GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Grove City College senior football player Chris Gibbs (Akron, Ohio/Revere) has earned a prestigious NCAA postgraduate scholarship in recognition of his outstanding academic and athletic performance. He is one of 58 fall sports athletes -- 29 men and 29 women representing all three NCAA divisions -- to earn the $7,500 grant.

Gibbs started all four seasons in the secondary, having played cornerback, free safety and strong safety for the Wolverines. In 2013, he started all nine games at strong safety and recorded 80 total tackles. He led all Presidents' Athletic Conference defensive backs in total tackles. Gibbs also led the conference with three forced fumbles.

Gibbs led Grove City with 79 tackles in 2011 and ranked second with 68 stops last year. He made 34 career starts.

This season, he earned First Team Division III Academic All-America honors from Capital One and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He earned Second Team Academic All-America last year, becoming the first Grove City football player to twice earn Academic All-America.

Gibbs also earned CoSIDA Academic All-District in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Gibbs has achieved a 3.93 cumulative GPA as a biology major. He is a Dean's List student and has been named to the conference's Academic Honor Roll. He is also a Presidential Scholarship recipient. Last summer, he spent 10 weeks working in genomic research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He is the second Grove City student-athlete in the last three years to earn the NCAA scholarship. In 2012, football player Tim Irwin received an NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

To qualify for the NCAA postgraduate scholarship program, student-athletes must excel academically and athletically, be in their final year of eligibility and plan to pursue graduate study. Student-athletes must also maintain at least a 3.2 grade-point average and be nominated by their institution's faculty athletics representative.