Apr 26, 2010 9:14:31 AM

NCAA General Counsel Elsa Cole received the prestigious Joseph E. O'Neill Award on Friday at the Annual Sports Law Awards Banquet at the Marquette University Law School. 

The award is given annually to an individual in the sports industry who has made a significant contribution to the field and done so while exemplifying the highest ethical standards. It was established by the O'Neill family, the law firm of Davis & Kuelthau, S.C., and the National Sports Law Institute after O'Neill's death in 1992.

Past recipients of this award are:

2009: Clark Griffith, Commissioner, Northern League, and former chair, NSLI Board of Advisors, Minneapolis.

2008: Honorable Anne M. Burke, Illinois Supreme Court, Chicago.

2007: Frank DeGuire, dean emeritus, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee.

2006: Richard Berthelsen, general counsel, National Football League Players Association, Washington, D.C.

2005: Michael Cramer, chief administrative officer of Pinnacle Foods Corp. and a partner in C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., Greenwich, Connecticut.

2004: Michael Marcil, commissioner, North Central Conference, Sioux City, South Dakota.

2003: Robert DuPuy, chief operating officer, Major League Baseball.

2002: Michael Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.

2001: Martin J. Greenberg , managing director, ScheerGame Sports Development, LLC, and Charles Mentkowski, Professor Emeritus, Marquette University Law School.

2000: Wendy Selig-Prieb, former president and chief executive officer, Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club.

1999: Daniel R. Doucette, former president and principal owner, Milwaukee Rampage, and president and chief executive officer, Milwaukee Mutual Insurance Company.

1998: Charles W. Mulcahy, Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC, and president, Milwaukee Tennis Classic Foundation.

1996: Joseph E. Tierney, Jr., attorney for the Bradley Foundation and Milwaukee Admirals.

1995: Brian Burke, former vice president and director of hockey operations for the National Hockey League and current president and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks.

1993: A. Jackson Mills, president, Ascent Sports Management, Boulder, Colorado.