The Chicago Tribune Silver Football — 100 years later — remains one of the highest honors a Big Ten player can receive.
The list of winners includes future Pro Football Hall of Famers and Super Bowl MVPs along with others less remembered in the sport’s annals. The Tribune hoped the annual award, which preceded the Heisman Trophy by 11 years, would “become a much sought honor surpassing any now possible for these hard-working gridiron heroes whose efforts afford pleasure to so many thousand people.”
- 1924-39: From Red Grange to Nile Kinnick
- 1940s: From Tom Harmon to Red Wilson
- 1950s: From Vic Janowicz to Bill Burrell
- 1960s: From Tom Brown to Mike Phipps
- 1980s: From Mark Herrmann to Anthony Thompson
- 1990s: From Nick Bell to Ron Dayne
- 2000s: From Drew Brees to Brandon Graham
- 2010-23: From Denard Robinson to Marvin Harrison Jr.
Meet the winners from this decade.
1970: Mike Adamle, Northwestern RB
Mike Adamle has worn so many hats. While playing for Northwestern, he rushed for 2,015 yards and 13 touchdowns over three seasons — including 1,255 and eight during his Silver Football season. He set a school record in 1969 with 316 yards against Wisconsin. He played in the NFL for seven years, then started a career in broadcasting. Adamle did everything from studio hosting for NBC Sports to hosting “American Gladiators” to sideline reporting for the WWE. Chicagoans knew him as the reliable face giving us sports news in the 1990s and early 2000s. But Adamle is perhaps best known now for his brave, public fight against the toll football took on his body. He has post-traumatic epilepsy, dementia and symptoms of CTE and believes it was caused by the years of hits he absorbed playing football.
1971: Eric Allen, Michigan State RB
Eric Allen was not a big man. He stood 5-foot-9 and weighed about 160 pounds during his playing days in East Lansing. What he lacked in height and weight, he made up for with heart, guile and speed. He had seven 100-yard rushing games in 1971, including a 350-yard performance against Purdue, breaking Ron Johnson’s NCAA record. And he made his teammates’ jobs much easier.“I almost felt guilty because I literally had to hold my block for only a second and he was gone,” future Pro Football Hall of Fame guard Joe DeLamielleure said. “It was like being asked to babysit when the kids were already asleep. He was so shifty, like a rubber-band man.” The Baltimore Colts draftedAllen, but he decided to play for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in a hybrid rusher/receiver role.
1972: Otis Armstrong, Purdue RB
Coming out of Chicago’s Farragut Academy, Otis Armstrong headed to Purdue and became a yardage machine for the Boilermakers. As a senior he led the Big Ten in both rushing and total offense. He totaled 4,601 all-purpose yards and 24 touchdowns during his college career, including seven kickoff and punt return touchdowns. When it was time for him to head to the NFL, teams were impressed by Armstrong’s speed. “He’s on the ‘blur’ side of the 4.4 in the 40-yard dash,” Denver Broncos coach John Ralston said. That speed translated well to the pros. Armstrong averaged more than 100 yards in his second season, leading the NFL with 1,407 and being named first-team All-Pro. After his playing days, Armstrong stayed active among Broncos alumni in the Denver area.
1973 and 1974: Archie Griffin, Ohio State RB
In Archie Griffin’s senior year at Eastmoor High School in Columbus, Ohio, he ran for 1,787 yards and 29 touchdowns in 11 games. He then earned a starting job as a Buckeyes freshman in 1972 — the first year freshmen were eligible to play major college football — and rushed for 772 yards and three touchdowns. That was the start of one of the most illustrious careers in college football history. Griffin finished his time in Columbus with a then-NCAA-record 5,177 yards (excluding bowl games), and awards poured in. He not only won the Silver Football as a sophom*ore and junior, but he remains the only person to win the Heisman Trophy twice, receiving it as a junior and senior. Griffin played seven seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, then served his alma mater as an associate athletic director and with the Ohio State alumni association.
1975: Cornelius Greene, Ohio State QB
When Cornelius Greene was 9 years old, he lived near the U.S. Capitol in Washington. One day in August 1963, he saw thousands of protesters marching toward the Lincoln Monument. He followed them and heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak during the March on Washington. That day had an effect on the man Greene wanted to become, and even on how he listened to coaches when he was recruited. Ohio State coach Woody Hayes told Greene if he worked hard, he would play, and they wouldn’t bench him or change his position because of his color. As a sophom*ore in 1973, Greene was named Ohio State’s first Black starting quarterback, and despite dealing with piles of hate letters and threats, he led the Buckeyes to a 31-3-1 record in three seasons as a starter. They won the Big Ten and played in the Rose Bowl all four years he was on the team.
1976: Rob Lytle, Michigan RB
Rob Lytle accomplished incredible things while playing for Michigan and then the Denver Broncos. Playing both tailback and fullback for Bo Schembechler’s Wolverines teams, Lytle broke the school’s career rushing record with 3,307 yards. The Broncos drafted him in the second round and went to the Super Bowl in his rookie year. Lytle even scored a touchdown, making him the first person to make it into the end zone in both a Rose Bowl and a Super Bowl. But all of those accomplishments took their toll. Lytle died of a heart attack when he was 56, and his brain was found to have CTE. His family spoke out about how football had taken him away.“Dad liked to say, ‘We leave football, football never leaves us,'” Lytle’s son Kelly wrote. “He was right. Football took him to his grave.”
1977: Larry Bethea, Michigan State DE
No quarterback was safe with Larry Bethea on defense. He still owns the Spartans records for career (33) and single-season (16) sacks, and he was the first defensive player to win the Silver Football since Dick Butkus in 1963. The Dallas Cowboys drafted him in the first round in 1978 with the hope he could continue the team’s tradition of great defensive ends such as Ed “Too Tall” Jones and Harvey Martin. But Bethea struggled as a pro. He played six seasons in Dallas and started only two games, finishing his career with 11 sacks. Once football was out of his life, Bethea turned to crime. In 1987, police in Virginia were alerted that a football player had robbed two convenience stores. They searched for Bethea and found he had taken his own life.
1978: Rick Leach, Michigan QB
At the end of his four years as a football and baseball star in Ann Arbor, Rick Leach had his choice of professional sports careers. He started at quarterback all four years for Bo Schembechler’s team, passing for 3,799 yards and 45 touchdowns, rushing for 2,053 yards and another 34 scores and leading the Wolverines to three straight Big Ten titles. He was also an All-America outfielder in baseball and won the Big Ten batting title as a junior. He chose baseball after the Detroit Tigers drafted him in the first round and he played 10 seasons in the majors. A positive drug test in 1990 led him to get treatment and ended his career, but he told MLive he wouldn’t change a thing about his choice of pro sports: “At that time, where I could stay in my home state and play if I made the major leagues, and where family and friends could see me was appealing. When I looked at the longevity factor, the injury factor and everything, I never regretted one thing about that decision.”
1979: Tim Clifford, Indiana QB
Ninety-two years into its existence, the Indiana football program had not won a bowl game. But in 1979, with Lee Corso as coach and Tim Clifford as quarterback, the Hoosiers went 8-4 and beat BYU 38-37 in the Holiday Bowl. Clifford became the first Indiana player in 42 years to win the Silver Football, and the following season against Colorado, he threw for 345 yards and five touchdowns on only 11 completions. When Indiana inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2008, Clifford said he still thinks all the time about that 1979 season and playing for Corso: “I try to relate to it and think what brought us there, what it took. I think about all the work in the offseason. I probably never worked harder in my life. All the adages that champions are made in the offseason are true.”
Maggie Hendricks is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
