The MacArthur Bowl is a trophy awarded annually by the

National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...

(NFF) (owners and operators of the

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

) to 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 ...

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 (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

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's

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) 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, an ...

, 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 with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

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 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 ...

, 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 rivalry game between the Army Black Knights of the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, and the Navy Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at Annapol ...

. 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 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 American college football, includin ...

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

BCS National Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, 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 fo ...

. With the advent of the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

(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