Myers says the award is now "mercifully extinct" and tells who was awarded during his, Bowen's and Bellairs's four years at South Bend: "In the Spring of 1956, our freshman year, the award went to General Curtis LeMay (Attila the Hun would have been a better choice). In 1957 and 1958 the winners were JFK and RFK respectively, understandable for a Catholic college but perhaps a little premature in both instances. In 1960, the year after we graduated, the award went to Bob Hope, the seniors that year obviously opting for a little free if stale entertainment. But it was our own class of 1959 that elevated the award beyond the reach of satire by nominating that great American and champion of the oppressed, Wernher von Braun."

Bowen says Wernher von Braun got elected because during thier senior year "most of us paid no attention to this, and didn't bother to vote. However, an enthusiastic clique of science and engineering students rallied to vote for the man who was leading our desperate race to catch up with the Soviets in space. Since hardly anyone else voted, he won. When the name was made public, a big fuss went up about the class giving an award with that name to the guy who sent V2 rockets into London. Of course, the administration responded that, if we didn't want von Braun, we should have voted for someone else, and went on with the ceremony anyway. There's a certain consistency in giving a patriotism award to Chiang Kai-Shek the year after awarding it to Reichsmotif, whose name suggests that he, too, may be a foreign national."