Dec. 13, 2004

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Maryland's Nick Novak, the Atlantic Coast Conference's all-time leading scorer in football, has been named as the recipient of the James E. Tatum Award, ACC Commissioner John Swofford announced today.

The Tatum Award is given annually in memory of the late Jim Tatum to the top senior student-athlete among the league's football players. Tatum, a two-time ACC Coach of the Year, coached in the fifties at both Maryland and North Carolina and believed strongly in the concept of the student-athlete.

In becoming the first Maryland student-athlete to receive the Tatum Award, Novak finished his collegiate career as the league's all-time leading scorer, and fifth in the NCAA among field goal kickers, with 393 points. The 6-0, 186-pound senior from Charlottesville, Va., also holds the ACC record with 80 career field goals and ranks fourth in points after touchdown with 153.

"I don't think there could have been a more deserving recipient for the Tatum Award than Nick Novak," said head coach Ralph Friedgen. "Everything he does in his life is toward the goal of perfection. It has been a pleasure to see the effort that he has given both on the field and in the classroom and he is a tremendous example of the type of person and player we are looking for at the University of Maryland."

A two-time first-team All-ACC selection and the conference's leading scorer in each of his first three seasons, Novak has a career grade point average of 3.473 in Kinesiology. While at Maryland, Novak has been a two-time member of the All-ACC Academic Football team, a three-time member of the ACC Honor Roll and made the Maryland's Dean's List on three occasions. He is a three-time CoSida Academic All-District selection and was named the 2004 LeFrak Scholar, an honor given to a Maryland football player, basketball player and track athlete who "exhibits extraordinary athletic ability, leadership and athletic achievement."