Southern Arkansas University Athletics

Eddie Key was a First Team National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II All-America linebacker at Southern Arkansas University in 2001.  Key was also a Second Team NCAA Division II All-Region linebacker in 2000, and was a First-Team All-Region selection in 2001.  He was First Team All-Gulf South Conference (GSC) linebacker in 2000 and 2001.
           
Key excelled in the classroom as well as on the football field.  He became only the fourth football player in GSC history to be awarded the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete honors at the 44th Annual Awards Dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.  Each of the 16 recipients representing all NCAA divisions received an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship.  Key also received the Southern Arkansas 2000-01 Male Scholar-Athlete Award, and the Bill Gates Scholarship Award.
  
In the spring following his final football season, Key, with a perfect 4.0 grade point average at SAU, was the recipient of the coveted  Commissioner’s Trophy, the highest honor of the Gulf South Conference, and was SAU’s first winner of the prized trophy.

As a player for the Muleriders, the 6-2, 206-pound linebacker From Longview (Pine Tree), Tex., was First Team All-America selected by the Associated Press, First Team All-America by Don Hansen’s  Football Gazette, First Team All-America by Daktronics (selected by the nation’s Sports Information Directors), First Team All-America by Verizon, and First Team All-America by D2 Football.Com.

After graduating from SAU, Key attended the University of Arkansas Law School from 2002-05.  He twice won the Negotiations Competition for the university and was first in Regional Fredrick Douglas Trial Competition (fourth in the nationals).  After graduation at Arkansas, he moved to Atlanta, Ga., where he worked three years at King and Spalding as a staff attorney.