SEARCY – Nathaniel Wallace, a member of the Harding University football team from Bryant, Arkansas, and Sam Tandy, a member of the golf team from Fayetteville, Arkansas, are the men's 2024 M.E. Berryhill Award winners, and Kelli McKinnon from the volleyball team was the women's winner.
The Berryhill Award is the highest award the Harding athletic department gives and is named after former coach and athletics director M.E. Berryhill. The honor is given to a senior male and female athlete who possesses the characteristics of athletic excellence and strength of character.
This is the first time in Berryhill Award history that two men have received the award in the same year.
Wallace played in 48 games for the Bison football team and was a 2023 First Team AP, D2CCA, and AFCA All-American. He was the 2023 Super Region 3 Defensive Player of the Year and Great American Conference Player of the Year. Wallace had 94 career tackles and ranked fourth at Harding with 21.5 career sacks. During his career, Harding had a 45-6 record and won the 2023 NCAA Division II national championship.
Wallace earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing in December 2023.
Tandy is Harding's career leader with a 72.44 stroke average and .824 individual winning percentage. In 2023, he earned PING Third Team All-American and CSC First Team Academic All-American, becoming only the eighth Harding male athlete to earn All-America and Academic All-America in a career. In 2024, Tandy is ranked 12th in NCAA Division II and placed third at the 2024 GAC Championship.
Tandy is a finance major and will graduate in May.
Wallace is the 27th Harding football player to receive the Berryhill Award since its inception in 1963. The most recent were Romo Westbrook (2015), Park Parish (2017), Gavin De Los Santos (2018), Bryce Bray (2019), Cole Chancey (2022) and Cade Pugh (2023).
Tandy is Harding's first golf-only male athlete to win the Berryhill Award. The three other golf winners—Matt Hall (2008), Aaron Farley (2003) and Hubie Smith (1983)—also played basketball.
McKinnon was the 2022 Great American Conference Player of the Year and a Second Team All-Central Region honoree. She earned All-GAC honors three times. Kelly ranks eighth at Harding in career attack percentage (.282) and ninth in solo blocks (52).
McKinnon earned CSC Academic All-America honors in 2022, is a three-time Academic All-GAC recipient and twice received GAC Elite Scholar Athlete accolades.
McKinnon is the 10th member of the Harding volleyball team to earn the Berryhill Award. She joins Karen Mason (1985), Dawn Mason (1986), Kelly Willingham (1991), Lori Hendricks (1996), Erika Pierson (2001), Amie Morrison (2005), Synda Veitenheimer (2006), Mollie Arnold (2014) and Zoe Hardin (2019).
