PELLA—In a capstone to a historic career, one of the NCAA's loftiest honors is going to former Central College football quarterback Blaine Hawkins as he was named a recipient of the 2023 Today's Top 10 Award.
           
Hawkins, the 2021 Gagliardi Trophy winner as the outstanding football player in Division III, and nine other exceptional former student-athletes will be recognized at the Honors Celebration Jan. 11 during the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas. The awards ceremony will be streamed via the NCAA YouTube channel.
           
Initiated in 1973, the award recognizes 10 former student-athletes from across all NCAA divisions for their successes on the field, in the classroom and in the community. The recipients completed their athletics eligibility during the 2021-22 academic year.

Hawkins joins former men's lacrosse athlete Jack Mulvihill of St. John Fisher University (N.Y.) as the only two of this year's honorees from a Division III institution. The other awardees are Sylvie Binder (women's fencing), Columbia University; Jaeda Daniel (women's tennis), North Carolina State University; Brooke Forde (women's swimming), Stanford University; Naomi Girma (women's soccer), Stanford; Gianna Glatz (women's field hockey), Rutgers University; Jessica Meakim (women's gymnastics), West Chester University (Pa.); Juan Ortiz Couder (men's tennis), Embry-Riddle University (Florida); and Abby Steiner (women's track and field), University of Kentucky.
           
Hawkins is only the third student-athlete from an Iowa college or university to ever receive the award and the second in Central history. Central's Emilie Hanson, a two-time NCAA Division III women's basketball player of the year and College Sports Communicators Academic All-American® of the Year, was honored with what was then the Today's Top VIII Award in 1996 at the NCAA Convention in Dallas, Texas. The only other Iowa collegiate award recipient was Simpson College softball pitcher Kelly Schade in 2000.
           
He is the fourth Division III football player to ever win the award, and the first since 2009.
 
           
An economics and business management major, Hawkins graduated in 2021 with a 3.61 grade point average (4.0 scale). He now serves as an associate in public finance investment banking for Piper Sandler Companies in Denver, Colorado.

 "We are thrilled to celebrate this honor with Blaine," Central president Mark Putnam said. "While he was a generational talent on the football field, this award encompasses the breadth of Blaine's Central College experience and the richness of the opportunities that experience provided him, just as it does for each of our students. Much of Blaine's success is due to his taking full advantage of those varied opportunities beyond football, from pursuing a double major, to working and studying in London, to the internships he pursued, to his work with the Student Senate, as well as the heart for service he displayed in both formal and informal settings. We are proud to have Blaine stand as a representative of Central College on the NCAA Honors Celebration stage in San Antonio next month."
           
The award tops a glittering career resume. Hawkins set all-divisions NCAA records in 2021 for most touchdown passes in a season (63) and for points responsible for in a season (410). He also established new Division III records for touchdown passes in one half (7) and touchdowns responsible for in a career (178).
           
He was named the D3football.com Offensive Player of the Year and was selected to the American Football Coaches Association Division III All-America first team, the Associated Press Division III All-America first team and the D3football.com All-America first team. He was a two-time D3football.com all-region pick, a two-time American Rivers Conference Offensive Player of the Year and a three-time Heerema-Schilder Blanket Award winner as Central's team MVP.
           
Hawkins led Central to its record 32nd conference championship in 2021 after helping the Dutch claim a share of the 2019 title. In 2021, the Dutch were 10-0 in the regular season and finished 12-1 overall, advancing to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals. In 13 games, he completed 331 of 468 passes (70.7%) for 4,475 yards and eight interceptions while posting a passing efficiency rating of 192.1. He also rushed for 230 yards and five touchdowns on 83 carries.
           
He fired six or more touchdown passes in six consecutive games in 2021 and had seven games with 300 yards passing or more. Hawkins threw 251 consecutive passes without an interception. He holds nearly every school game, season and career passing mark including 41 completions in one game and 503 passing yards in another.
           
For his career, Hawkins completed 888 of 1314 passes for 11,802 yards with 32 interceptions and 148 touchdowns. He also rushed 418 times for 1,715 yards with 30 touchdowns and racked up 13,502 yards total offense. Central was 38-6 in games when he was a starter.
           
A 2021 second-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-American®, Hawkins was named to the CSC academic all-district team twice. The two-year team co-captain was a representative on Central's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Student Senate. He also was a Central Service Day participant and served as an assistant coach for a third-grade basketball team. Hawkins spent part of spring semester 2020 studying in London and completed an internship for a British firm.

The NCAA Honors Committee, which selects the honorees, is composed of nationally distinguished citizens and dedicated representatives from NCAA member schools and conferences, including past awardees. Before 2013, the award recognized eight student-athletes and was known as Today's Top VIII. The NCAA Honors Committee expanded the award to include 10 honorees to recognize the growing number of college athletes, sports and championship opportunities.