Photo Courtesy of LSU Athletics.
Aleia Hobbs, a national champion sprinter for the LSU track and field team, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete of the Year from the New Orleans area for 2017-18. The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories; it also selects Amateur Athletes of the Month and each year’s Hall of Fame class.
Hobbs, a graduate of McMain High School, won the 100-meter dash at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships while also keying LSU’s 4x100 relay victory; those outdoor wins followed up on a 60-meter dash championship at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in March (with the sixth fastest time in the world this year). Prior to the NCAA Outdoor title, she set a meet record in 100 and won the NCAA East Regional Championships with a time of 10.90 - the second-fastest in the world in 2018.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month - the honors enter their 66th year in 2022. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 100 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 20 Heisman Trophy winners in its 88-year history. The 89th annual Sugar Bowl Classic is scheduled to be played on Saturday, December 31, 2022. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.2 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.
-AllstateSugarBowl.org-
