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Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award
The
Frances Pomeroy
Naismith Award
was an annual
college basketball
award in the
United States
intended to honor shorter-than-average players who excelled on the court
despite
their
size
. The award, named in honor of James Naismith's daughter-in-law, was established for men in 1969 and for women in 1984. The men's award was presented to the nation's most outstanding
senior
who is 6 ft 0 in or shorter, while the women's award was presented to the top senior who is 5 ft 8 in or shorter. Early in the women's award's history, the cut-off height was. The men's award was selected by a panel from the
National Association of Basketball Coaches
, while the women's was selected by the
Women's Basketball Coaches Association
. The award was discontinued following the 2013–14 season.
The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award was restricted to players who
competed
in
NCAA Division I
competition, but in
the past
it was open to all
NCAA
levels. For the men's winners,
John Rinka
from
Kenyon College
, Mike Scheib from
Susquehanna University
and
Jerry Johnson
from
Florida Southern College
were winners from
NCAA Division II
,
Division III
, and
Division II
, respectively. For the women's winners, Julie Dabrowski of
New Hampshire College
and
Amy
Dodrill and Angie Arnold , both from
Johns Hopkins University
, were also winners from Division III.
Only three schools from the
list of
men's winners and six schools from the list of women's winners had multiple award winners. Of these programs, the only one with winners in
consecutive
seasons is the
Louisville
men's program. Six other schools have had winners of both the men's and women's awards:
California
,
Eastern Michigan
,
NC State
,
Purdue
,
Virginia
, and
Wake Forest
.
Key
Winners