As the Ohio Valley Conference celebrates its 75th anniversary this academic year, we look back at Eastern Illinois part in that history each Tuesday.
Linebacker Donald Thomas was the 2006 OVC Defensive Player of the Year, one of four EIU football players to have won the award.
Thomas helped lead EIU to a second straight OVC regular-season championship and FCS playoff appearance. He finished the year with 127 tackles, the third most by an EIU player during the Panthers time as a member of the OVC.
Thomas as the second straight EIU player to win the award after linebacker Clint Sellers won the award in 2005. Nick Ricks was the first EIU player to capture OVC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2002 and Dino Fanti was the most recent winning the award during the 2015 season.
🏈👏 #OVCit | #OVC75
