Bluffton University will recognize its top student-athletes at the annual Athletics Awards Forum, at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 14, in Yoder Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Two awards will be presented. Bluffton’s top senior male athlete will receive the A.C. Burcky Award, while the top senior female athlete will receive the Kathryn E. Little Award.

The guest speaker will be Dr. Jim Burson, a professor emeritus of physical and health education and longtime men’s basketball coach at Muskingum University. He will address “I U WE: The interdependence of athletics and academics!”

Now a consultant and author, as well as motivational speaker, Burson had a 42-year teaching and coaching career at Muskingum, where he is the all-time winningest men’s basketball coach. He also ranks second all time in the Ohio Athletic Conference and 19th in NCAA Division III history. The New Concord, Ohio, resident is a 1963 Muskingum alumnus who earned master’s and doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University. Past president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, he is a member of the Marysville (Ohio) High School, Muskingum and Ohio Basketball halls of fame