| USBWA Most Courageous Award | |
| Description: | Individuals associated with men's and women's college basketball who have demonstrated extraordinary courage in life |
| Presenter: | United States Basketball Writers Association |
| Country: | United States |
| Year: | 1978 |
| Holder: | Men's: Jeremiah Armstead, Fisk (2024) Women's: Joye Lee-McNelis, Southern Miss (2024) |
| Website: | Official site |
The USBWA Most Courageous Awards are two annual basketball awards given by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) to figures associated with college basketball who, according to the organization, have "demonstrated extraordinary courage reflecting honor on the sport of amateur basketball."[1] Since 2012, the women's version of the award has been named the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award in honor of the legendary Tennessee women's coach who received the award that year.[2] Effective with the 2021 awards, the men's version is known as the Perry Wallace Most Courageous Award in honor of the Vanderbilt player who was the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference.[3]
The award was first presented in 1978, and was not initially restricted exclusively to college basketball, although every winner since 1980 has been associated with the college game in some manner. Through 2009, a single award was presented; starting in 2010, separate awards have been given for men's and women's college basketball. More than one individual can receive an award, with the most recent example being in 2023, when the men's award was presented to players Terrence Hargrove of Saint Louis and Connor Odom of Utah State. Traditionally, the winners receive their awards at the men's or women's Final Four (as applicable), although the awards can be presented earlier as circumstances dictate. The most notable exception was when the 2015 Summitt Award was presented to Lauren Hill at halftime of her first college game in November 2014, presumably so she would receive the award while alive (at the time, she was not expected to survive until the 2015 Final Four).[2] Only the men's award was presented in 2021, but both awards were again presented in 2022.
Most honorees have been cited for courage as current or former college players. However, the list of recipients also includes coaches, the wife of a coach, two broadcasters, a referee, an athletic program staffer, the widow of a former player (recognized alongside her late husband), and three college basketball programs.
The award's bifurcation by sex or gender is not based on that of the recipient, but rather on whether the recipient was connected to the men's or women's game. In 2019, a woman received the men's award and a man received the women's award.
All affiliations listed were current at the time the award was presented. The "Notes" column indicates the situation that led the USBWA to present the award.
All winners during this period were associated with men's basketball unless noted otherwise.
| 1978 | Player | Cancer patient | |||
| 1979 | Batesville High School (Indiana) | Player | Played despite having only one arm | ||
| 1980 | Player | Cancer patient | |||
| 1981 | Player | Cancer patient | |||
| 1982 | Player | Overcame "tremendous personal and physical problems" | |||
| 1983 | Player | Overcame serious complications of injuries in an auto accident | |||
| 1984 | Assistant coach | Rescued an elderly couple from a home fire | |||
| 1985 | Player | Overcame a life-threatening illness | |||
| 1986 | Head coach | Recovered from emergency brain aneurysm surgery | |||
| 1987 | Player | Recovered from serious injuries in an auto accident | |||
| 1988 | Player | Overcame the murder of his father during his college career | |||
| 1989 | Former player | Played wheelchair basketball after being paralyzed in an auto accident | |||
| 1990 | Player | Went from homelessness to a Division I scholarship | |||
| 1991 | Player | Returned from an irregular heartbeat and many injuries | |||
| 1992 | Referee | Officiated college games while battling cancer for 13 years | |||
| 1993 | Broadcaster and former coach (Iona, NC State) | Battled bone cancer | |||
| 1994 | Player | Survived childhood in a difficult New York City neighborhood, including being shot in the head | |||
| 1995 | Head coach | Overcame racial prejudice and the cancer death of his daughter during his career | |||
| 1996 | Marymount (women's) | Player | Returned to play a year after receiving a liver transplant | ||
| 1997 | Player | Recovered from surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his arm | |||
| 1998 | Player | Went from war-torn Liberia to Division I basketball | |||
| 1999 | Player | Played despite having only one eye since a middle school accident | |||
| 2000 | Player | Started despite losing the index finger of his shooting hand in an auto accident | |||
| 2001 | Entire program | Program | Dealt with the aftermath of a plane crash that killed 10 team members | ||
| 2002 | Player | Played successfully despite 80% hearing loss | |||
| 2003 | Virginia Tech (women's) | Former player | Survived an infection that led to the amputation of parts of all four limbs after her freshman season | ||
| 2004 | Assistant coach | Coached despite suffering from a lung disease that eventually required a double lung transplant | |||
| 2005 | Player | Played successfully despite having full use of only one arm | |||
| 2006 | Head coach | Continued to coach despite Guillain–Barré syndrome | |||
| 2007 | Entire program | Program | Dealt with the aftermath of a summer 2006 shooting that left five players injured | ||
| 2008 | Player | Returned from a major neck injury suffered during a November 2006 game | |||
| 2009 | Player | Played while undergoing treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma |
| Year | Recipient | Affiliation | Role | class=unsortable | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Head coach | Returned from a battle with pancreatic cancer | ||||
| 2011 | Player | First Iranian-born Division I player, despite often-troubled U.S.–Iran relations | ||||
| 2012 | [4] | Player | Went from high school dropout to military veteran to Division I player | |||
| 2013 | [5] | Sports information director | Continued to work despite suffering from ALS | |||
| 2014 | [6] | Player | align=left | Went from war-torn South Sudan to the Ivy League | ||
| Director of basketball operations | align=left | Worked while battling pancreatic cancer | ||||
| 2015 | [7] | Player | Survivor of two plane crashes that killed the rest of his immediate family, the second of which left him in a coma for two months | |||
| 2016 | [8] | Former player and his widow | Battled what proved to be fatal non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia, and publicized need for bone marrow donors | |||
| 2017 | [9] | Player | Social activism surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline protests | |||
| 2018 | [10] | Idaho State | Player | Left homeless at age 13 due to his parents' addictions; also one of the shortest Division I men's players at 5'7"/1.70 m | ||
| 2019 | [11] | Wife of coach | Donated a kidney to former Division I men's coach Billy Gillispie, whom she had never met before the surgery | |||
| 2020 | [12] | Player | Went from a childhood spent in roughly 50 foster homes to an NCAA Division III All-American | |||
| 2021 | Bluefield Rams[13] | Team | align=left | Protesting racial injustice, knelt before the national anthem before a game in defiance of orders from the college president | ||
| 2022 | [14] | Players | Both averaged double figures in scoring for their respective teams while battling cancer (stomach cancer for Hardy, leukemia for Jones) | |||
| Texas | ||||||
| 2023 | [15] | Players | Extensively advocated for players' mental health after personally experiencing mental health issues (depression for Hargrove, severe anxiety and OCD for Odom) | |||
| Utah State | ||||||
| 2024 | [16] | Player | align=left | Went from homelessness in high school to college basketball |
| 2010 | Player | Believed to be the smallest college player ever (4'6"/1.37 m); survived premature birth, blind in one eye, more than 50% hearing loss, severe scoliosis | ||||
| 2011 | Player | Believed to be the first Division I women's player to wear Islamic coverings while playing | ||||
| 2012 | Head coach | Publicly announced her diagnosis with early-onset dementia, and continued to coach in the 2011–12 season | ||||
| 2013 | Head coach | Publicly acknowledged being a victim of child sexual abuse by her father | ||||
| 2014 | Head coach | Dealt with the unexpected death of her husband shortly before giving birth | ||||
| 2015 | Player | Played while battling what proved to be a fatal brain tumor | ||||
| 2016 | Head coach | Survivor of stage 2 lymphoma | ||||
| 2017 | [17] | Head coach | align= left | Continued to coach while undergoing treatment for stage 3 endometrial cancer | ||
| Broadcaster | align= left | Continued to cover basketball while undergoing treatment for desmoplastic melanoma | ||||
| 2018 | [18] [19] | Saint Joseph's | Player | Sidelined two seasons after suffering a stroke as a freshman at Saint Joseph's in 2014; returned to active playing duty in 2017–18 | ||
| 2019 | [20] | Head coach | Continued as head coach in 2018–19 despite suffering a stroke in the 2018 offseason | |||
| 2020 | [21] | Players | Sisters who played while dealing with type 1 diabetes, with the older Lauren playing at an All-American level | |||
| Lubbock Christian | ||||||
| 2021 | Not presented | |||||
| 2022 | [22] | Player | align=left | First-team all-conference player despite having undergone more than a dozen surgeries for a cleft lip, cleft palate, and multiple heart issues | ||
| 2023 | [23] | Player | align=left | Survived childhood physical abuse and multiple suicide attempts[24] to establish a foundation that helps youth dealing with abuse | ||
| 2024 | [25] | Coach | align=left | Continued as head coach despite a third diagnosis of lung cancer |