Dec. 2, 2002
Duquesne University's Mike Hilliard (Homer Center, Pa./Homer Center) and Joe Pavlick (Canton, Ohio/St. Thomas Aquinas) were two of 48 student-athletes named to the Verizon Academic All-America University Division Football Team it was announced today.
Hilliard, a junior finance major with a 3.59 GPA, and Pavlick, a junior information technology major with a 3.97 GPA, both earned a spot on the second team. Hilliard and Pavlick are the 22nd and 23rd different student-athletes to have earned national Academic All-America honors for the Red & Blue. Overall, DU student-athletes have been named Academic All-American a total of 32 times.
Duquesne was one of just eight schools to have multiple honorees on this year's teams. The others were Colorado State, Dayton, Iowa State, Miami, Fla., Montana State, Ohio State and Purdue. Duquesne was also the only Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Football League school to be honored.
Hilliard, a second-team All-MAAC running back and Pavlick, a starting safety, helped DU to a school record 11 wins (11-1) and its MAAC-record fourth consecutive league championship. The Dukes finished the season ranked No. 2 in the Sports Network I-AA Mid-Major Top 10.
To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his career. No athlete is eligible until he has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his institution.
The Academic All-America program was created in 1952 by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Verizon, in cooperation with CoSIDA, has been the exclusive sponsor of the Verizon Academic All-America Teams program since 1985. No other award acknowledges as many scholar-athletes for the hard work, success and balance they achieve in sports and academics.
