Four winners of the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s James J. Corbett Award were on world-wide display at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in late July in Eugene, Ore. The Championships feature the top track & field athletes in the world and this year, Alia Armstrong (Corbett Award 2022), JuVaughn Harrison (Corbett Award 2021), Aleia Hobbs (Corbett Award 2018) and Armand Duplantis (Corbett Award 2018) were among the elite competitors.
The Corbett Awards are presented by the Allstate Sugar Bowl to the top male and female amateur athletes in the state of Louisiana on an annual basis. Since its inception in 1967 (through 2021), Corbett Award winners include 19 NFL players, nine Major League Baseball players, four NBA players (including two Hall of Famers), 11 Olympians (including eight Gold Medal winners), three WNBA players and one PGA Tour star.
All four of the Corbett representatives at the championships competed collegiately at LSU.
Duplantis, who has become a world-class superstar since winning the Corbett Award as a high school senior, was the most successful at this year’s World Championships. A native of Lafayette, La., Duplantis is one of two high schoolers to win the Corbett since its inception in 1967 (joining NFL standout Leonard Fournette, 2014). Competing on the international stage for Sweden, his mother’s native country, the 22-year old cleared 6.21 meters (20 feet, 4½ inches) in the pole vault to break his own world record by one centimeter.
“It's great; I cannot complain,” Duplantis said. “Actually, I did not think about the record that much today ... I really wanted to win the gold so badly. It was the medal I was missing. So when I was on this height, it was like everything came together and it happened from there.”
The newest Corbett Award honoree, and the youngest of the group, Armstrong was making her debut in world competition. After winning the NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 100-meter hurdles in June, the graduate of St. Katherine Drexel High School in New Orleans, placed third at the United States Championships to secure a position on Team USA. Armstrong then posted a personal-best time of 12.31 seconds to finish fourth in the world, narrowly missing the medal stand.
Hobbs, who prepped at McMain High School in New Orleans, added a gold medal as well. The elite sprinter ran the second leg in the preliminary heats of the 4x100 relay in a blistering time of 9.91 seconds, tops among the Americans. Despite not running the finals when Team USA captured the gold medal, Hobbs still earned gold due to her success in the earlier heats.
Harrison, who won six NCAA Championships in the high jump and long jump, and then finished fifth in the long jump and seventh in the high jump at the Tokyo Olympics last year, also competed at the World Championships but did not reach the medal stand.
The Corbett Award was created in 1967 and named in honor of the late James J. Corbett to commemorate his many contributions to intercollegiate athletics and specifically to the Sugar Bowl. At the time of his death, Mr. Corbett was the Athletic Director at Louisiana State University. These awards are presented annually to the most outstanding amateur male and female athletes in the State of Louisiana. The Corbett recipients are selected each year by members of the N.O. Sports Hall of Fame Committee, based on nominations submitted by the state’s sportswriters, sportscasters and sports information directors.
Since its inception in 1967 (through 2022), Corbett Award winners include 19 NFL players, nine Major League Baseball players, four NBA players (including two Hall of Famers), 11 Olympians (including eight Gold Medal winners), three WNBA players and one PGA Tour star.
