Wilson, Corum Named Michigan's Big Ten Medal of Honor Recipients
4/23/2024 8:38:00 PM | Football, General, Women's Gymnastics
• Michigan Big Ten Medal of Honor Recipients
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan Athletic Department announced Tuesday (April 23) that senior Blake Corum (football) and graduate student Gabby Wilson (women's gymnastics) were named its 2024 Big Ten Medal of honor recipients.
The Big Ten Medal of Honor is awarded to one male and one female student from the graduating class of each member institution who has demonstrated excellence on and off the field throughout their college career. The highest honor that a student competing in conference athletics can achieve in the Big Ten, the award was established in 1915 and was the first award in intercollegiate athletics to demonstrate support for the educational emphasis placed on athletics. During the past century, the Big Ten Medal of Honor has been awarded to more than 1,300 honorees. These individuals have translated their campus experience into success in all walks of life.
Blake Corum, Football
Corum is the department's male honoree. He is the 41st recipient of the award from the football program, joining recent honorees Adam Shibley (2021) and Jake Butt (2017).
Hailing from Marshall, Va., Corum is a graduate of U-M's School of Kinesiology with a degree in sport management. He was a CoSIDA Academic All-District 5 honoree in 2021, and three times earned Academic All-Big Ten honors.
On the field, he leaves Michigan as one of the most accomplished players in the history of a storied program. Corum's 2022 and 2023 seasons yielded two All-America honors (unanimous first team, 2022), two top-10 Heisman Trophy finishes, two Ameche-Dayne Big Ten Running Back of the Year honors, the 2022 Chicago Tribune Silver Football award, and the 2023 Comeback Player of the Year award. Corum set single-season and career program records in rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns and points scored during his 45-game career, helping lead Michigan to three consecutive Big Ten Championships (2021-23) and the 2023 National Championship as a team captain. In the national championship game he was named the game's Most Valuable Player on Offense.
The star running back says, "Football is my passion, but giving back is my purpose," and he lived that mantra during his time as a Wolverine. Through NIL earnings, he generously contributed money and many hours of his time to bettering the Ann Arbor campus community and the nearby areas of Ypsilanti and Detroit, Mich., in addition to his hometown in Virginia.
Corum's flagship event is his Giving Back 2 Give Thanks event during Thanksgiving, which he plans to continue in his future NFL city. This past November, he provided more than 600 Thanksgiving turkey meals and donated gallons of milk for those in need in Ypsilanti. Over the past three years, he donated more than 1,000 Thanksgiving meals to the community.
He provided backpacks full of school supplies to the area in a back-to-school event and undertook two holiday toy drives (2021, '23) with the Detroit Police Athletic League and Detroit Rescue Mission Ministry. In his recent drive, the public contributed more than 25,000 toys which were redistributed across Michigan, Virginia and Haiti. He has been active in visiting schools and reading to kids, contributing as a guest speaker, and has also made donations to pay rent for those in need of financial assistance.
For his off-field contributions, Corum was recognized as the 2023 AFCA Good Works Team Captain and as a finalist in 2023 for both the Wuerffel Trophy and Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award, all community service- or character-based honors.
Gabby Wilson, Women's Gymnastics
Wilson is the department's female recipient, the eighth from the women's gymnastics program as teammate Sierra Brooks earned the honor in 2023. Other gymnastics recipients include: Heidi Cohen (1987), Beth Wymer (1995), Beth Amelkovich (1999), Janessa Grieco (2003), Sarah Curtis (2011), Katie Zurales (2013) and Nicole Artz (2017).
The Ypsilanti, Mich., native is one of the top gymnasts to compete at the University of Michigan earning countless individual awards, also while helping lead Michigan to its first-ever NCAA national title in 2021. She has 44 career event titles to her name, including nine on vault, two on uneven bars, four on balance beam, 25 on floor exercise and four in the all-around. Wilson is a six-time Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association All-America honoree, as well as a four-time WCGA regular season All-American. The graduate student is also a three-time individual regional champion, with two titles on floor and one on vault, and a three-time individual Big Ten champion with two wins on vault and one on floor.
Wilson also is a five-time All-Big Ten first-team honoree and a three-time Big Ten Championships team honoree. She has been named the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week on three occasions and is a three-time Big Ten Event Specialist of the Week. In addition to her individual accomplishments, Wilson has led Michigan to three Big Ten regular-season championships, two Big Ten team championships and the 2021 national championship.
Outside of the gym, Wilson is an outstanding student who has earned her degree in English and is pursuing her Master of Public Policy. Wilson is a four-time WCGA Academic All-American, a three-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Wilson is the DEI Chair for the Student Advisory Committee, and in her sophomore season spearheaded the "Educate Us" initiative in an effort to educate her team and community about racism and discrimination in the country. With this initiative, Wilson not only educated the team but also fans, defined the problem, taught the shared history and upheld the values of the team's culture.
Wilson runs a video series that focuses on self-actualization and confidence tactics, also volunteering at local elementary schools in Ann Arbor and promoting early literacy intervention through policy research.
The Big Ten Medal of Honor is acclaimed throughout the nation, and in particular by the NCAA, "as one of the significant gestures yet made in college sports." The Big Ten Medal of Honor was expanded in 1982 to include one female student-athlete from each institution.
