At the beginning of the month I wrote a post about former Baylor Men’s Basketball star G Jared Butler and Baylor Soccer goalie Jennifer Wandt both being in the running for the Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year against other highly touted candidates. According to Baylor Athletics’ Jerry Hill (papa), “The Sportsperson of the Year Awards began in 2000-01 to annually recognize student-athletes who displayed an extraordinary degree of sportsmanship, community service and academic achievement. A 10-person media panel selects the male and female honorees.” And last week Thursday, Butler was named Big 12 Male Sportsperson of the Year following an incredibly historic final season with the National Champion Men’s Basketball team. In my May 30th post about Butler, the now Big 12 Male Sportsperson of the Year, declaring for the 2021 NBA Draft, I wrote “Butler is a unanimous All-American with honors on the All-Big 12 First Team, All-Big 12 All-Defensive Team, Sporting News’ All-American First Team, National Association of Basketball Coaches All-America First Team, and being named the Associated Press’ Big 12 Player of the Year and Most Outstanding Player of the 2021 Final Four. Jared Butler finished his Baylor career as arguably the best player in program history and in his final season shooting 47.1% (177-376) of his field goals, 41.6% (77-185) of 3s, and 78% (71-91) of free throws with a total of 99 boards, 144 assists, 59 steals, 11 blocks, and 502 points.” Outside of basketball, Butler represents his fellow student athletes on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee and teaches 2nd and 3rd grade Sunday school classes at Harris Creek Baptist Church. Papa Jerry Hill said, “Butler is the seventh Baylor student-athlete named as a Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year, following WBB’s Jessika Stratton (2004), MBB’s Mamadou Diene (2008), WBB’s Melissa Jones (2011), FB’s Robert Griffin III (2012), SB’s Whitney Canion (2014) and WBB’s Lauren Cox (2019).” Butler is one of the best athletes to leave Baylor and he certainly deserves every accolade he receives in the future!
