The Paul Hornung Award

Event Will Honor Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers as the Most Versatile Player in Major College Football

Louisville, Ky. – February 23, 2017 – University of Michigan Head Football Coach Jim Harbaugh and ABC/ESPN award-winning commentator and celebrated author Jeremy Schaap will be special guests at the seventh annual Paul Hornung Award Banquet sponsored by KentuckyOne Health.

Harbaugh will be the featured speaker and Schaap will be part of the banquet program honoring Michigan’s consensus All-American linebacker Jabrill Peppers, the 2016 Paul Hornung Award winner who played 15 different positions this past season for the Wolverines. The banquet will be held March 7 at the Galt House Hotel in downtown Louisville.

The Paul Hornung Award, presented by Texas Roadhouse, is given annually to the most versatile player in major college football. Previous Paul Hornung Award winners expected at the banquet are Christian McCaffrey (2015) and Owen Marecic (2010) from Stanford, and Shaq Thompson (2014) from the University of Washington and the Carolina Panthers.

“Jim Harbaugh and Jeremy Schaap represent the best at their craft. They will join Paul Hornung and sports fans in Louisville in congratulating Jabrill Peppers and his family,” said Karl Schmitt, president and CEO of the Louisville Sports Commission, owners and operators of the Paul Hornung Award. “We’re also fortunate that several previous years’ Hornung Award winners will be in Louisville to welcome Jabrill into a special fraternity on this special night.”

University of Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson also will be on hand to accept the Howard Schnellenberger Award as MVP of the UK-UofL game from Coach Schnellenberger, the Award’s namesake and Hornung’s teammate at Flaget High School in Louisville. Darin Hinshaw, UK’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, will introduce Johnson.

Harbaugh has been wildly successful at building championship programs in college and the NFL. A former Wolverine All-American quarterback, he was named the 20th head coach in Michigan football history on December 2014 and quickly established the nation’s winningest football program into a national contender. Before UM, Harbaugh led the San Francisco 49ers to three NFC Championship games and a trip to Super Bowl XLVII, built Stanford into a Pac-12 powerhouse, and led the University of San Diego to a 29-6 record and two conference championships. Following his playing days at Michigan, Harbaugh played 15 years in the NFL for five different teams and passed for more than 16,000 yards and 140 touchdowns in 140 career starts. He was named AFC Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and a Pro Bowl selection for the Indianapolis Colts in 1995.

“Paul Hornung was one of the great football players of all-time and to have two student-athletes that I’ve coached – Jabrill Peppers and Owen Marecic – win his award is extremely gratifying,” said Harbaugh. “I look forward to attending the Hornung Award banquet where the all-around playing achievements of Jabrill Peppers will be recognized. I am honored to share the dais with Jabrill, Paul, Jeremy Schaap and the other distinguished members of the Hornung Award committee as we celebrate the great game of football.”

As a senior news correspondent and host for ESPN, Jeremy Schaap contributes to E:60, SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, NFL Countdown and College Gameday. He hosts the award-winning weekly radio show and podcast The Sporting Life, anchors ESPN’s coverage at the Olympics and is a regular contributor to ABC World News Tonight and Nightline. Schaap won the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Award for reporting on human rights and social justice issues for his story exposing the plight of migrant laborers in Qatar, twice won national Edward R. Murrow Awards and National Headliner Awards, captured 11 national Sports Emmy Awards and was honored by the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. He is the author of Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History, a New York Times bestseller, and Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics. In addition to his contributions for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, Schaap’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. His late father, Dick Schaap, an award-winning journalist, pioneer in sports television and celebrated author, wrote six books on the Green Bay Packers, including the first biography on Paul Hornung. Jeremy also wrote the forward to Hornung’s book: Lombardi and Me.

A limited number of tickets to the annual Paul Hornung Awards Banquet presented by KentuckyOne Health are still available. Single tickets are available for $125 each; corporate tables of 10 are $1,750. For more information regarding tickets, contact Julie Howell at 502-587-6742 or jhowell@louisvillesports.org.