The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame announced its 2004 National Scholar-Athletes on Monday, Nov. 1, and the list includes Elon graduate student Brandon Mason. Details...
The 15 college football players–eight from the NCAA-IA level, three from NCAA-IAA, one from NCAA-II and three from NCAA-III–will each receive an $18,000 fellowship for use toward postgraduate studies.
Every fall since 1959, the NFF/CHF has selected a group of college football players in their final year of eligibility who have demonstrated outstanding academic success, exemplary community leadership and superior football performance.
Each recipient will travel to New York City as a guest for the Foundation’s 47th Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria on Dec. 7, where they sit on the dais for the College Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies. Also at the black-tie affair that evening, the National Scholar-Athletes will witness their accomplishments being highlighted in front of a star-filled audience of more than 1,500 people.
Mason, of Martinsville, Va., was named a 2004 Second Team Don Hansen’s National Weekly Football Gazette Preseason All-American center in August after being ranked the country’s fifth-best NCAA-IAA center by The Sports Network in June. The 6-3, 260-pound Mason was tabbed to the First Team All-Southern Conference last season by the league’s coaches.
In 2004, Mason has snapped the ball for all 502 of Elon’s offensive plays and has not allowed a sack on any of the Phoenix’s 225 pass attempts. He has only missed 17 assignments, completing 97 percent of his tasks so far this season. Mason has amassed 64 knockdown blocks this fall for an average of 8.0 per game.
Last year, Mason earned Second Team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and made a repeat appearance on the Division IAA Athletics Directors Association Academic All-Star Team. He has been a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Beta Delta national honor societies.
The May 2004 Elon graduate fashioned a 3.81 career grade-point average as a business administration major and an accounting minor on his way to Magna Cum Laude status. Mason, a red-shirt as a true freshman for the 2000 campaign, is currently in his first year in the Elon MBA program.
During his undergraduate career, Mason was named to the President’s List six times, the Dean’s List twice and the Athletics Director’s Honor Roll all eight semesters. He was chosen as both a TIAA-CREF Academic All-Southern Conference selection and a Division IAA ADA Postgraduate Scholarship finalist in 2003.
Mason has been declared the NCAA-IAA Offensive Lineman of the Week once in each of the past three seasons by Don Hansen’s National Weekly Football Gazette. He has also served his team as a captain and as a member of Elon’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council.
Joining Mason as members of the 2004 National Scholar-Athlete class are Oklahoma State TE William Bajema, West Virginia OL Jeffrey Berk, Wyoming OL Trenton Franz, Georgia QB David Greene, Northern Illinois QB Josh Haldi, Wisconsin FS James Leonhard, Tennessee OL Michael Munoz, Virginia Tech QB Bryan Randall, Columbia DL Michael Quarshie, Morehead State LB Craig Unger, Eastern New Mexico FS Ty Touchstone, Middlebury WR Thomas Cleaver, Wesley FS Rocky Myers and Washington DB John Woock.