Focus on Sports
Dahm Gets McCahill Award
The McCahill Award is the most
prestigious honor given by the Athletics Department,
presented to a graduate for achievement in athletics, scholarship
and service.
 Brianna Dahm, Arts ’05,
earned countless awards representing the Blue & Gold on
the running track. But she stood at center court during halftime
of the Marquette vs. Connecticut basketball game in November
to accept her final award, the 2005 McCahill Award. It is the
most prestigious honor given by the Athletics Department, presented
to a graduate for achievement in athletics, scholarship and
service to the university.
Now pursuing running on her own, Dahm lives in California
and trains as a member of the Nike Farm Team. “The team
is funded by Nike and the goal is to get as many athletes competing
at national meets and Olympic Trials as possible,” Dahm
says. “While I’m here I’m
working as a special education teacher’s aide in the
Palo Alto School District.”
Dahm’s athletics achievements
include being a two-time All-American, an all-region cross
country performer, and all-conference selection in cross
country and indoor and outdoor track. She won Freshman of the
Year honors in all three
categories and was named 2002 Conference USA Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year
and 2003 Conference USA Indoor Track Athlete of the Year. She earned Conference
USA all-decade honors in both cross country and track and field her senior
year. Dahm was just as competitive in academics. She was a
five-time Conference USA
Academic Medal Recipient, awarded to athletes for maintaining a GPA of 3.75
or higher.
The McCahill Award was established by the McCahill
family to honor Capt. Robert
L. McCahill, a Marquette football player who graduated from the College of
Liberal Arts in 1942. He served his country as a para-marine throughout the
South Pacific
during World War II, earned the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and gave his
life in 1945 in the Battle of Iwo Jima. The award was established with the
help of
Col. William P. McCahill, Robert’s brother, also a Marquette alumnus,
who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and
was a member of the Marquette track team. After William’s death in 1999,
Marquette renamed the award to recognize both brothers.
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