When 2002's male recipient of the Iba Award was a boy, he would stay awake at night, listening to tapes of his father's college football games at Mississippi. His father? Legendary ex-NFL quarterback, Archie Manning. This boy would memorize all the starters' names on that 1969 Rebel team. And probably then fall asleep dreaming of his own future football successes.

Today, Peyton Manning has realized much success of his own. But he also works very hard to help kids realize their own dreams of success.

Manning, the younger son of Archie and Olivia Manning, was born in 1976 in New Orleans. Being born into sports, it was natural that he follow his father's career closely by listening to those game tapes at night.

As he got older, Manning and his friends would play football in their back yard, singing the National Anthem before kick off, and using a room in the house as the locker room to get dressed into full gear - helmets, pads, the works.

During Peyton's freshman year at Isidore Newman High School, he had a chance to play quarterback on the varsity football team with his older brother, Cooper, as wide receiver. That season, Peyton threw 110 passes, 80 of which were to his brother. They developed special signals and codes to communicate their strategies on the field.

His brother went on to Ol' Miss but was injured in his freshman year. When Peyton eventually went on to the NFL, he wore his brother's high school football jersey number 18, to honor the one he loved to play with on the field.

Manning was a four-year starter at Tennessee. He saw action in 48 games, set 33 school records, two NCAA marks, and eight SEC records including wins as starting QB (39-6), completions (863), passing yards (11,201), and total offense (11,020).

All this, while graduating as cum laude (a 3.61 GPA) in just three years from Tennessee with a major in speech communications and minor in business. He continues to work on his master's in sports management.
 
The Tennessee All-American and No. One NFL draft pick by the Indianapolis Colts, is the third quarterback in NFL history to play in two pro bowls before his 25th birthday. He entered the NFL as the seventh youngest rookie to start on opening day, just behind his father who was sixth youngest. His completions, attempts, and yard set club seasonal records, and he became the only quarterback in Colt history to take every snap (982 plays) for the duration of an entire season.

Manning was chosen as the AFC's Player of the Year in 1999. He is the fifth quarterback in league history to throw for 4,000 yards in consecutive seasons.

In March of 2001, Manning married his college sweetheart, Ashley. They live in Indianapolis.

Having founded The PeyBack Foundation in 1999, this record-breaking quarterback promotes the future success of disadvantaged youth. The first event the foundation held was the PeyBack Classic. This event enabled five inner-city Indianapolis high school football teams to play for the first time in the RCA Dome and $50,000 of proceeds were donated to the schools' struggling athletic programs.

Manning also teamed up with Indianapolis' St. Vincent Children's Hospital, because both believe that healthy habits, activities, sound minds and bodies are all essential to reaching goals. He has been an honorary chairman in the annual fund drive in Indiana's CASA, a program that uses trained court volunteers to speak in the best interest of abused and neglected children.

The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Manning one of the Ten Most Outstanding Young Americans of 1999. The Indianapolis Business Journal named him one of Indianapolis area's top 40 leaders under age 40. He is a past winner of the prestigious Hudson Institute's American Dream Award, given annually to honorees who best represent America's ideals. Manning also serves on the NCAA Foundation board of directors, and was the honorary chairman for the 1999 Crossroads of American Council Boy Scouts of America membership drive.

Manning has, indeed, realized a lot of his boyhood dreams and more. And he has proved that a pro football player doesn't have to wait on injury or retirement to give back to the community. At the same time he's achieving his own dreams, he's helping so many other kids achieve theirs.