Tustenugee Award Nominees Announced
Five players, including one from national champion Kentucky, have been nominated for the Eddie Sutton Tustenugee Award which recognizes college basketball’s most tenacious, most unselfish performer.
The winner will be announced during the Tulsa Sports Charities Legends in Sports Dinner Aug. 2 at the Southern Hills Marriott.
In presenting the five nominees, Tommy Thompson, executive director of Tulsa Sports Charities, said they were selected by a national panel of media members, headed by ESPN’s Doug Gottleib.
The finalists are: Quincy Acy, Baylor; Jae Crowder, Marquette; Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky; Tu Holloway, Xavier (Ohio) and Rob Jones, St. Mary’s College (Calif.).
The dinner also will honor Sutton, the former Oklahoma State coach and College Basketball Hall of Fame member who retired with 804 collegiate wins.
In the language of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, one of the Five Civilized Tribes that settled in Oklahoma, “tustenugee” means “warrior.” The award is sponsored by the John and Jerry Marshall Foundation. John Marshall was a roommate of Sutton at .
The recipient of the Tustenugee Award will be a player who best exhibits the traits of tenacity and unselfishness that Sutton advocated throughout a 37-year Division I coaching career.
Matt Howard of Butler University received the first Eddie Sutton Tustenugee Award, in 2011.
Sutton played for Henry Iba at Oklahoma State (Oklahoma A&M until his senior year of 1957-58) and took the first steps on his coaching journey at Tulsa Central (1959-66).
Updated 06-25-2012
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