St. Thomas football All-American Curtis James has been awarded the 2012 Division III Rimington Award as the division's best center.
James (SR-Edina) is the third winner for UST in the five-year era of Coach Glenn Caruso. Josh Ostrue was the recipient in 2008 and 2010.
St. Thomas is the lone program to have multiple winners in the 10-year history of the Division III award.
A consensus All-America in 2011 and 2012, James helped the Tommies make the NCAA playoffs all four years, win three MIAC titles and post a 50-5 overall record, capped by a national runner-up finish in 2012. James set a school record for career games played (54 of possible 55) and helped block for 42 100-yard rushing performances in the last four seasons.
This is the fifth time that a player coached by Caruso received this elite honor, which was first presented in 2000, and all those players were moved to center. When Caruso coached at North Dakota State, former tackle Rob Hunt was the Division I-AA winner in 2004. When Caruso was offensive coordinator at South Dakota, he moved Christian Morton from tackle to center, and Morton won the honor as a junior in 2006.
The Dave Rimington award is sponsored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which the former NFL quarterback founded in 1993 to raise research funds for the fight against cystic fibrosis. The award is named after a former teammate of Esiason on the Cincinnati Bengals, Dave Rimington. Rimington was an All-American center at Nebraska in 1981 and 1982 and the only double winner of the John Outland Trophy as the NCAA's Best Interior Lineman.
Past Division III winners: