Jim Thorpe Award

For the NFL most valuable player award, see Jim Thorpe Trophy.

The Jim Thorpe Award, named in memory of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, has been awarded to the top defensive back in college football since 1986. It is voted on by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, the award became sponsored by Paycom and was named the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award.^[1]

Jim Thorpe Award

Awarded for	The top defensive back in college football
Country	United States
Presented by	Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame
History
First award	1986
Most recent	Jahdae Barron, Texas
Website	http://www.oksportshof.org

Winners

Year	Player	Position	School	Ref
1986	Thomas Everett	S	Baylor	[2]
1987 (tie)	Bennie Blades	S	Miami (FL)	[3]
	Rickey Dixon	S	Oklahoma
1988	Deion Sanders	CB	Florida State	[4]
1989	Mark Carrier	S	USC	[5]
1990	Darryll Lewis	CB	Arizona	[6]
1991	Terrell Buckley	CB	Florida State (2)	[7]
1992	Deon Figures	CB	Colorado	[8]
1993	Antonio Langham	CB	Alabama	[9]
1994	Chris Hudson	S/CB	Colorado (2)	[10]
1995	Greg Myers	S	Colorado State	[11]
1996 †	Lawrence Wright	FS	Florida	[12][13]
1997	Charles Woodson	CB	Michigan	[14]
1998	Antoine Winfield	CB	Ohio State	[15]
1999	Tyrone Carter	S	Minnesota	[16]
2000	Jamar Fletcher	CB	Wisconsin	[17]
2001	Roy Williams	SS	Oklahoma (2)	[18]
2002	Terence Newman	CB	Kansas State	[19]
2003	Derrick Strait	CB	Oklahoma (3)	[20]
2004	Carlos Rogers	CB	Auburn	[9]
2005	Michael Huff	SS	Texas	[21]
2006	Aaron Ross	CB	Texas (2)	[22]
2007	Antoine Cason	CB	Arizona (2)	[23]
2008	Malcolm Jenkins	NB	Ohio State (2)	[24]
2009	Eric Berry	SS	Tennessee	[9]
2010	Patrick Peterson	CB	LSU	[25]
2011	Morris Claiborne	CB	LSU (2)	[9]
2012	Johnthan Banks	CB	Mississippi State	[9]
2013	Darqueze Dennard	CB	Michigan State	[26]
2014	Gerod Holliman	S	Louisville	[27]
2015	Desmond King	CB	Iowa	[28]
2016	Adoree' Jackson	CB	USC (2)	[29]
2017	Minkah Fitzpatrick	S	Alabama (2)	[30]
2018	Deandre Baker	CB	Georgia	[31]
2019	Grant Delpit	S	LSU (3)	[32]
2020	Trevon Moehrig	FS	TCU	[33]
2021	Coby Bryant	CB	Cincinnati	[34]
2022	Tre Tomlinson	CB	TCU (2)	[35]
2023	Trey Taylor	FS	Air Force	[36]
2024	Jahdae Barron	CB	Texas (3)

† In 1996, finalist Chris Canty of Kansas State University withdrew his name from consideration, which caused a re-vote.^[37]