Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the best offensive player in Division I-AA football. The honor was first given in 1987 to the outstanding player in Division I-AA, but in 1995, eligibility was restricted to offensive players. That year, the Buck Buchanan Award for I-AA defensive players was inaugurated. The trophy was named in honor of NFL legend Walter Payton, who starred at Jackson State University, which is now a I-AA school. Past Winners 1987 Kenny Gamble (Colgate) 1988 Dave Meggett (Towson) 1989 John Friesz (Idaho) 1990 Walter Dean (Grambling State) 1991 Jamie Martin (Weber State) 1992 Michael Payton (Marshall) 1993 Doug Nussmeyer (Idaho) 1994 Steve McNair (Alcorn State) 1995 Dave Dickenson (Montana) 1996 Archie Amerson (Northern Arizona) 1997 Brian Finneran (Villanova) 1998 Jerry Azumah (New Hampshire) 1999 Adrian Peterson (Georgia Southern) 2000 Louis Ivory (Furman) 2001 Brian Westbrook (Villanova) 2002 Tony Romo (Eastern Illinois) 2003 Jamaal Branch (Colgate) This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.