Trinity creates award to honor late Graham councilman

Trinity University in San Antonio will be presenting one football player each year with an award honoring one of Graham’s own: the Spencer Street Tiger Leadership Award. Spencer Boyd Street III passed away July 29, 2016 at age 49. He was in his fifth year serving on the Graham City Council at that time, and active in Graham Rotary Club, North Texas Oil and Gas board, and as an assistant Boy Scout Master and Eagle Scout from Troop 92 in Graham. He played football at Trinity University from 1985-88, where he was seventh all-time in the university’s record books for kickoff return yards, and sixth all-time for total kickoff returns. The 2017 football season at Trinity University will conclude with the end of the year banquet for the Tigers and their first recipient of the award. “A lot of his teammates who were impacted strongly in life by Spencer’s leadership and smile and enthusiasm for life, they all approached me earlier this summer and they said ‘Coach, you know, we have a fallen soldier, so to speak, who epitomizes what the program is built on and we would like to honor him and have an award named after him,’” Trinity University Head Coach Jerheme Urban said. The award is presented to a senior who has displayed remarkable effort, desire, integrity, dedication, sportsmanship, inspiration, determination, competitiveness, leadership, courage and has a sincere concern for his fellow teammates. These are the same values that Street showed not only to his team but to those in Graham, Urban said. Votes for the award will be made by all junior, third-year players and senior players as well as coaches. Urban worked with Hugh Patterson who was Street’s team captain when he played football at Trinity, as well as former teammates, to get the award approved and said it will help many who share those same qualities that Spencer had. “I think it will be pretty darn impactful. We have a really strong tradition here and a lot of really strong alumni who believe in the program and believe in the university, and so I think that as our young men continue to progress through the program, they see that,” he said. “So when we explain what this leadership award is going to be, what the criteria is and when we talk about Spencer and everything he brought to his teammates, it is something that the guys will truly honor and they will compete for and I know that it is going to be hard for us as coaches and players who vote on it to pick somebody because it is going to mean a lot and we have got a lot of great dudes on the team who are going to be worthy of it.”