Vanden Bosch Earns Draddy Award as Nation's Top Scholar-Athlete

New York -- Two-time Academic All-American Kyle Vanden Bosch was named the top scholar-athlete in college football Tuesday night in New York City, picking up the Vincent dePaul Draddy Award during a banquet honoring the 2000 College Football Hall of Fame inductees.

The Draddy Award is a $25,000 scholarship awarded to one recipient each year. He is the second Husker player to earn the award in the 11 years it has been awarded. Offensive tackle Rob Zatechka earned the Draddy Award in 1994.

Vanden Bosch said he was stunned to be given the honor.

"It's tremendous. I got to know the other ($18,000 postgraduate scholarship) recipients and they were all just as deserving of the award," Vanden Bosch said. "It's been a great couple of days. I got to meet Hall of Fame inductees and great coaches and players, lots of Heisman winners. It's all been so fast."

The senior rush end from Larchwood, Iowa, will graduate Saturday with a degree in finance. He said after he takes his last final on Thursday, he plans to take next semester off to concentrate on workouts for the NFL teams, but the $43,000 in scholarships from the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame, will help with his post-football goals.

"Eventually, I want to come back to Nebraska and get a master's degree," Vanden Bosch said. "Then I'll see where that takes me."