Lexington, VA, October 04, 2025 –(PR.com)– The Omicron Delta Kappa Society and Educational Foundation Board of Trustees have presented Archie Manning as the 2025 recipient of the Laurel Crowned Circle Award. First presented in 1980, the Laurel Crowned Circle Award is the highest individual honor awarded by Omicron Delta Kappa. Recipients are exceptional leaders in their respective fields or noted for their service in advancing leadership development. Award winners also demonstrate the highest ideals of the Society: scholarship, service, integrity, character, and fellowship.
The award was presented on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, MS. Manning is a 1970 initiate of Omicron Delta Kappa at the University of Mississippi, where he earned his business degree in 1971.
Manning’s athletic prowess is legendary, but equally impressive is his commitment to scholarship, his dedication to service, his moral character, and his unwavering leadership both on and off the field. He has continued to inspire others through his integrity, humility, and commitment to excellence. Few exemplify this standard better than Archie Manning. He exemplifies the qualities of leadership, collaboration, and service throughout his life and work that make him an exceptional recipient of the Omicron Delta Kappa Laurel Crowned Circle Award.
Past recipients of the Laurel Crowned Circle Award include business leaders, scholars, heads of large nonprofit organizations, journalists, academic administrators, and philanthropists, including former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, President of the United Negro College Fund Michael Lomax, former Congresswoman Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Former Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, and a host of university presidents and philanthropists.
Omicron Delta Kappa Society, the National Leadership Honor Society, was founded at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA., on Dec. 3, 1914. The Society seeks to recognize and advance leadership. The headquarters are located in Lexington, VA.
