February 28, 2017

Seven Jayhawks earn Big 12’s highest academic honor

IRVING, Texas – Seven Kansas student-athletes were awarded the 2017 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, the Big 12 Conference’s highest academic honor. In total, 58 student-athletes across the league’s 10 schools were honored.

Hannah Angell (swimming & diving), Grace Pickell (track & field), Chris Melgares (track & field), Zach Kirby (men’s golf), Mallory Miller (rowing), Cameron Rosser (football) and Ashley Pankey (soccer) will all receive the award and be publicly recognized at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, March 8-11.

In its seventh year, the award has recognized 482 conference student-athletes. The honor is in memory of Lage, who served as the Oklahoma State faculty athletics representative with the NCAA and the Big Eight/Big 12 Conference from 1983 until his death in 2007. He was chairman on three occasions (1985-86, 93-94 and 2003-04).

Lage had been a member of the Oklahoma State family since 1966, when he joined the College of Business Administration as an assistant professor. During his tenure at OSU, he served as the director of graduate studies in the department of economics (1974-77), head of the department of economics and finance (1978-84), director of the OSU Center for International Trade and Development (1985-87), and associate dean for research and graduate programs in the college of business administration (1997-2004).

To be honored with the accolade, student-athletes must have lettered at least once in their career while maintaining residence at their institution for at least one academic year. Each honoree can only be recognized once for the award, and should have 100 hours of earned credit with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.80 at the time of the nomination.

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