INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Alonzo Mourning, who starred at Chesapeake’s Indian River High School, is one of six former athletes who will receive the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award for collegiate and professional achievements.
1990: ALONZO MOURNING OF GEORGETOWN LOOKS TO PASS THE BALL DURING THE HOYAS GAME AGAINST THE SYRACUSE ORANGEMEN AT THE MCDONOUGH ARENA IN WASHINGTON D.C. (Photo: Allsport/ALLSPORT)
The Silver Anniversary Award annually recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their college athletics careers.
Joining Mourning as 2017 recipients are Ty Detmer, Susan Robinson Fruchtl, Heather Taggart, Tommy Vardell and Troy Vincent. The NCAA will recognize the honorees at the Honors Celebration during the 2017 NCAA Convention on Jan. 18 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mourning is one of only two Georgetown men’s basketball players to graduate with 2,000 or more points and 1,000 or more rebounds.
As a freshman, he was an immediate contributor to the program, earning accolades as the Defensive Player of the Year. In the 1991-92 season, despite his team’s loss in the conference tournament championship game, he was named Big East Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Tournament Most Valuable Player.
He graduated with a degree in sociology. Mourning was selected second overall in the 1992 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets and went on to play 15 seasons in the league.
He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and two-time Defensive Player of the Year. Mourning represented the United States in the 2000 Olympics Games in Sydney, where he won a gold medal, and he won the NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2006.
Mourning now works as the Heat’s vice president of player programs. He also manages charities, including Zo’s Fund for Life, which seeks to raise funds for research, education and testing to fight focal glomerulosclerosis; Athletes for Hope, which he cofounded to help professional athletes engage in charitable causes in their communities; and the Overtown Youth Center, which aims to inspire, empower and enrich children in Miami, Florida.
