Alex Shillow named LSC Fred Jacoby Academic Athlete of the Year.

RICHARDSON – Texas A&M University-Commerce football safety Alex Shillow has been named the 2020 Lone Star Conference Fred Jacoby Academic Athlete of the Year presented by Barnes & Noble College. The awards (one male and one female) were announced Tuesday following a vote of the league’s sports information directors. The nominees included the Academic Player of the Year in each sport as selected during the year. 

Shillow is the second Lion to win this award in its 13-year history, and the first member of the Lion Football team to win the award. The Pflugerville HS product is the fourth football player from any school to win the award. 

Shillow has distinguished himself on the field, in the classroom, and the community during his career at A&M-Commerce. In January, his classmates elected him to his second term as the National Chair of the NCAA Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). He is the president of the A&M-Commerce SAAC, which has won the last three LSC SAAC Cups and selected to reveal multiple Make-A-Wish recipients. He was a 2019 nominee for the American Football Coaches’ Association’s Good Works Team and recipient of the NACDA John McLendon Minority Postgraduate Scholarship. 

Shillow received the honor as a CoSIDA Second-Team Academic All-America and the Lone Star Conference Academic Player of the Year in football in the 2019 season. He graduated summa cum laude with his bachelor’s degree in sports management in August 2019. He is currently pursuing his Masters of Business Administration and will return for his final season of competition in the fall of 2020. 

He has been named to the President’s List four times, Dean’s List two times, LSC Commissioner’s Honor Roll seven times, and D2ADA Academic Achievement Award twice. 

On the field, Shillow has been named Second Team All-LSC in 2019 and 2017 with 159 tackles, four interceptions, 17 passes defended, three fumble recoveries, and 5.5 tackles for loss in 36 games over three seasons. The Lions went 35-7 in Shillow’s three seasons on the field with an NCAA Division II National Championship in 2017, Super Region Four final appearance in 2019, and three overall playoff appearances. 

LSC Fred Jacoby Academic Athletes of the Year