All-Time Golden Wings Award Winners
By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Over the next two weeks, Tennessee Tech Athletics will recognize the best and brightest of its more than 300 student-athletes by officially releasing the winners of its 2021 Golden Wings Awards.
On Thursday, it was announced that Haeli Bryson of the Golden Eagle softball team was named the Breakthrough Female Athlete of the Year. Baseball's Cody Littlejohn took home the title of Breakthrough Male Athlete of the Year.
In 2019, Bryson made 12 starts and 20 total appearances in the circle, compiling a 3-8 record with a 5.78 ERA in 76.1 innings of work. She struck out 33 with 24 walks while allowing batters to hit .305. She also played 14 games in the field, totaling four hits with six RBI.
With the 2020 season cancelled after just 19 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the junior stepped up to become a critical component of the team's pitching rotation, making 12 starts with 22 total appearances. She trimmed her ERA down more than two full runs for a team-best mark of 3.38.
The Otto, N.C. native collected eight wins in 2021, fanning 66 with just 20 walks in 111.2 innings of action. She also held batters to just a .258 average while completing seven games. She started 46 games in the field, compiling 33 hits with 13 RBI.
Earning a much larger role in 2019, Littlejohn played in 48 of Tech's contest with 29 starts after serving mostly off the bench in his first two years in Cookeville. He hit .243 with 28 hits, 40 runs, a pair of home runs, 17 RBI and a .339 slugging percentage.
In his final year suiting up for the Golden Eagles, the Decatur, Ala. native was stellar, moving to the outfield and thriving in 47 starts. He led the purple and gold with three triples, 14 home runs and a .635 slugging percentage while ranking second in extra-base hits and RBI.
He hit .324 with 40 runs, 55 hits, 37 RBI and a .399 on-base percentage. In his final game, Littlejohn tied program single-game records with three home runs and 15 total bases (adding a triple) to help lead a five-run, ninth-inning comeback to walk-off SIUE, 13-12. He capped the year with an All-OVC First Team bid, OVC Player of the Week honor and two National Player of the Week honors (one from Collegiate Baseball and another from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association).
The Golden Wings Awards, which enters its sixth year, is an end-of-the-year award ceremony for the Tennessee Tech University student-athletes to honor and celebrate their academic and athletic accomplishments over the past complete seasons. With the cancellation of last year's spring seasons due to COVID-19, this year's awards time frame became simpler than in year's past when multiple years were used to allow for a more complete and fair field of choices. This year, all awards were selected from the accomplishments from the 2020-21 athletic year.
Previously, baseball, softball, outdoor track & field, men's golf, women's golf and tennis nominees were selected from their prior year of competition to allow a more complete campaign from which to gather nominees. The annual awards show was officially cancelled for a second year due to complications with scheduling and COVID-19 protocols. Like the 2020 awards, the choice was made to still honor the student-athletes for their accomplishments from one of the most unique athletic years in history.
Prior to the first Golden Wings Awards show, Tennessee Tech Athletics annually presented four awards to deserving student-athletes, including Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Man of the Year and Woman of the Year. The first honor established, for the 1990-91 academic year, was the Woman of the Year Award, coinciding with the first NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Two years later, in 1992-93, Tech established its Man of the Year Award. Both the Male Athlete of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year honors were added for the 1993-94 academic year. The four honors were officially adopted into the Golden Wings Awards, including criteria, for the 2016-17 academic year.
