Selmon Finally Receives His Outland

NORMAN, Okla. -- Sooner great Lee Roy Selmon finally picked up his Outland Trophy 32 years after winning the award.

Selmon joined 2007 recipient, LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, at an awards dinner in Omaha, Neb., on Thursday evening. The Outland award, presented each season to the nation's best collegiate interior lineman by the Football Writers Association of America, didn't present an actual trophy until the 1980s, so a past recipient is brought back each year to receive his own hardware.

"When you think of Outland, you think of guys from Nebraska and Oklahoma -- big-time football players -- guys with great character who basically come out and just beat the tar out of you,'' Dorsey said.

Part of probably the most famous set of brothers in OU history, Lee Roy Selmon and his brothers gave Oklahoma one of the greatest defenses in history. Selmon was named a consensus All-American in 1974 and 1975. He won back-to-back national championships with the Sooners those years and was named Outland Trophy winner in 1975.

"It's humbling to be as old as I am to be invited back to get anything,'' joked the 53-year-old Selmon.

Selmon's long list of achievements included the Vince Lombardi Award, Outland Trophy, National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American and Graduate Fellowship Winner National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

After one of the greatest careers in college football history, Selmon was the first-ever draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise in 1976.

Selmon, who was born in Eufaula, Oklahoma, joined his brother Dewey on the first Tampa Bay team. Dewey, a year older, was a second-round draft pick. A defensive tackle/linebacker, he played in Tampa Bay until 1980.

Although he missed six games due to injuries as a rookie, he was named the Bucs' Rookie of the Year and the team's Most Valuable Player. He battled injuries during two of his first three seasons, but starting in 1978 he was named first- or second-team All-Pro five times. He also was also All-NFC choice five times, and was named to six straight Pro Bowls from 1980 to 1985. With four sacks, he was co-Player of the Game in the 1982 Pro Bowl.

Four times the NFL Players Association named Lee Roy the NFC Defensive Lineman of the Year and he was a unanimous choice as NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1979. Selmon was a major factor in the Bucs' first winning season, which was concluded with a 9-0 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the 1979 NFC Championship Game. Lee Roy had 11 sacks and a career-best 117 tackles that year. He had three sacks in one game four times. A back injury, which forced him to miss the entire 1985 season, brought a premature end to his outstanding career.

Selmon was inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. In 1994 he became the first Sooner to be inducted into the GTE/CoSIDA Academic Hall of Fame, and in 1995 he became the first Sooner to be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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