Nebraska football player Chris Weber was chosen as this year’s male Wayne Duke Award winner, announced by the Big Ten Conference on Tuesday. The award is an annual $10,000 scholarship recognizing one male and one female Big Ten senior pursuing a postgraduate degree for achievements in academics, athletics, extracurricular activities and leadership. On the women’s side, Rutgers’ golfer Emily Mills earned the honor.
Weber was a standout on and off the field throughout his Nebraska career. An Elkhorn High graduate, Weber will graduate from UNL in May and carries a 3.96 cumulative grade-point average in nutrition science, and has already been accepted to medical school at UNMC. On the field, Weber was a 2017 team captain and led the Huskers with 95 tackles and nine tackles for loss. He had four games with at least 10 tackles during his senior season.
Weber has also been instrumental in NU’s Life Skills program, as Weber has been named to the Brook Berringer and the Tom Osborne teams in each of the past four years. Earlier this year, Weber led NU’s Uplifting Athletes Road Race efforts, raising more than $35,000 for pediatric cancer research this year and more than $125,000 over the past four years.
Nebraska has had the male winner four of the past six years, which includes three football student-athletes. In 2013 and 2014, Nebraska had both the male and female winners.