UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa – Men’s basketball fifth-year senior John Harrar and women’s volleyball senior Jonni Parker have been selected as Penn State’s 2021-22 recipients of the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor.
The Big Ten, the nation’s oldest collegiate conference, commemorates the 107th anniversary of a very unique tradition – the Big Ten Medal of Honor – awarded to one male and one female student from the graduating class of each member institution who has demonstrated excellence on and off the field throughout their college career.
The conference’s most exclusive award was the first of its kind in intercollegiate athletics to recognize academic and athletic excellence. The Big Ten Medal of Honor was first awarded in 1915 to one student from the graduating class of each university who had “attained the greatest proficiency in athletics and scholastic work.”
In 1982, the award was expanded to include one female student-athlete from each member institution. Big Ten institutions feature early 10,000 students competing in intercollegiate athletics, but only 28 earn this prestigious award on an annual basis. In more than 100 years of the Big Ten Medal of Honor, nearly 1,400 students have earned this distinction.
Parker is the fourth women’s volleyball student-athlete to win Big Ten Medal of Honor laurels, Michele Robinson (1992), Nia Grant (2015) and Haleigh Washington (2018). Harrar is the second Nittany Lion men’s basketball student-athlete to earn the award, joining John Amaechi (1995).
John Harrar
Harrar’s grit, determination and toughness led him to becoming one of the most beloved Nittany Lions in program history. Despite playing for three different head coaches during his time in Happy Valley, John developed into a true leader and culture builder, and a highly-accomplished student-athlete both on and off the court.
Harrar wrapped up his Penn State career with a program-record 146 games played. The Wallingford, Pennsylvania native finished his final season as one of just two Big Ten players to average a double-double with 10.6 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game, making him the first Nittany Lion in 22 years to finish the season averaging a double-double. Harrar shot 64.0 percent from the field this season, tied for the second-best single-season mark in Penn State history. A two-time…
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