Former Indiana football quarterback Fernando Mendoza added to his laundry list of awards from the past season after his selection as the 2025-26 Big Ten Conference Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday.
Mendoza became the sixth Indiana and eighth football student-athlete to win the award. The Hoosiers’ last winner was track and field athlete Derek Drouin in 2013, while former running back Anthony Thompson claimed the honor in 1990. The last Big Ten football player to win was Ohio State’s Chase Young in 2020.
The other three Hoosiers to win the award were Jimy Spivey for cross country in 1982, Sunder Nix for track in 1984 and Steve Alford for men’s basketball in 1987.
Mendoza was recognized for his ability to lead the Hoosiers to a 16-0 season and claiming the program’s first-ever national championship. Indiana defeated the University of Miami 27-21 on Jan. 19 with a game-clinching 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter by Mendoza.
Along with the Hoosiers winning the Big Ten Championship, Rose Bowl and Peach Bowl during the postseason, Mendoza also won Indiana’s first-ever Heisman Trophy. The Miami native previously won the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.
Mendoza led the Football Bowl Subdivision with 41 passing touchdowns, a 182.9 passing efficiency and 288 points responsible for. He was the only FBS quarterback with six games of four-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions and accounted for at least one touchdown in all 16 games.
It was a season to never forget for the University of California, Berkeley transfer, as he was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders. Mendoza will begin his NFL career against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 13 in Las Vegas.
Indiana softball player Avery Parker was Indiana’s female nominee for the award. However, UCLA women’s basketball player Lauren Betts was recognized as the 2025-26 Big Ten Conference Female Athlete of the Year. Former swimmer Lilly King was Indiana’s only female winner of the honor in 2017 and 2018.
Indiana’s football program will begin its quest for another national championship against the University of North Texas on Sept. 5 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
