The S. Rae Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year award, commonly known as the Hickok Belt, is a trophy awarded to the top professionalathlete of the year in the United States. First awarded from 1950 to 1976, it was dormant until being revived in 2012, and continues to be awarded.
History
The award was created by Ray and Alan Hickok in honor of their father, Stephen Rae Hickok, who had died unexpectedly in December 1945.[1][2] Hickok had founded the Hickok Manufacturing Company of Rochester, New York, which made belts—hence the choice of a belt for the trophy.[3]
The trophy was an alligator-skin belt with a solid-gold buckle, an encrusted 4-carat (0.80 g) diamond, and 26 gem chips. It was valued at $10,000 in 1951 ($117,385 in 2023),[4] and its presentation was a major event in sporting news of the day.[5]
A group of 200 sportswriters throughout the U.S. selected monthly winners, with an annual winner (who received the belt) selected from those honorees.[4][a] For the first 21 years, from 1950 to 1970, the belt was awarded in Rochester at the annual Rochester Press-Radio Club dinner. After the Hickok company was taken over by the Tandy Corporation, the award was presented in larger cities such as Chicago or New York. After the 1976 annual award was presented, monthly awards were issued through October 1977 (naming a September winner), then halted.[7] The award remained dormant for a number of years.
During the first 27 years the annual award was presented, it was won 15 times by baseball players, five times by football players, four times by boxers, and three times by golfers. The only two-time winner was Sandy Koufax, in 1963 and 1965.
Revival
In 2010, Tony Liccione, the president of the Rochester Boxing Hall of Fame, announced plans to reinstate the Hickok Belt starting in 2012.[8] The mold for the belt used from 1951 onward[b] was found and planned to be used again.[8] Liccione invited the 18 surviving belt winners (except O. J. Simpson, who at the time was incarcerated in Nevada) to the Comeback Dinner, which was held on October 16, 2011, at St. John Fisher College.[8][9]
Since being re-established in 2012, the award has been based on a vote by the National Sports Media Association;[10] however, there have been no public award ceremonies or belt presentations.[11] A 20-member panel chooses one athlete each month, with the 12 monthly winners being eligible for the award at the end of the calendar year.[10]
From 2012 through the 2023 award, five winners have been basketball players, four have been baseball players, two have been football players, and one has been a swimmer. There have been two two-time winners: LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes.
Winners
Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax was the award's only two-time winner prior to the award's revival in 2012Rocky Marciano, the first non-baseball winner of the award
1950–1976
The following athletes won the award during its original term.[c] Contemporary newspaper reports indicate that monthly winners were also named,[12] only some of whom are included in this table.
^Annual voting does not appear to have been strictly limited to monthly winners, as 1951 annual voting included Bobby Thomson, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio, and Terry Sawchuk, none of whom were a monthly winner during 1951.[6]
^The first belt, in 1950, misspelled S. Rae Hickok as S. Ray Hickok.
^For a biographical sketch of each winner from 1950 to 1976, see section further reading.
^Top vote-getter for March 1950 was college basketball coach Nat Holman, who had guided the CCNY Beavers to the NCAA title, but he was ruled ineligible "because he could not be classed as a professional athlete."[13]
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