Photo Courtesy of LSU Athletics.
Leonard Fournette, the star running back from LSU and a graduate of St. Augustine High School, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Male Amateur Athlete of the Year for 2015-16. 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.
Fournette rushed for an LSU school-record 1,741 yards in 11 regular season games. He capped the season by rushing for 212 yards and scoring five touchdowns in LSU’s bowl victory over Texas Tech. His 1,953 rushing yards made him the first LSU player in history to lead the nation in rushing and the first SEC player to accomplish the feat since 1949. He was named first-team All-SEC and first-team All-America after setting an LSU record with 22 touchdowns while rushing for 200 yards four times and 100 yards 10 times. He was named a Doak Walker Award finalist and he was also named the Louisiana Offensive Player of the Year by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when 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 65th year in 2021. 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, 102 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. 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 nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
