With the Football News First Team All-America under his belt, LeShon Johnson is ready to reap more rewards for the spectacular 1993 season he put together.

And they keep coming.

A special half-hour television show featuring the Kodak All-America unit will be aired over hundreds of national outlets during the next few months.

This is significant to students of NIU simply because Johnson will be named on it as one of only two runningbacks listed as First-Team. The other was San Diego State back, Marshall Faulk.

The announcement was made on Saturday, Nov. 20 and was voted on by the American Football Coaches Association.

Johnson finished the season as the nation’s No. 1 and narrowly missed gaining the 2,000 yard mark.

Johnson has also been named one of the five finalists for the Football News 1993 Offensive Player of the Year award.

Competing with the “Cowboy” for that honor is a pretty distinguished group of athletes. The other four listed are Faulk, UCLA wide receiver J.J. Stokes, Notre Dame offensive tackle Aaron Taylor and Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward. That announcement is expected to come on Nov. 29.

Finally, Johnson is expected to declare his choice of a post-season bowl game in a national press conference in Mobile, Al., on Nov. 30.

Johnson is expected to name the Senior Bowl as his last collegiate game. That game will be played on Jan. 22 and will be aired nationally on ESPN.

For his career at NIU, Johnson rushed for 3,314 yards in only 22 games (150.6 yards per game average). The average places him fourth on the all-time NCAA Division I-A career rush list behind Ed Marinaro of Cornell (174.6), O.J. Simpson of Southern Cal (164.4) and Herschel Walker of Georgia (159.4).