Sugar Bowl

Tulane Football

The most productive quarterback in the history of Tulane University and one of the most proficient passers in the history of collegiate football, Roch Hontas reigns as the 1979 winner of the Sugar Bowl’s Corbett memorial Award as the top amateur athlete in the state of Louisiana.

James J. Corbett Awards

A 6-0 by 191 pre-medicine major, Hontas finished his Green Wave career with every passing and total offense record, including a career total of 502 of 857 (a 58.6 completion percentage) for 5,669 yards, 39 touchdowns, and 5,668 total yards.
 
His phenomenal senior season, during which he hit 215 of 367 passes for 2,345 yards and 21 touchdowns, pushes the Greenies to a 9-2 regular-season record and a spot opposite Penn State in the Liberty Bowl. All were Tulane one-season marks.
 
For Hontas, it started with a remarkable show against Stanford and ended with equally sterling performances against Mississippi and Louisiana State, with both games telecast to major regional audiences.
 
While his football accomplishments spoke for themselves, his academic achievements were equally as illustrious. For his four years at Tulane, he earned a composite grade-point average of almost 3.5.
 
Hontas is the second athlete from Tulane (Rick Kingrea, a linebacker for the Wave in 1970, preceded him) to win the special honor named in memory of the late Jim Corbett, the director of athletics at Louisiana State University at the time of his death.
 
[Reprinted from the 1981 Sugar Bowl History Book]