It's in the charter of the Rhodes Scholarship that candidates should have a "fondness for and success in manly outdoor sports." Still, a major college football player winning one of the United States' 32 prizes to study at England's Oxford University is rare.

Florida State safety Myron Rolle is that once-in-a-generation player. He interviewed for the award Saturday in Birmingham, Ala., won it, then hopped a plane to Maryland for the second half of his team's victory.