The All Sports Association is proud to announce that nominations for the 2018 Col. Al Byrne Award for Community Service to Youth Athletics, are now being accepted.
Named after the founder of the All Sports Association, the Colonel Al Byrne Award recognizes local individuals who share the late Colonel’s belief that all youth should be provided the facilities and adult leadership to experience athletic training and competitive individual and/or team sports.
Nominees for the award should share the belief, as he did, that those youth that participate will learn skills and obtain values that will help them succeed in their later life endeavors. Nominees should have also demonstrated a commitment to these beliefs by sharing their time, talents and, in many cases, personal resources with no recognition required or desired.
Voted on by the past presidents of the association, the Col. Al Byrne Award has been called the highest honor an athletics volunteer in northwest Florida can receive by not only by sportswriters, but by the past recipients themselves. The winner’s name is a tightly held secret until the night of the annual All Sports Association Awards Banquet each February, the only All Sports Association award presented where the winner is unknown to the audience until that evening.
The nomination form for the award can be found by clicking HERE . Upon completion, please email to the Col. Al Byrne Award Chairman, Rube Manasco, at reubman@cox.net, or print and send by U.S. Mail to:
Mr. Rube Manasco
All Sports Association
Col. Al Byrne Award Committee
P.O. Box 2591
Fort Walton Beach, FL 32549
Nominations for the award close November 30, 2017.
Past Col. Al Byrne Award Recipients
2017 Todd Gatlin
2016 Sherman Moon
2015 John Watts
2014 Brian and Kathy Haugen
2013 Bill Shirah
2012 Rev. James T. Ross
2011 Ralph Duncan
2010 Fred Carley
2009 Bob Lynn
2008 Tom Brassell, Don Pattison
2007 Rube Manasco
2006 Sam Brunson
2005 Paul Martin
2004 James C. “Jimmy” Campbell
2003 Mary Jane Ross
2002 Huburt “Rocky” Bates
2001 Bull Cochran
2000 James Campbell
1999 Bruce Ravan
1998 Charles Morgan, John Shortall
1997 Judge Alfred Ben Gordon, Jr., Kathleen A Ravan
1996 Ralph Frangioni
1995 Al Beedie
1994 Hiram Cook
1993 Leven Lord
1992 Bill Roberts, Jr., Pud Hutcheson, Robert Taylor
1991 Ray Deal, George Palmer
1990 Buddy O’Neal, H.A. Bruner, Jay Farris, Arthur Mikel
1989 Julius Rice, M.L. Hayden
1988 Michael Woodham
1987 Louis Woodham, H.P. Pat Campbell, Bill Preston, Sr., Gene Thomas
1986 Grady Smith
1985 Dr. Eddie Zant
1984 Ron Balicki
1983 O.R. Bailey
1982 Joe Etheridge
1981 Houston Harrison
1980 Jerry Brigante
1979 Rev. Talmadge Smith
1978 Buddy Elliott
1977 Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth
1976 Bettye Campbell
1975 Hal Wyatt
1974 Buck Smith
