NEW YORK — U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan has received the 2026 Pat Tillman Award for Service, one year after his first rescue mission placed him at the center of the emergency response to catastrophic flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas.

ESPN’s official July 15 announcement said Pat McAfee and Eli Heidenreich presented the award to Ruskan during the 2026 ESPYS at Lincoln Center in New York City. The honor recognizes a person with a connection to sports whose service reflects the legacy of former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

First rescue mission becomes a 165-person lifesaving operation

Ruskan was serving as an aviation survival technician assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi when flash flooding struck the Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025. ESPN said he was the only trained responder on the Camp Mystic site for approximately three hours during his first rescue mission.

The official account credits Ruskan with establishing triage, organizing safe zones and comforting children who were trapped by the flooding. Those actions directly enabled 165 rescues, according to ESPN.

The response unfolded amid a devastating loss of life. ESPN reported that 28 people died at Camp Mystic that day. ThinBlueNews is keeping this report focused on the documented rescue operation and national service recognition, without adding unverified details about individual victims or the broader disaster.

Ruskan shares recognition with the full rescue team

In his acceptance remarks, Ruskan thanked the people who worked on the ground during the emergency, including campers, counselors, pilots, Army personnel, Air National Guard members and rescue-task-force teams, ESPN said.

That acknowledgment reflects the multi-agency nature of disaster response. Ruskan’s actions at the camp created order during the first critical hours, while aircrews and other responders continued the work of locating, moving and caring for people caught in the flooding.

The Coast Guard’s public visual record supports that account. A Department of Defense visual-information page identifies Ruskan at Kerrville Airport after responding to the Hill Country floods as part of a Coast Guard aircrew conducting search-and-rescue operations.

A personal thank-you from Camp Mystic

The connection between the rescue swimmer and the camp continued after the emergency. Another official Coast Guard photograph shows Ruskan receiving a care package of Camp Mystic “Tweety Cookies” on July 11, 2025. According to the Coast Guard caption, a camper sent the package in recognition of his rescue work.

The Pat Tillman Award now places that service in a national spotlight. It recognizes not only a dramatic rescue count, but also the less visible work of organizing care, building safe zones and helping children through hours of uncertainty.

Sources and image attribution

Featured-image note: The portrait is a public-domain U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Petty Officer 3rd Class Perry Shirzad showing Ruskan preparing rescue equipment at Kerrville Airport in July 2025. ThinBlueNews cropped the real portrait into a 1200-by-630 layout and added a factual award panel and visible source credit. The image is not from the 2026 ESPYS ceremony.

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