The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

to promote and develop amateur

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic excellence in America's young people." It was founded in 1947 with early leadership from

General Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

, longtime

Army Black Knights football The Army Black Knights football team, previously known as the Army Cadets, represents the United States Military Academy in college football. Army is a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) member of the NCAA. The Black Knights play home ...

coach

Earl Blaik Earl Henry "Red" Blaik (February 15, 1897 – May 6, 1989) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and United States Army officer. He served as the head football coach at Dartmouth College from 1934 to 1940 and at ...

and journalist

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Early years Rice wa ...

. In addition to supporting amateur football on the local level, the National Football Foundation also oversees the support, administration, and operation of the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. The Foundation also tabulated and released the Bowl Championship Series Standings each Fall and hosts an Annual Awards Dinner in December at the

Waldorf-Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schult ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. ,

Archie Manning Elisha Archibald Manning III (born May 19, 1949) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the New Orleans Saints. He played for the Saints from 1971 to 1982 and al ...

, a former

Ole Miss Rebels football The Ole Miss Rebels football program represents the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss". The Rebels compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of ...

All-American and member of the College Football Hall of Fame, serves as chairman, and

Steven J. Hatchell Steven J. Hatchell is an American sports administrator who currently serves as the president and CEO of the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame, Inc., which operates the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Hatchell joi ...

, the former commissioner of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

and executive director of the

FedEx Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game i ...

, serves as president and CEO. The foundation has 120 local chapters distributed among 47 states. Since 1956, more than 100,000 volunteers have become members.

History

The NFF was incorporated as the ''National Football Shrine and Hall of Fame'' on December 8, 1947 in Syracuse, New York by Arthur Evans and within a year, sportswriter

and Army football coach

joined the board. The NFF was reorganized in 1954 with 11 schools serving as "founding subscribers":

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

, Dartmouth, Harvard,

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

, Notre Dame, Penn,

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, Syracuse, and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. Chet LaRoche became the organization’s first chairman in 1955 and invited General Douglas MacArthur to become chairman of the board in May 1958. Leadership of MacArthur, Blaik, and Rice to the NFF offered credibility and national prominence to the organization.

Awards

Among its other programs and initiatives includes the facilitation of the Play It Smart program, which places a trained "academic coach" who turns football teams into learning teams in underserved high schools across the country, and the awarding of the William V. Campbell Trophy, referred to in many circles as the "Academic Heisman". In spring 2007, the NFF launched the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, a recognition program for players who excel both on the field and in the classroom. Inductees must have been a starter in their final collegiate season and have earned a 3.2 cumulative

GPA Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements for varying levels of achievements in a course. Grades can be assigned as letters (usually A through F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), as a percentage, or as a numbe ...

for their undergraduate degree. The NFF issues a number of awards, including:

National Scholar-Athlete Awards

Founded in 1959, the award is presented each season to the nation's top scholar-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics and leadership. Each year, between 15 and 17 scholar-athletes are chosen from the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Divisions I (both I-A/FBS and I-AA/FCS), II and III and the NAIA and awarded a $18,000 scholarship. One of the recipients is chosen and awarded the William V. Campbell Trophy (formerly the Draddy Trophy). Notable former National Scholar-Athletes in the NFL include

Ryan Tannehill Ryan Timothy Tannehill III (born July 27, 1988) is an American football quarterback for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Texas A&M, where he was a wide receiver until his junior year, an ...

(

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, 2011) and Joe Thomas (

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, 2006) and Super Bowl winners Peyton (

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, 1997) and Eli Manning (

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, 2003),

Drew Brees Drew Christopher Brees (; born January 15, 1979) is an American former American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons. A member of the New Orleans Saints for most of his career, Brees i ...

( Purdue, 2000),

Jonathan Vilma Jonathan Polynice Vilma (born April 16, 1982) is a former American football linebacker and current Fox NFL analyst. He played college football at the University of Miami, winning a National Championship in 2001. He went on to be drafted by the N ...

(

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, 2003) and Dennis Dixon (

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, 2007). Non-sporting former recipients include Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor Mark Harmon (

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

astronaut and

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

flight test engineer A flight test engineer (FTE) is an engineer involved in the flight testing of prototype aircraft or aircraft systems. Overview The flight test engineer generally has overall responsibility for the planning of a specific flight test phase, which i ...

Michael S. Hopkins (

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

), former USAF pilot and incumbent Hampden–Sydney College President Christopher B. Howard ( U.S. Air Force Academy) and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

anchor Stone Phillips (

National Football Foundation Gold Medal

The Gold Medal, the NFF’s highest honor, has been presented to seven U.S. Presidents, four U.S. Generals, three U.S. Admirals, one U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 25 Corporate CEOs and Chairmen. The most recent recipient of the award was Mark Harmon, in 2019.

Distinguished American Award

Presented on special occasions when a truly deserving individual emerges, the award honors someone who has applied the character building attributes learned from amateur sport in their business and personal life, exhibiting superior leadership qualities in education, amateur athletics, business and in the community. The award was most recently bestowed in 2016, to

William H. McRaven William Harry McRaven (born November 6, 1955) is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) from August 8, 2011 to August 28, 2014. From 2015 to 2018, ...

MacArthur Bowl

Every year, the National Football Foundation awards the

MacArthur Bowl The MacArthur Bowl is a trophy awarded annually by the National Football Foundation (NFF) (owners and operators of the College Football Hall of Fame) to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football team(s) that are recognized by ...

to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football team determined to be the national champion. The award recipients since 2000 are: *2000:

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Ru ...

*2001:

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

*2002:

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

*2003:

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

* 2004: vacated *2005:

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

*2006: Florida Gators *2007:

*2008: Florida Gators *2009:

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a me ...

*2010:

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

*2011:

*2012:

*2013: Florida State Seminoles *2014:

*2015:

*2016:

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) s ...

*2017:

*2018:

*2019:

*2020:

*2021: Georgia Bulldogs

John L. Toner Award

The annual award is given to an

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

who has demonstrated superior administrative abilities and shown outstanding dedication to college athletics and particularly college football. The award's namesake and first recipient served as the head football coach at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

(UConn) from 1966 to 1970 and as the school's athletic director from 1969 to 1987. ''Note: * = posthumously'' *1997: John L. Toner *1998:

Doug Dickey Douglas Adair Dickey (born June 24, 1932) is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, wher ...

*1999:

Jake Crouthamel John Jacob Crouthamel (June 27, 1938 November 6, 2022) was an American football player, coach, and college athletic director. Early life and education Crouthamel was born in eastern Pennsylvania to Kathryn Apple and Russell Crouthamel, who r ...

and Davey Nelson* *2000:

Frank Broyles John Franklin Broyles (December 26, 1924 – August 14, 2017) was an American college football player and coach, college athletics administrator, and broadcaster. He served as the head football coach for one season at the University of Missouri ...

*2001: Milo R. "Mike" Lude *2002: Bill Byrne *2003:

Andy Geiger Ferdinand "Andy" Geiger (born March 23, 1939) is a former athletic director at six different institutions, most recently holding that position from May 10, 2012, to August 30, 2013, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His most notable time ...

and John Clune* *2004:

Vince Dooley Vincent Joseph Dooley (September 4, 1932 – October 28, 2022) was an American college football coach. He was the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, as well as the University of Georgia's (UGA) athletic director from 1979 to ...

*2005:

Jack Lengyel Jack Robert Lengyel (born March 4, 1935) is a software executive and former American football coach, lacrosse coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the College of Wooster from 1966 to 1970 and at Mars ...

*2006:

DeLoss Dodds DeLoss Dodds (born August 8, 1939) was the sixth men's athletic director of The University of Texas at Austin. During his tenure as AD from the fall of 1981 to November 2013, Texas won 19 National Championships and 287 conference titles. Dodds an ...

*2007:

Jeremy Foley Jeremy N. Foley (born December 1, 1952) is an American university sports administrator and former college athlete. Foley was an award-winning athletic director for the Florida Gators Division I sports program of the University of Florida locat ...

*2008: Gene Smith *2009: Jim Weaver *2010: Robert Mulcahy *2011: vacated *2012:

Mal Moore Mal Mathad Moore (December 19, 1939 – March 30, 2013) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the athletic director at the University of Alabama from 1999 to 2013. On November 23, 1999, he was hired as ...

*2013:

Joe Castiglione Joseph John Castiglione (born March 2, 1947) is an American radio announcer for the Boston Red Sox baseball team,Joe Castigl ...

*2014: Kevin White *2015: Mark Hollis *2016:

Chet Gladchuk Chester Stephen Gladchuk Sr. (April 4, 1917 – September 4, 1967) was an American football center who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants. He played college football at Boston College and was ...

*2017:

Dan Guerrero Dan Guerrero (born November 10, 1951) is best known for being the athletic director for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also has served as the chairman of the Selection Committee for the NCAA Division I men's basketball tou ...

*2018: Thomas Beckett and Bob Scalise *2019:

Deborah Yow Deborah Ann Yow (born September 1, 1950Debbie Yow Is ...

*2020: Jack Swarbrick Source:

Chris Schenkel Award

Named in honor of broadcaster

Chris Schenkel Christopher Eugene Schenkel (August 21, 1923 – September 11, 2005) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and bar ...

, the award is given annually to distinctive individuals in broadcasting with ties to a university. * 1996:

* 1997:

Jack Cristil Jacob Sanford "Jack" Cristil (December 10, 1925 – September 7, 2014) was the long-time radio voice of Mississippi State University Bulldog men's basketball and football. Over his 58-year tenure (1953–2011), Cristil called 636 football game ...

* 1998:

Max Falkenstien Max Falkenstien (April 9, 1924 – July 29, 2019) was an American radio sports announcer. In his 60-year career at the University of Kansas (1946-2006), Falkenstien covered more than 1,750 men's basketball games and 650 football games, a span that ...

* 1999: Jack Fleming * 2000: Ray Christensen * 2001: Frank Fallon (Baylor) * 2002: Bob Brooks (Iowa) * 2003: Larry Munson * 2004:

Bob Robertson Robert Eugene Robertson (born October 2, 1946) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman between and , most notably as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates teams that won five Natio ...

* 2005: Tony Roberts * 2006:

Johnny Holliday John Holliday Bobbitt (born October 15, 1937), known professionally as Johnny Holliday, is an American radio and television sportscaster and a former Top 40 radio disc jockey. He has maintained a long association with the University of Maryland ...

* 2007: Bill Hillgrove * 2008: Bob Curts (Idaho) & Dick Galiette (Yale) * 2009: Larry Zimmer (Colorado) * 2010:

Joe Starkey Joseph K. Starkey (born 1941) is an American sportscaster who has served as the radio play-by-play announcer of California Golden Bears football from 1975 to 2022. He previously worked as the sports director of KGO radio in San Francisco, Califor ...

* 2011:

Woody Durham Woody Lombardi Durham (August 8, 1941 – March 7, 2018) was an American play-by-play radio announcer for the North Carolina Tar Heels football and men’s basketball programs from 1971 to 2011. Early life Born in Mebane, North Carolina, Durham ...

* 2012:

Bob Barry Sr. Robert Guyton Barry Sr. (February 28, 1931 – October 30, 2011) was an American television and radio sportscaster, and was formerly the weeknight sports anchor during the 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. newscasts on Oklahoma City, Oklahoma NBC affiliate ...

* 2013: Gene Deckerhoff * 2014:

Frank Beckmann Frank Carl Beckmann (November 3, 1949February 12, 2022) was a German-born American broadcaster and talk radio host on WJR in Detroit, Michigan. He also was the radio play-by-play announcer for University of Michigan football from 1981 to 2013. ...

* 2015: Jim Hawthorne * 2016:

Bob Rondeau Bob Rondeau is a retired American sports announcer. He is known for a 37-year career associated with University of Washington athletics. Early life Rondeau grew up in Colorado. He majored in journalism at Colorado, graduating in 1972. Career R ...

* 2017: Jon Teicher (UTEP) * 2018: Dave South (Texas A&M) * 2019:

Eli Gold Elias Leo Gold (born December 15, 1953) is an American sportscaster. Gold is best known as the radio voice for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, along with Tom Roberts, as part of the Crimson Tide Sports Network since 1988. He was the hos ...

* 2020: Dave Walsh (Wyoming) Source:

Poll

The poll was started in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

; 10 members of the NFF vote in a poll in partnership with the Football Writers Association of America.

References

External links

* {{Authority control American football mass media College football awards organizations College Football Hall of Fame Sports organizations established in 1947 1947 establishments in the United States Sports charities College football championships