July 14, 2004

Navy senior Billy Hurley (Leesburg, Va.) continued to add to his trophy case when he was selected by the Patriot League sports information directors as the 2003-04 Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Hurley is a four-time All-League performer who was medalist honors at the 2004 PL Championship. He finished second in the PL Championship three-straight years prior to winning Player of the Year honors this season. He recently became the first PL golfer to gain honorable mention All-America recognition.

He is the first golfer to win the PL Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in the 14-year history of the League. Hurley is also joins former baseball standout Toby Moore (19995) as the only Navy scholar-athletes to be honored.

To be nominated for the Patriot League Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore starter or significant reserve on her team with a 3.20 cumulative grade point average and have been selected as the Scholar-Athlete of the Year of his respective sport.

A senior quantitative economics major with a 3.71 cumulative grade point average, Hurley also recently earned second team Academic All-America recognition by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He is the second-straight Midshipman to win the PL Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award, joining 2003 honoree Brian Crum.

This season, Hurley boasted a 70.53 stroke average in 13 tournaments. He captured medalist honors six times and finished in the Top 10 in 11 events. He competed in the NCAA East Regional championship at Yale, finishing in a tie for 14th place with a four-over-par 214. During his career, he won seven of 50 tournaments, finished in the Top Five 25 times and in the Top 10 31 times.

He won the 2004 Byron Nelson Award, presented to a graduating senior for excellent play during his career, character and integrity. He has also been named to the 2004 Palmer Cup team, which is a competition against top European collegiate players similar to the Ryder Cup. Hurley was also on the watch list for the 2004 Ben Hogan Award, presented to the top collegiate player.

On campus, Hurley was presented the Thompson Trophy Cup for the Midshipman who has done the most to promote athletics at the Naval Academy. He is also a four-time member of the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll.

He is competing in several national amateur championship tournaments this summer prior to his six-month deployment at sea aboard the USS Gettysburg. On July 3, Hurley captured the match-play trophy after winning medalist honors in the qualifying tournament at the Virginia State Golf Association (VSGA) Amateur Championship.