NEWS INDEX Archives 2004 November

Scholarships available to students who excel at academics and athletics

Mare Payne, News Bureau
217-333-0567

11/4/04

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Students who excel in academics and amateur athletics are eligible to compete for the 31st annual Avery Brundage Scholarships.

Paper applications will not be distributed. Instead, scholarship applications will be submitted online. The deadline for submitting completed applications has been extended to Jan. 31, 2005.

Full-time University of Illinois students, including incoming freshman, graduate and transfer students, may apply for Brundage scholarships. Under specific conditions, grant-in-aid recipients may be eligible. Academic and athletic competence will be considered over financial need.

To qualify, undergraduate and transfer student applicants must rank in the top 25 percent of their college; incoming freshmen must rank in the upper 25 percent of their incoming class. Graduate and professional students must be in good academic standing.

In addition, students also must have demonstrated “special athletic ability” in an amateur sport in which they participated for personal development and not as preparation for professional athletics. Previous Brundage scholarship winners have represented a wide variety of sports from archery and tennis to swimming and wheelchair basketball. Last year, 19 winners were awarded $2,000 each.

Avery Brundage established the scholarships in 1974 with a $343,000 endowment to the U. of I. Foundation. In the past 31 years, 669 scholarships with a total value of $714,500 have been awarded. Brundage, a 1909 Illinois graduate, competed in the 1912 Olympics and was president of the U.S. and International Olympic committees. He also was a member of the U. of I. Foundation, the President’s Council and the Citizen’s Committee. He died in 1975.