinalists for the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) 2010 William V. Campbell Trophy, which honors college football’s top scholar-athlete each year from all levels of college football. Of the 121 semifinalists, Prosinski was one of only 47 student-athletes selected from NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools across the nation. He was named Mountain West Conference All-Academic each of the past three years. The Wyoming Chapter of the National Football Foundation recognized him as one of its two UW scholarship recipients for 2011.

Alex Toney is a native of Las Vegas, Nev., and was an outstanding linebacker for the Cowboys during his college career. He achieved a 3.35 cumulative grade-point average in psychology. As a player, Toney battled back from a back injury that limited him to only three games his sophomore season, to be a key contributor for the Cowboy Defense as a junior and senior. He enjoyed his best season as a Cowboy his senior year, recording 27 tackles. As a junior, Toney intercepted two passes — one against New Mexico and one versus TCU. Toney achieved Mountain West Conference Academic All-Conference honors three years at Wyoming.

This year marks the fifth consecutive year, since the award was established, that the Wyoming Cowboys have had three individuals selected. In the first year of the awards in 2007, senior Cowboys Mike Groover, Tyler Holden and John Wendling were all named to the team. In 2008, former Cowboys Luke Chase, Sean Claffey and Brandon Haugen achieved their place in the Hampshire Honor Society. The spring of 2009 saw Cowboys Jake Edmunds, Michael Ray and Chris Sundberg be recognized. A year ago, seniors Russ Arnold, Weston Johnson and Jesson Salyards were honored.

Wyoming was one of only 16 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision teams (formerly Division IA) to have at least three individuals named to this year’s team. There were 120 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams this past year.

UW was also one of only four Mountain West Conference schools to have multiple players earn the award this year. BYU had six players selected, TCU had five, Wyoming had three, Utah had two, Air Force and Colorado State had one each.

Leading the way among NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision teams were: Wyoming (3), Brigham Young (6), Indiana (6), Ohio State (6), Fresno State (5), TCU (5), Mississippi State (4), Penn State (4), Washington State (4), Northwestern (3), Oregon State (3), Rice (3), Idaho (3), Iowa (3), Notre Dame (3) and Texas (3).

The NFF Hampshire Honor Society was created in 2007 to honor college football student-athletes in all divisions. Jon F. Hanson, the chairman and founder of the Hampshire Companies, established an endowment to fund the NFF Hampshire Honor Society in ‘07. He was a former NFF Chairman from 1994-2006.

[via coachchristensen.com]