Former Southern Miss football legend Reggie Collier will be the featured keynote speaker at the 2019 C Spire Conerly Trophy awards program on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the Country Club of Jackson.
The C Spire Conerly Trophy is presented annually to the top college football player in Mississippi and is named after Charlie Conerly, a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer, college All-American, an NFL rookie of the year and NFL All-Pro who quarterbacked the New York Giants to a world championship.
Fans and sports media reporters covering college football in the Magnolia State help select the winner every year. Previous winners have included former and current NFL players A. J. Brown, Dak Prescott, Eli Manning, Evan Ingram, Anthony Dixon, Patrick Willis, Jerious Norwood, Austin Davis and Michael Boley.
Collier, a member of the Southern Miss Hall of Fame and Legends Club and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, set rushing and passing records and led D’Iberville High School to a perfect 13-0 record as a dual-threat quarterback in 1979 and was MVP of the Mississippi High School All-Start football game.
After high school, Collier starred four years at Southern Miss, becoming the first quarterback in NCAA Division 1 history in 1981 to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 1,000 yards in the same season. He led the Golden Eagles to stunning victories over Florida State, Alabama and multiple wins over in-state rivals Ole Miss and Mississippi State during his college career.
Collier was drafted in the first round with the third pick overall by the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL in 1983. He also played professional football in the NFL and AFL over a 10-year career with seven different teams. The D’Iberville native had his No. 10 jersey retired in 2008 by Southern Miss and served as the school’s coordinator of Athletic Development and Community Relations.
This will be the 24th annual presentation of the trophy, which was won last year by Jeffrey Simmons, a Tennessee Titans defensive end and former Mississippi State star. The 7th annual Entergy Kent Hull Trophy also will be presented to the top offensive lineman in college football in the state. Coaches and finalists from all the schools are expected to attend.
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