Kenneth Murray, Kaylee Dao Among Nominees for 2020 Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year

Male and female nominees were submitted by each conference institution

Football linebacker Kenneth Murray and soccer midfielder Kaylee Dao are Oklahoma’s nominees for 2020 Big 12 Sportspersons of the Year.

Winners will be announced Wednesday.

Each school was asked to submit male and female nominees. A total of 19 student-athletes were nominated.

The Big 12 began its Sportsperson of the Year Awards in 2000-01 to recognize student-athletes who display an extraordinary degree of sportsmanship, community service and academic achievement. A 10-person media panel selects the male and female honorees.

This year’s nominees are Baylor’s Nicole Thomas (volleyball) and Clay Johnston (football), Iowa State’s Sami Williams (softball) and Ray Lima (football), Kansas’ Allie Nelson (volleyball) and Bryce Tornenden (football), Kansas State’s Brynn Carlson (volleyball) and Denzel Goolsby (football), Oklahoma’s Kaylee Dao (soccer) and Kenneth Murray (football), Oklahoma State’s Jaci Jones (soccer) and Philip Redwine-Bryant (football), TCU’s Kianna Ray (basketball), Texas’ Charli Collier (basketball) and Andrew Jones (basketball), Texas Tech’s Brittany Brewer (basketball) and Zech McPhearson (football) and West Virginia’s Abby Kaufman (gymnastics) and Austin Smith (swimming & diving).

Murray’s nomination included mention of an incident last summer while he was driving home from church, during which he saw a motorist in distress and stopped and administered CPR, possibly saving the woman’s life.

A junior from Missouri City, Texas, Murray’s community service efforts included helping organize and plan weekly FCA meetings on campus as well as participating in an FCA food drive, regularly visiting OU Children’s Hospital, participating in events with the Norman Veterans Center, taking part in the Shane’s Hope project to make soap for underprivileged families, and volunteering with the Boys & Girls Club of Norman.

“Some guys go do community service, and they’re just kind of there,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “He goes and gets engaged. He goes with a purpose.”

And in something near and dear to Murray’s heart — when he was a child, his parents adopted three special needs siblings who he helped raise — he participated in the Sparrow Project to encourage and dance with special needs kids at their prom.

Dao, a graduate student from Jenks, Okla., who this spring signed to play professional soccer in Finland, became one of the most dynamic and prolific scorers in OU history.

She won OU’s 2019 Athletic Director Leadership Award, which recognizes leadership qualities like mental toughness, teamwork, displaying and earning respect, integrity and accountability.

Dao represents soccer at Captain’s Table, SAIL and SAC, was a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award (the award recognizes character, classroom, competition and community; she was later named Senior CLASS Award first-team All-American).

Dao completed her degree with a double major in Environmental Sustainability/Planned Program - Social Sciences and Organizational Studies and finished with an undergrad GPA of 3.85. She’s a four-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree who in 2018 received the Gerald Lage Achievement Award (the highest academic award given by the Big 12) and in 2019 received the Dan Gibbens Scholar Athlete of the

Year award, as well as earning CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and 2019 Big 12 Fall Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

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