FSU's DB Myron Rolle, UCLA's OL Chris Joseph...Rhodes Scholars in 2008

Remarkable!  2008 was the year not one, but two major college football players won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.  Myron Rolle of FSU and Chris Joseph of UCLA together, accomplished something we're not likely to see again.

Of course the country knew about Rolle who was seen arriving in the second half of the FSU-Maryland game because earlier that afternoon he was in Alabama interviewing for the Rhodes Scholarship.  Very few were aware of Joseph.

Joseph started on UCLA's offensive line from 2005-2007, but was injured in 2008 and could not play. 

The Rhodes Scholarship is an international award for study at Oxford University in England.  Since 1904, it has been awarded on the basis of academic achievement and strength of character.  Approximately 75 Rhodes Scholarships are awarded each year.

In 1968 President Clinton was a recipient. Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold was a recipient in 1975 and New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley was a recipient in 1965.

It was Bradley who had gone to Princeton and had just finished his collegiate basketball career as one of the best players in the country who brought so much attention to this scholarship.  Bradley, a sure first round draft pick, decided to study at Oxford before entering the NBA where he won two championships with the Knicks.

Tom McMillian of the University of Maryland, the NBA, and the US Congress won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1974 and Pat Haden, quarterback for USC and the Los Angeles Rams, was a winner in 1978.

McMillian, Haden, and Bradley are the only well known athletes to have previously won this distinguished scholarship and that's what makes 2008 so unique.  Not only have two major college athletes won, but both play college football.

Myron Rolle, an All-American safety, will be pursuing a one-year masters in medical anthropology and like Bradley, will have to make a decision between the NFL or Oxford.  Chris Joseph will be pursuing a masters of philosophy in geography.

Any time a popular athlete receives an accolade for academics it usually brings positive attention to himself, his sport, and the school he represents.  A Rhodes Scholarship is the Super-Bowl of academic excellence.

Florida State and UCLA have gotten a plethora of feel-good publicity from these two scholar-athletes.  The notoriety they have brought their schools can be just as or more important than athletic championships.