The Bob Crenshaw Award

By Jim Joanos

Every year since 1958, the Tallahassee Quarterback Club has presented the "Bob Crenshaw Award" to the Florida State University football player "with the biggest heart." The award is appropriately named for one of the finest and bravest men that ever played for the Seminoles.

Bob Crenshaw

Bob Crenshaw came to FSU in the fall of 1952. He was not very big. He never weighed more than 165 pounds. He was not very fast either. But what Cren did have was a "big heart." During the four years that he played for FSU he was the smallest starting center on any major football team in the country. He also played linebacker on defense as players then had to play both ways. Those were pretty good teams. In his junior year they were selected for and played in the Sun Bowl. As such they were the first college football team from the State of Florida to play in a bowl game out of the state. Some of the players from those teams have become household names to Seminole fans; names like Lee Corso, Burt Reynolds, Vic Prinzi, Ron Schomburger, Vince Gibson, and Gene Cox. In his senior season, Cren, along with Don Powell served as co-captains of the team.

At FSU, Bob Crenshaw did lots of other things. He was his junior and senior class president. He was an honor student and a very active member of the Methodist student group and the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He was awarded a number of leadership awards including membership in Omicron Delta Kappa and the FSU student hall of fame. When he graduated he was elected the permanent class president of the Class of 1956.

On graduation day, Cren was commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. A year later, he had his pilot wings. A year after that, in 1958, at the age of 24 years, he was killed in a plane crash.

Those of us who knew him often think of him in connection with FSU football. We still compare the gutty performances that we see on the field to the memories when Cren blocked or tackled guys 40, 50 or even 60 pounds heavier.

Through the years, some very special people have won this award. To mention a few: Kim Hammond, Joe Camps, Monk Bonosorte, Lawrence Dawsey and Anquan Boldin, have been so honored.

Andrew Datko

The winner of this year's award, Andrew Datko, plays left tackle for the Seminoles. The primary responsibility of the left tackle is to keep the quarterback from being blind sided, a most important assignment.

Andrew came to FSU in 2008 after an outstanding high school football career at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Broward County. Most offensive linemen at FSU redshirt their first year, but by the second game of his true freshman season, Datko had already become a starter. By the end of that season he had been acclaimed a freshman All American. He started the last twelve games of his freshman season and all of them in 2009 as a sophomore when he was proclaimed an Honorable Mention All-ACC player.

This season was going to be an even bigger one for Andrew but ill fortune struck early. Near the end of the second game of the season against Oklahoma Datko went down with a left shoulder injury. Thus, Datko's streak of 27 consecutive games as a starter ended as he was forced to miss the next three games. But despite the injury, which persisted and will require surgery after the season, Datko bounced back and started the last seven games of the regular season as well as the ACC championship game. Not only did he play with pain but excelled in doing it. He has not given up a sack in ten games. Randy Oravetz, FSU's head trainer, who has seen a lot of players describes Datko as "one of the toughest offensive linemen" that he has ever seen play. An example of his ability to play football and his courage was the Florida game in which he not only did not allow a sack but graded out at 92 per cent on his blocking. He also earned the second highest grade among offensive linemen in the ACC championship game.

Andrew Datko is indeed a worthy recipient of this year's Bob Crenshaw Award.