National Football Foundation

Tysyn Hartman has quickly become a pioneer of a Kansas State football revival. He becomes the Wildcats' fourth NFF National Scholar-Athlete, and the first since 1996, while helping lead the team to its best season in more than a decade. Hartman played for College Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Snyder. 

Hailing from Wichita, Kan., Hartman is a two-time CoSIDA/ESPN Academic All-District honoree and a three-time Academic All-Big 12 scholar. He graduated in three and a half years with a degree in finance, qualifying for the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll every semester of his college career. Hartman has also won the Gold Star for Academics, Kansas State's top football academic award.

With 31 tackles, two interceptions, two passes defended and one forced fumble in seven starts, Hartman has aided the eighth-ranked Wildcats to their first 7-0 start since 1999 and highest BCS ranking since 2003. An Honorable Mention All-Big 12 selection in 2009, he ranked second in the league in passes defended that season. For his career, Hartman, a team captain as a junior and a senior, has posted 220 tackles and nine interceptions.

A two-year member of Kansas State's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Hartman has volunteered with the Adopt-a-Family initiative and the Special Olympics. A regular visitor to a community retirement center in Manhattan, he has participated in the Reach to Achieve program with a local elementary school, and he has helped collect donations for the homeless during Wildcats basketball games.

Hartman was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent after the 2012 NFL Draft and appeared in 11 games that season, registering 22 total tackles and three pass deflections. In 2014, he was a member of the Omaha Mammoths in the inaugural season of the Fall Experimental Football League. In 2015, the team will compete as the Hudson Valley Fort.