Madigan named Academic All-America Division III Football Team Member of the Year

Capping his standout final season playing Red Hawks football, Cormac Madigan ’22 of Rosendale, Wisconsin, has received the highest honor College Sports Communicators (CSC) offer. He has been named Academic All-America Division III Football Team Member of the Year in recognition of his achievements on the competition field as well as in academics.

“It’s a great honor that shows just how much the Ripon College community can help individuals excel,” Madigan says. “This honor wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible professors and coaches I was fortunate to learn from and the teammates and peers who have worked with and supported me throughout the years.”

Madigan, a chemistry-biology major, holds a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. On the football field, he was one of the most dynamic players in the country this fall, putting up a league-best 1,491 all-purpose yards to go with 14 touchdowns in just 10 games. He led the Midwest Conference with 1,150 yards on the ground, ranked second with 115.0 yards per game and averaged 6.4 yards per carry. Additionally, Madigan finished the campaign with 341 yards on 28 catches out of the Red Hawks backfield.

He was the cornerstone of a Ripon program that turned in its best season in more than a decade, posting a 9-1 record and scoring nearly 40 points per game. In addition to his recognitions from CSC, Madigan also was selected as the Midwest Conference (MWC) Offensive Skill MVP, the MWC Elite 20 Award Winner, and the Player of the Year by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.

Patrick Willoughby, associate professor of chemistry and Madigan’s faculty research advisor, says, “Cormac is one of the most hardworking and motivated students I have encountered at Ripon College. His accomplishments expand beyond the classroom and athletic field, and he has been an inspiration to us all.

“One of our first conversations was in the Career Center during his first year where he said he wanted to become a physician. Since then, he has been focused on this career trajectory and has become one of the most accomplished students to graduate from Ripon. What makes Cormac unique from other high-caliber students is his ability to enhance the lives of others during his journey. In the face of navigating the requirements of an aspiring physician, Cormac performed at the highest level while placing the interests of teammates, fellow students, and surrounding community ahead of his own. He achieved a perfect GPA and high MCAT score while working third shift as a medical scribe, researching the use of enzymes for making pharmaceuticals and volunteering to monitor bluebird activity.

“The fact that these accomplishments are mirrored by a similar resumé on the football field makes Cormac uniquely inspiring. On his one day off from preseason football workouts in August 2022, Cormac traveled to Chicago to present at the American Chemical Society National Conference. We left at 6 a.m., returned at midnight, and he was back on the field the following morning.”

Click here to watch Academic All-America’s interview with Madigan and fellow honoree Ryan Cole from Morningside University.

In addition to his recent honor, Madigan also garnered multiple academic all-conference honors and the Midwest Conference’s prestigious Roy W. LeClere award, presented to the conference’s male student-athlete who posted the highest grade-point average as a junior. He was just the second Ripon student-athlete to win the LeClere Award in its 37 years of existence.

Posted December 20, 2022 in Academics, Athletics News, Student.