The MacArthur Bowl is a trophy awarded annually by the National Football Foundation (NFF) (owners and operators of the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...

) to the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

team(s) that are recognized by the NFF as the

National Champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

for that season. Much like the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

, the trophy is kept by the winning institution for one year, then passed on to the next year's winner. The trophy, manufactured by Tiffany & Co., is made of of

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and is fashioned in the shape of a football stadium measuring on its base, and in height.

History

The trophy was the gift of an anonymous donor in honor of General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...

, a founder of National Football Foundation. The trophy features his famous quote: "There is no substitute for victory." MacArthur was known to have a keen interest in college football, Army Cadet football in particular.* MacArthur had served as student manager of the Army team during his cadet days. During World War II, he sent a telegram congratulating Army on an undefeated 1944 College football season and defeat of Navy in the

Army–Navy Game The Army–Navy Game is an American college football college rivalry, rivalry game between the Army Black Knights football, Army Black Knights of the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, and the Navy Midshipmen football ...

. The telegram read, "The greatest of all Army teams. We have stopped the war to celebrate your magnificent success."Michael Mandelbaum. (2005). ''The Meaning Of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do.'' PublicAffairs publishing The trophy was first presented in 1959, and has been presented annually since then. Since its inception, there have been occasions where the MacArthur trophy winner differed from the AP Poll winner, Coaches' Poll winner or both. From 1998 to 2013 during the

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...

(BCS) era, the trophy was awarded to the winner of the

BCS National Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college football season as one of four des ...

. With the advent of the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

(CFP), the winner of the CFP National Championship automatically wins the MacArthur Bowl; the trophy is presented to the winning head coach in a ceremony held at the

in the spring following the championship game.

Winners

By school

References

External links

National Football Foundation official website
{{College Football National Championship Awards College football championship trophies

History

Winners

By school

See also

References

External links