Fresno State Athletics
Moses in Manhattan
12/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 7, 2009
NEW YORK CITY - A once in a lifetime experience awaits Bulldog senior safety Moses Harris Tuesday night when he will be honored by the National Football Foundation as one of the nation's to scholar-athletes.
Harris arrived in Manhattan on Sunday, fresh off an exciting 53-52 win over Illinois Sunday. He will join 15 other outstanding student-athletes as finalists for the NFF William V. Campbell Award, which is also known as the Academic Heisman.
If he wins the award, Harris will receive a $25,000 postgraduate scholarship. As a finalist, he's already won an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship that will help him complete his MBA in the Craig School of Business.
Harris is in New York City, joined by members of his family. For a guy spent part of a summer studying International Finance in Hong Kong, this is first trip to the Big Apple. The closest he'd ever been previously us when the Bulldog team flew over the city on the way to play Rutgers in 2008. He spent Monday in Manhattan doing some sightseeing with family, got fitted for his tuxedo for the event, and attended a reception for all of the honorees in the evening.
Former NFL great Archie Manning spoke to the group at the reception, bestowing his congratulations. Manning's two sons, Peyton and Eli, were both finalists for this award. In addition to the honorees and members of the NFF Board, which includes former Fresno State Athletics Director Jack Lengyl, other dignitaries and coaches were there. Texas coach Mack Brown was with his honoree, Colt McCoy.
Fresno State's Pat Hill arrived in New York City to attend the function.
After the reception, all of the award winners attended a show at the Radio City Music Hall and then had dinner at Mickey Mantle's Restaurant.
Harris has twice been selected All-WAC in his career and was a three-time Academic All-District award winner. This award, however, is an extremely elite honor. He's the only California student-athlete honored, and just the second in school history. Fresno State's last honoree was Vernon Fox in 2001, which gives the Dogs more NFF Scholar-Athletes in this decade than the four California Pac-10 schools (Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC) have combined.
Harris will be honored with some of the greatest names in college football history at the event.
The 2009 Hall of Fame Class: Pervis Atkins (New Mexico State), Tim Brown (Notre Dame), Chuck Cecil (Arizona), Ed Dyas (Auburn), Major Harris (West Virginia), Gordon Hudson (Brigham Young), William Lewis (Harvard), Woodrow Lowe (Alabama), Ken Margerum (Stanford), Steve McMichael (Texas), Chris Spielman (Ohio State), Larry Station (Iowa), Pat Swilling (Georgia Tech), Gino Torretta (Miami, Fla.), Curt Warner (Penn State), Grant Wistrom (Nebraska). Coaches: Dick MacPherson and John Robinson.
The 2009 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class and Campbell Finalists: Jon Asamoah (Illinois); Matt Bauman (Brigham Young); Eric Decker (Minnesota); Moses Harris (Fresno State); Tim Hiller (Western Michigan); Paul Jasinowski (Brown); Beau Kildow (Morningside, Iowa); Josh Mahoney (Northern Iowa); Colt McCoy (Texas); Jarrell NeSmith (Tusculum, Tenn.); Joe Pawelek (Baylor); Todd Reesing (Kansas); ZaVious Robbins (Hardin-Simmons, Texas); Tim Tebow (Florida); Blaine Westemeyer (Augustana, Ill.); and Reed Williams (West Virginia).
2009 Major Award Winners: Gold Medal Recipient - Phil Knight; Distinguished American Award - Billy Payne; Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award - Dan Jenkins; John L. Toner Award - Jim Weaver , Virginia Tech; Outstanding Football Official Award - Tim Millis, the Big 12 Conference; and Chris Schenkel Award - Larry Zimmer, University of Colorado.
"We Are Your Team" - The `Dogs will play Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 1:30 p.m. PT. The game will be live in HD on ESPN. Tickets are available by clicking on the ticket icon at the top of this page.
