CHAMPAIGN — Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer is the winner of the Loren Tate Media Award.
The award, named after longtime Champaign News-Gazette writer Loren Tate, is awarded to the Illinois football player who not only is most cooperative with local media but exhibits himself with professional integrity in all interactions. Media members who regularly cover the Illinois football team voted on the award.
This season's voting included 20 media members from 12 different outlets who regularly cover the Illini. Altmyer appeared on 18 of 20 ballots and received 14 first-place votes and four second-place votes. Altmyer is the third recipient of the award following wide receiver Pat Bryant (2024) and wide receiver Isiaiah Williams (2023).
"Luke is one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in Illinois history, but what he has represented off the field has been just as impactful," said Illinois head coach Bret Bielema. "He is an outstanding winner of this year's Loren Tate Award. Luke embodies everything that Illinois Football and Loren Tate stand for. He is a consistent leader that lives his routine every day. He will represent Loren's award for years to come in the NFL and beyond."
Altmyer enters this month's Music City Bowl after earning All-Big Ten honorable mention. He is sixth in the Big Ten in passing yards (2,811) and completion percentage (68.1%) and fifth in the conference in passing touchdowns (21) and threw five interceptions this season.
A three-year starter, Altmyer was a team captain this season and led Illinois to two bowl games in three seasons and back-to-back 8+-win seasons. Altmyer is sixth all-time in program history in career passing yards (7,411), fifth in career completions (612) and tied for second in career touchdown passes (56).
"No position is under the microscope quite like the quarterback position, and Altmyer handled himself with grace and confidence during his media appearances," Illini Inquirer reporter Joey Wagner said. "He showed exceptional vulnerability throughout his career, particularly this season as one of the faces of the program. His willingness to go in-depth on his platform and his play while providing insight on the state of the team helped us do our job. Altmyer spoke after every game, win or lose – the only player on the roster to do so – and answered questions with depth and detail on every occasion. Our jobs were made far easier because of the quarterback's depth and honesty."
Loren Tate, 94, covered University of Illinois sports for the Champaign (Illinois) News-Gazette with frequency for 51 seasons from 1966-2017. He was The News-Gazette sports editor or executive sports editor for the majority of those 51 years. He still continues to write a weekly The News-Gazette column and is a frequent guest on radio shows on WDWS. Before joining The News-Gazette in 1966 as sports editor, Tate was sports editor of the Hammond Times in Hammond, Indiana, from 1955-66. Tate served as sports director of WICD-TV from 1968-79, reporting on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news while also overseeing the News-Gazette sports section. He started his weekly radio show "Saturday Sportsline" in 1979 on WDWS. He became The News-Gazette executive sports editor of The News-Gazette in 1987. In 1988, he won first-place APSE award for best news story. In 1991, he shared a second-place APSE award for best news story with co-worker Bob Asmussen. He contributed to the News-Gazette regularly being an APSE Top 10 section, top 10 special section 2001, 2006, 2010; top 10 Sunday section 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010; top 10 daily section 2011 Tate wrote the books "A Century of Orange and Blue: Celebrating 100 Years of Fighting Illini Basketball" and "Tatelines: A compilation of Loren Tate's best columns from more than 40 years of University of Illinois sports reporting."
He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1974 and the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2021. The University of Illinois gave Tate an honorary Varsity I.
