Hodge Trophy

[CholleyVandine]

The Hodge Trophy is like so many other sports awards -- it doesn't say it is, but in reality it's a lifetime achievement award. Career achievement may only be one of the 7 criteria, but the criteria are not weighted, and voters tend to vote for the seniors. Gwiz and Dieringer are both 2x defending national champs who have not lost as JRs or SRs.

I went back over the annual announcements WIN publishes when they announce the winner and found this line the year they gave it to Ness over Varner:

"... the award is a single-season award. Past credentials are used in tiebreaker situations where pin numbers, for example, are nearly equal."

Other than Burroughs getting it over Jordan Oliver in 2011, I can't find an example of an undefeated D1 champ being passed over for the Hodge in favor of an undefeated D1 champ with fewer pins that season.

 

[jammenz]

How do you quantify sportsmanship/citizenship?

They didn't when they gave it to Metcalf.

 

[mn78psu83]

They didn't when they gave it to Metcalf.

 

[El-Jefe]

I went back over the annual announcements WIN publishes when they announce the winner and found this line the year they gave it to Ness over Varner:

"... the award is a single-season award. Past credentials are used in tiebreaker situations where pin numbers, for example, are nearly equal."

Other than Burroughs getting it over Jordan Oliver in 2011, I can't find an example of an undefeated D1 champ being passed over for the Hodge in favor of an undefeated D1 champ with fewer pins that season.

That's some good research.

And also symbolic of wrestling's self-inflicted wounds. Past credentials being a tiebreaker is not described anywhere in the Hodge criteria. The only way to know that is by chance reading an announcement from the correct year, several years ago.