Chris Howard, the inaugural recipient of the Campbell Trophy, remains one of only two Campbell Trophy winners to hail from a service academy, which requires a grueling balancing act of academics, athletics and military duties. A two-year starter at running back for the Air Force Academy, Howard was a three-time letterman who averaged 4.5 yards per carry.
The Falcons compiled a 15-9-1 record over Howard’s final two seasons. In his senior year, Air Force upset Ohio State, 23-11, in the Liberty Bowl.
An Academic All-American as a junior and senior, the Plano, Texas, native never missed the Superintendent’s or Dean’s lists, achieving a 3.7 GPA and a 3.58 military performance average, which by military standards is extremely rare. As a junior, Howard served as Wing Sergeant Major, the highest ranking cadet in his class. As a senior, he held the Fourth Group Commander title, responsible for the discipline, training and welfare of more than 1,200 cadets. Class president for his sophomore, junior and senior years, he finished 13 out of a class of 986, earning a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University.
Currently president at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, Howard’s “partial” list of accomplishments includes earning his wings as a helicopter pilot, serving in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer where he earned a Bronze Star, Harvard MBA, manager of a $100 million Bristol-Myers Squibb HIV/AIDS initiative in southern Africa, founder of a non-profit foundation and a member of General Electric’s Corporate Initiative Group.
