Nutu named 2023-24 Lindsey Donnell Award winner
Apr. 24—Cumberland women's golfer Nathalie Nutu was voted the 2023-24 recipient of the Lindsey Donnell Award this week, presented annually to a Phoenix student-athlete who excels in both academics and athletics.
The award is given in honor of Lindsey Donnell, a football Little All-American who later became a professor at the school.
The Gothenburg, Sweden native has had a stellar career on the links earning NAIA All-American third team honors her sophomore season. Nutu has been named a Mid-South Conference first team member for three seasons with conference honors for golf for this season to be announced at the end of the month.
During that stretch, Nutu has helped lead the Phoenix to three consecutive NAIA National Championships. Nutu helped the team make the cut in both 2022 and 2023 with the team finishing top 10 in '22. She also helped the team claim the 2022 Mid-South Conference tournament championship winning in a playoff and followed that up with a regular-season title in '23.
Nathalie has been named Mid-South Conference Player of the Week three times in her career. She has individually won one tournament in her time at Cumberland.
Off the links, Nutu has made a big impact on the Cumberland campus. She serves on the student-athlete advisory committee, works with the university's marketing department, has good grades and has been the team's selection for Mid-South Conference women's golf Champions of Character team.
Donnell is believed by some to have set a national collegiate football record in 1935 with 1,659 rushing yards, a mark that was not surpassed by an NCAA runner until the late O.J. Simpson gained 1,880 for Southern California in 1968. Cumberland has never been a member of the NCAA, which didn't begin to keep official rushing statistics until '37. There are records of other rushers with more yards even sooner which are not acknowledged by the NCAA.
Donnell graduated from Cumberland in 1936 and returned to teach English from 1960-62. The former Cumberland on-campus football stadium, now used for soccer, is named in his honor.
