Today, I salute Army Veteran and Heisman Trophy Winner Pete Dawkins. At age 11, Pete defied the odds and beat Polio. Because of it, regular exercise became a lifestyle for him. Pete attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, playing halfback with the football team from 1956 to 1958. In 1958, he won the Heisman Trophy. After graduating in 1959, Dawkins studied at England’s Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. He then attended the Army’s Infantry School and Ranger School, both at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he commanded a rifle company. For his wartime service in Vietnam, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals with “V” device for valor in combat.
