Vol. 52, No. 3 - Summer Issue

Transcription

2010 NFF Footballetter Issue 3
The National Football Foundation’s
Footballetter is published by IMG and the
National Football Foundation.
NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION
& COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME
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Irving, TX 75039
800-486-1865 • www.footballfoundation.org
Chairman
Archie Manning
President & CEO
Steven J. Hatchell
Vice Chairman
Clayton I. Bennett
Vice Chairman
J. Murry Bowden
Vice Chairman
George M. Weiss
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Summer 2010 Issue
President’s Message
I am fond of saying that the National Football Foundation (NFF) represents everything
right about our great sport, and perhaps there is no better example of that sentiment than
the inductees who we select each year for induction into the College Football Hall of
Fame.
As you look through the pages of the latest edition of the Footballetter, you’ll see that
we have selected another spectacular class for induction. On the field, their list of accomplishments reads as you would expect: unanimous First-Team All-Americans, national
championship rings, a Heisman Trophy, a Butkus Trophy, multiple first-round NFL draft
picks, and the list continues.
However, it is the list of their post-playing day accomplishments that catches my eye about what is right with
our great sport. Their chosen professions truly bear out our belief that football prepares student-athletes for success later in life. A quick review finds teachers, entrepreneurs, businessmen, television and radio broadcasters,
heads of charitable foundations, athletics administrators and high school football coaches. And the list would be
endless about how they give back in their free time.
And then there is Pat Tillman, a true American hero who lost his life in service to his country as an Army Ranger
fighting in Afghanistan. We previously recognized Pat in 2006 with NFF Distinguished American Award, which
was an acknowledgement of the ultimate sacrifice that he made. We are proud to add “Hall of Famer” to the list
of many revered monikers that can be placed in front of Pat’s name. We look forward to celebrating his accomplishments along with the rest of the inductees on Dec. 7, 2010, in New York City at the NFF Annual Awards
Dinner, and we hope that you might consider joining us. You can call 972-556-1000 to inquire about tickets.
As you read the Footballetter, I encourage you to remember the valuable role football has played in your life, and
I ask you to think about how you can give back to our sport. This organization is yours. Reach out to us with your
ideas. Connect with your local chapter. Get involved.
Become a member at www.footballfoundation.org/membership. Thank you for your continued support, passion, creativity and interest.
Respectfully,
Steve Hatchell
NFF President and CEO
2010 KEY DATES
Sept. 4: Hall of Fame Groundbreaking Ceremony, Atlanta, Ga.
Oct. 17: Initial BCS Standings Release
Nov. 1: Announcement of National Scholar-Athlete Class and Campbell Trophy Finalists, Irving,
Texas
Dec. 5: Final BCS Standings Release, New York City
Dec. 7: Annual Awards Dinner Press Conference, The Waldorf=Astoria, New York City
Dec. 7: NFF Chapter Awards Luncheon, The Waldorf=Astoria, New York City
Dec. 7: NFF Annual Awards Dinner, The Waldorf=Astoria, New York City
Dec. 7: The Presentation of the William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, The
Waldorf=Astoria, New York City
Dec. 17: NCAA Division II Football Championship Game, Florence, Ala.
Dec. 18: NCAA Division III Football Championship Game, Salem, Va.
Dec. 18: NAIA Football Championship Game, Rome, Ga.
Jan. 1, 2011: National Hall of Fame Salute at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, Ariz.
Jan. 7, 2011: FCS National Championship Game, Frisco, Texas
Jan. 10, 2011: Tostitos BCS National Championship, Glendale, Ariz.
Jan. 11, 2011: Presentation of the MacArthur Bowl, Scottsdale, Ariz.
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www.footballfoundation.org
T h e N a t i o n a l F o o t b a l l F o u n d a t i o n ’s F o o t b a l l e t t e r
Where Are They Now?
Willie Lanier
A
rguably the best player to wear a Morgan State
uniform, Willie Lanier earned first-team AllAmerica honors his junior year while playing
for one of the game’s best, Hall of Fame coach Earl
Banks. Lanier was on successful teams that, under his
leadership, went to bowl games in 1965 and 1966,
winning both and holding opponents to zero total
yards of offense in the 1965 game.
As a junior, Lanier was one of three captains, and as
a senior he was the sole team captain. His teams won
three conference championships and at one point had
a 32-game winning streak. In 1965, he led a stubborn
defense that held opponents to 129 yards rushing all
season and 732 yards in total offense.
In 1966, as an offensive guard, he used his strength
to open holes for the offense, which rushed for 2,220
yards in eight games. Lanier still holds the school
record for tackles in a game, with 26.
After his collegiate career, he played professionally
for the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was a five-time
all-pro middle linebacker. A product of Maggie L.
Walker High School in Richmond, Va., he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1986
and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
What are you doing now?
I had been in the investing business for about 25 years
with Wheat First Securities, subsequently called
Wachovia Securities and now Wells Fargo, but I was
also involved as chairman of an automotive logistics
company, and I am now president of the Lanier Group
in Richmond, Va., looking to acquire different businesses from a private-equity standpoint. I also am on
the board of Huddle House, a restaurant chain headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.
10th Anniversary of Induction
Class of 2000
had a chance to be there.
What has changed in the college game
since you played in the 1960s?
At that time the historically black colleges housed most
of the black athletes in the country. With integration
changing the landscape of the country, a lot of the black
talent starting being dispersed all across this country,
and some of the black colleges initially saw a drain of
resources. Many were able to undergird that with the
quality of the institution, the academic offerings and
the retention of players. It allowed the schools to go
through some changes, but it got back on very strong
footing over the years. Society was going through its
changes, but the college sport helped change it in a way
that addressed relationships, balance and integration.
What life lessons did college football teach you?
It teaches perseverance. It teaches you competitiveness.
It teaches you that can come form a historically black
college and still end up in the College Football Hall of
Fame because your institution allows you to have the
academic ability as well as the athletic ability that you
can compete with anyone. I think it’s the same in a
business setting that it does not matter where you’re
from. It’s your own inclination, your belief in self, your
God-given talents that will allow you to achieve.
Who are the individuals who have been
the most influential in your life why?
I would start with my parents. They were very strongwilled people, very religious people and hard-working
people. So, my work ethic was based on them. From
there my high school coach, Fred Cooper, and my college coach, Earl Banks. Coach Banks had played at
Iowa in the late 1940s, and he understood what it took
to play college football at very high level, and also
understood what it took to compete as a man in society when you were going to be given the reality that
your best sometimes is going to be challenged, therefore you’re going to have to be better than others to
achieve the same outcome.
Have you been involved in anything special
that you want to share with us?
In November 2008, I was on a business trip to
Malaga, Spain, which is right across the straights of
Gibraltar from Africa. Barack Obama had just won the
nomination to be president of the United States, and I
had a chance to go across the straights of Gibraltar to
Tangier, Morocco, and stand on the continent of Africa
where hundreds of years before the slave trade had
taken many of our ancestors from these shores. To
reflect on the length of time that had passed was special. My first year at Morgan, I went to college the
same weekend that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I
Have a Dream” speech in Washington. And now after
all these years, I am standing on the continent and
there is a gentleman of black descent who is now
President of the United States and all the things that
we have talked about came together. And to have lived
a life that was part of that history was overwhelming.
I was there because I owned an automotive parts logistic company, and I got a business degree from Morgan
State. Sport was part of the journey and the foundation for a history and philosophy that was much
broader, so those people who govern college football
understand that the story is not about wins and losses
during the season. The story is about the human
beings and their life experiences, and the College
Football Hall of Fame can share with others these stories of achievement for a long period of time, which is
What did being inducted into the
College Hall of Fame mean to you?
The recognition for me went back to Earl Banks, my
college coach, and Jim Lynch, a teammate of mine (at
Kansas City) from Notre Dame, who was inducted in
1992 into the College Football Hall of Fame, and
therefore it was significant for me to able to be aligned
with a teammate in the pros and my college coach.
What else had occurred was the evolving of the Hall to
reach out to players from Division I, II and historically
black colleges and the divisional colleges. In 1996, I
think Buck Buchanan and Walter Payton were the first
two individuals from historically black colleges to then
go into the College Football Hall of Fame. So it was
more of a continuing theme and trend and change that
allowed the opportunity to go forward, and in 2000 I
Summer 2010 Issue
Willie Lanier played at Morgan State, and in 2008 had the chance to visit the continent of Africa.
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The NFF Chapter Banquet Highlights
E
ach year the NFF Chapter Network – 120 chapters in 47 states – celebrates the achievements of high school and collegiate scholar-athletes at banquets all across the country and more than $1 million in scholarships are distributed. Here
are some highlights from the 2010 banquet season.
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1. The NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas held its scholar-athlete banquet at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Above, the honorees surround Cowboys
owner and NFF Board Member Jerry Jones — who received the Distinguished Texan Award — and College Football Hall of Famer Chad Hennings (Air Force).
2. At the Mike Cleary/Northeast Ohio Chapter banquet, Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith (right) receives the chapter’s Distinguished American Award from
NFF Board Member and College Football Hall of Famer Archie Griffin (Ohio State).
3. The Joe Tiller Chapter of Northwest Indiana banquet welcomed back a trio of Purdue quarterbacks who have claimed Super Bowl titles — (L-R) Bob Griese, Drew
Brees and Len Dawson. Griese is also a College Football Hall of Famer.
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4. The Gene Casey/New Haven (Conn.) Chapter celebrated its 50th anniversary at the spring banquet.
Celebrating the occasion are (L-R) Chapter president Bill O’Brien, Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall
(who received the Distinguished American Award), Tom Marcucci (who was presented the High School
Coach of the Year Award), Jim Brennan (who garnered the Outstanding Officials honor), Hall of Fame
coach Carm Cozza (Yale) and NFF Director of Membership Ron Dilatush.
5. At the Oklahoma Chapter banquet this spring, NFF Board Members Clay Bennett (right) and Oklahoma
Athletics Director Joe Castiglione (left) share a moment with Jenks High School scholar-athlete Tyler Ott,
who is planning to attend Harvard University this fall.
6. University of Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley provided an update on the Volunteers football program
at the East Tennessee Scholar-Athlete luncheon.
7. The Toledo Wistert Chapter (Ohio) continued its annual tradition of having the scholar-athletes visit the
Toledo Children’s Hospital.
8. (L-R) Delaware Valley (N.J.) chapter president Eric Hamilton, Steve Timko, Peter Inverso, top scholarathlete Brad Borman, Major General Glenn Reith and featured guest Joe Piscopo.
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The 21st Presentation of the William V. Campbell Trophy
College Football’s Premier Scholar-Athlete Award
Launched in 1990 and endowed by HealthSouth in 2001
T
he 21st winner of the William V. Campbell Trophy,
endowed by HealthSouth, will be named Dec. 7,
2010, at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner in New York
City, joining one of the most exclusive groups in all
of sports. The 2010 recipient of the award, which
identifies one member of the NFF National ScholarAthlete Class as the absolute best in the country for
his combined academic success, football performance
and exemplary community leadership, will be announced
in dramatic fashion in front of a sold-out crowd at the historic event.
Named in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit,
former player and head coach at Columbia University and the
2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal, the award
stands as the centerpiece to the NFF National ScholarAthlete Awards Program, which was launched in
1959. During the past 51 years, the NFF National
Scholar-Athlete Awards have truly become one of the
most coveted academic honors in all of college sports,
distributing $9.2 million to 724 outstanding individuals. In
1990, the NFF added the William V. Campbell Trophy, formerly known as the Draddy Trophy, to the program, greatly
enhancing the awareness of the football scholar-athlete ideal.
Looking at the past winners and their accomplishments,
one quickly realizes that the award signifies both past and
future greatness like no other award. With an average GPA of
3.7, past Campbell winners include two Rhodes
Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist and two
Heisman Trophy winners. Additionally, 14 of the
20 winners have made their mark in the NFL, with
five being drafted in the first round.
If you hold the title of Campbell Trophy winner, you
are one of the following: a college president, a doctor, a
lawyer, a world-wide leader in climatology research, a
Ph.D. nuclear engineer executive, a partner in a highly
successful real estate firm, founder of a non-profit foundation or a television broadcaster, and that does not
include the seven recipients still playing in the
NFL.
The Campbell Trophy winner receives a total
scholarship of $25,000 and a 24-inch, 25pound bronze trophy. Candidates must be in their
final year of eligibility, possess a 3.2 GPA or better, have outstanding football ability as a first-team player and have
demonstrated strong citizenship and leadership.
Highlighted below are seven of the previous honorees.
Chris Howard, the inaugural recipient of the Campbell Trophy, remains the only winner to hail from a service academy with a
stellar record that required a grueling balancing act of academics, athletics and military duties.
A two-year starter at running back for the Air Force Academy, Howard was a three-time letterman who averaged 4.5 yards per
carry. The Falcons compiled a 15-9-1 record over Howard’s final two seasons. During his senior year Air Force upset Ohio State,
23-11, in the Liberty Bowl.
Currently president at Hampden-Sydney College, Howard’s “partial” list of accomplishments includes earning his wings as a
helicopter pilot, serving in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer, where he earned a Bronze Star, Harvard MBA, manager of a $100
million Bristol-Myers Squibb HIV/AIDS initiative in southern Africa, founder of a non-profit foundation and a member of the
General Electric’s Corporate Initiative Group.
1990
One of two Campbell Trophy winners to claim a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, Jim Hansen personified
the NFF Scholar-Athlete program during his four years in Boulder and continues to add to his legacy today.
A First Team All-Big Eight offensive tackle on the field, Hansen compiled a 3.941 GPA in aerospace engineering before going
on to earn a perfect 4.0 in his graduate course work in the field of fluid dynamics. His academic exploits, coupled with his athletic prowess, made him a four-time First Team Academic All-Big Eight and three-time First Team CoSIDA Academic All-American
selection. CoSIDA named him its Academic All-American of the Year in 1992.
The lead scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory Probabilistic Prediction Research Office (NRL) in California for the past
two years, he served as a key research scientist for the Marine Meteorology Division of the NRL from 2006-07. Prior to his run at
the NRL, he was assistant professor of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for
five years.
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1992
A leader on and off the field, Thomas D. Burns built a reputation at the University of Virginia that established him as one of
the greatest student-athletes to attend the school founded by Thomas Jefferson.
A two-year starter at linebacker and four-year performer, Burns became one of Virginia’s all-time leading tacklers, with 200
career stops, placing him 15th on the Cavalier all-time roster at the time of his graduation. A Third-Team All-ACC selection,
Burns notched a career-high 90 tackles as a senior, amassing double-digit tackles in five contests. Virginia tallied a 30-16-1 record
during his four seasons with the Cavaliers.
After finishing his football career, Burns received a joint bachelor’s-master’s degree in 1995 and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering
in 1999 from Virginia. After his graduate work, Burns began his career as an executive for MPR Associates, a consulting firm. The
Clinton, Md., native is now the youngest vice president at Parsons Corporation, where he serves as Vice President-SPWF Director
of Engineering for Parsons Infrastructure & Technology.
1993
A model student-athlete, Bobby Hoying became the first Big Ten player to win the Campbell Trophy, having built an incredible résumé as a three-year starting quarterback at Ohio State and a four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.
From 1993-95, Hoying started 38 games for the Buckeyes, leading them to a 30-7-1 record and a share of the 1993 Big Ten
championship. Named team captain in 1995, he earned First Team All-Big Ten honors, and he left school holding single-season
marks in passing efficiency (163.4), completion percentage (.580) and 200-yard passing games (16). He still stands atop the Ohio
State all-time chart for career touchdown passes (57) and career completions (498), and his 7,232 career passing yards place him
second on the all-time Buckeye list.
Hoying currently works as the co-chairman and a principal in the Crawford Hoying Smith Real Estate Services, working on
commercial and residential projects mainly within Central Ohio.
1995
An exceedingly well-rounded individual with a stellar 3.96 GPA, Matt Stinchcomb built an athletic and academic record that
made him one of the most decorated players in Georgia history.
A four-year letterman, three-year starter and team captain, Stinchcomb led Georgia to a 19-5 record during his junior and senior campaigns with respective victories in the Outback and Peach bowls. He started 32 consecutive games for the Bulldogs and
was a finalist for the Rotary Lombardi Award in 1998 while claiming the Jacobs Award as the SEC’s most outstanding blocker.
Following the NFL, Stinchcomb joined with his brother Jon and former teammate David Greene, both NFF National ScholarAthletes from Georgia, to form the Stinchcomb Family Foundation and the Countdown to Kickoff Charities, which focuses on
raising money for children’s healthcare. He and Greene also run the Atlanta office of Seacrest Partners, a commercial insurance
brokerage and consulting firm. During the college football season Stinchcomb can be seen as a studio analyst on ESPN.
1998
The only non-FBS recipient of the Campbell Trophy and one of the top student-athletes in NCAA Division III history,
Brandon Roberts established himself as one of the most ferocious tacklers in Washington University in St. Louis annals while
carrying a 3.6 GPA in biomedical engineering.
A two-time first team all-conference selection, he starred on three consecutive Bears’ defenses, which were ranked among the
top 20 nationally while setting career school records for tackles (338) and sacks (12.5). He served as team captain during his senior season and twice finished in the top 25 nationally in tackles.
Roberts graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 2008 and has returned to St. Louis with his
wife for his residency in anesthesiology at Barnes Jewish Hospital.
2002
The epitome of the term “student-athlete,” California’s Alex Mack possessed the perfect blend of academic excellence, athletic
prowess and community leadership, rising to the top as the nation’s best in 2008.
Graduating magna cum laude with a 3.61 GPA in legal studies, Mack was recognized for his on-field dominance as a two-time
first team All-American in 2007 and 2008. A four-time All-Pac 10 selection (twice a unanimous first-team pick), the team captain
also received the Morris Trophy two times as the conference’s best offensive lineman. A two-time Rimington Trophy finalist, he led
an offensive unit that allowed the fewest sacks (24) in the Pac-10 in 2006 and ‘07.
Drafted 21st overall in the 2009 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns, Mack joins Joe Thomas, an NFF National-Scholar Athlete
from the 2006 class, on one of the NFL’s up-and-coming offensive lines.
2008
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Where Are They Now?
Brock Strom
A
native of Ironwood, Mich., Brock Strom
attended Indiana University before transferring to the Air Force Academy, where his name
was synonymous with football success as the new service academy launched its football program in 1955.
In 1958, the 6-foot, 217-pound tackle became the
Academy’s first All-American football player and the
Associated Press described him as “the bulwark of the
team that almost literally came from outer space to go
through the season undefeated and land in the Cotton
Bowl opposite Texas Christian on New Year’s Day.”
Strom was captain of the unbeaten Falcons (their
record tainted only by a 13-13 tie with Rose Bowlbound Iowa), and he was known for his leadership
ability and hard-nosed football. He blocked and tackled with authority and, according to Falcon coach Ben
Martin, was a captain in every sense of the word. In
Strom’s first year at the Academy, 1955, the players
were all freshmen, playing freshman teams of other
colleges. Strom was co-captain of the teams of 1955,
1957 and 1958.
After the Air Force Academy, Strom studied at MIT,
earning a master’s degree in astronautical engineering
and eventually getting a Ph.D. at Arizona State
University. He served in Southeast Asia, flying 105
missions as a navigator. He was decorated with two
Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars and
three Air Medals. Achieving the rank of colonel, he
served as Deputy for Space Defense Systems, responsible to the Secretary of the Air Force for the entire U.S.
Space Defense Program.
25th Anniversary of Induction
Class of 1985
and spend a lot of time visiting the grandkids, and last
year my wife, Claire, and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.
What did it mean to you to be inducted into
the College Football Hall of Fame?
It was really recognition of the football team that I
played on. The Falcons came from nowhere in 1958
and to the Cotton Bowl of 1959. We had a fantastic
season and for one reason or another I was the guy
who got most of the publicity. And it was really recognition of that team more than of myself individually.
How did your former teammates respond
to you becoming a Hall of Famer?
There was a very raucous table of 10 who came back
to the Hall of Fame event. They were real happy to
be there, and they had a great time celebrating both
my induction and their recognition, and it was an
honor for them. It was a wonderful event that I
enjoyed very much.
What are the most significant changes
in the college game today?
When we played the limited substitution meant that if
you started a quarter, you either finished that quarter
or you could only be substituted once a quarter, so it
was a completely different game because you had to
play both offense and defense. Frankly that was part of
the reason we were able to succeed, because we were
not very deep, and the limited substitution meant the
other team had to stay on the field as much as we did.
And I think we were probably in better shape and better able to handle that.
What life lessons did college football teach you?
Brock Strom, a star for the U.S. Air Force Academy
in the 1950s, was inducted into the
College Hall of Fame in 1985.
What are you doing now?
I am trying to stay busy. I am a past president of a
charity called “The Home Front Cares” that is helping
the families of sailors, soldiers and airmen stationed in
Iraq and Afghanistan. We have raised and given away
about $1.5 million to these families in the last seven
years. Before retiring, I worked on the anti-satellite
program and was the director of engineering during
the building of the satellite-based NAVSTAR Global
Positioning System that is now used in ships, cars,
trains and planes. I went to work for Burlington
Northern Railroad to put the GPS on the railroad,
eventually taking over their information systems
department as a senior vice president. I retired from
there and came out to the Air Force Academy to teach
math and economics, and after 10 years of that took
up The Home Front Cares. It’s really a wonderful charity, and the people of Colorado Springs and the
Denver area have been so very supportive. It’s been
fun to be able to work with them. I do a little golfing
Summer 2010 Issue
The Academy has not had an undefeated team since
then, and I remind them of that every now and again.
Perseverance, that’s the No. 1 thing that it’s taught me.
That you’ve got to keep on plugging and success will
come. It certainly worked for me. I went into research
and development for the Air Force, and there were a
lot of days when things did not go completely right.
The anti-satellite program was one of those where we
ran into problems in the process in trying to demonstrate the ability to achieve a satellite kill capability, and
we worked our way through them. Our efforts paid off
with a very successful satellite kill on Friday the 13th
of September, 1985.
Who are the individuals in your life who have been
instrumental in your development?
My dad was very instrumental in my life. He was a
veteran of World War II and an engineer. There wasn’t a job that was beneath him or one that he wouldn’t tackle himself. Ben Martin, who was our football
coach at Air Force, is one of the people who was a
very significant leader. He demonstrated the ability to
motivate and get people all working on the same
page, plus he was a great football tactician. My high
school coach was also very unique. His name was
Merts Mortelli. He ended up coaching at Superior
State College in Superior, Wis. He brought out a lot of
good things in the players and was fun to be around.
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2010 College Football Hall of Fame Class
O
n Dec. 7, 2010, at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City, 12 All-America players and two legendary coaches will take
their place in the College Football Hall of Fame alongside the greatest of all time. Of the 4.79 million individuals who
have played college football since Princeton first battled Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869, only 1,072 champions of the gridiron (882
players and 190 coaches, including this year’s class) have earned the right to be immortalized in the sport’s ultimate shrine.
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PLAYERS
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1. Dennis Byrd,
North Carolina State
2. Ronnie Caveness, Arkansas
3. Ray Childress, Texas A&M
4. Randy Cross, UCLA
5. Sam Cunningham,
Southern California
6. Mark Herrmann, Purdue
47. Clarkston Hines, Duke
8. Desmond Howard, Michigan
9. Chet Moeller, Navy
10. Jerry Stovall, LSU
11. Pat Tillman, Arizona State
12. Alfred Williams, Colorado
COACHES
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13. Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin
14. Gene Stallings,
Texas A&M/Alabama
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Four unanimous First Team All-Americans • Three consensus First-Team All-Americans
Three members of national championship teams • One Heisman Trophy winner • One Maxwell Award winner
One Walter Camp Player of the Year • One Butkus Award winner • Six Conference Players of the Year
Nine members of conference championship teams • Six first-round NFL draft picks
A special thanks to Steve Richardson, the former sports journalist with the Dallas Morning News and the current executive director of the Football Writers Association of America, who
wrote the following Hall of Fame and NFF Major Award stories. An accomplished author, Richardson's latest book, “AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic Football Vault: The History of a Proud
Texas Tradition,” is being published in September 2010 by Whitman Publishing, LLC.
Summer 2010 Issue
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DENNIS BYRD • Defensive Tackle • 1965-67 • North Carolina State
D
ennis Byrd passed away on July
23, 2010. Earlier this summer,
he visited with the NFF about his
Hall of Fame career at North
Carolina State.
Beginning during his sophomore
season, 1965, Byrd was a staple on the defensive line,
helping lead North Carolina State to the ACC cochampionship with Clemson.
During Byrd’s senior season, the “White Shoes
Defense” gave up a total of only 94 points in 11 games
in 1967. One game that Byrd vividly remembered was
when the Wolfpack played a mid-October game in
1967 at Maryland. The fifth-ranked Wolfpack were
behind the Terrapins 3-0 at halftime. The NC State
defense had played well, but tensions were a little high
about an unproductive offense.
“Our offense turned the ball over at our 20,” Byrd
recalled. “And Maryland got a field goal just before
halftime. In the defensive locker room at halftime, the
defense started talking and someone asked ‘What’s
wrong with the offense?’ Someone else said ‘They’re
not working hard enough.’ A couple of us got a little
more fired up and we went over to the offensive room.”
Byrd walked up to Wolfpack offensive tackle Steve
Warren, didn’t get the answer he wanted for the poor
play and took actions into his own hands. “I just
slapped the crap out of him,” Byrd said. Soon, there
were 80 bodies wrestling around with the coaches
nowhere to be found. N.C. State carried the emotional
halftime situation onto the field and rallied for a 31-9
victory.
That game helped cement Byrd’s legacy at his alma
mater, and 40 years later, he was inducted into the
state of North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
North Carolina State might well have won the
national championship in 1967 had Byrd not suffered
a severe injury to his right knee in the seventh game, a
victory over Duke. The Wolfpack won the next week
against Virginia without him to run their record to 8-0
and a No. 3 ranking. He tried to play in close losses at
Clemson and Penn State, but was ineffective, and only
played for one series in a 14-7 victory over Georgia in
his final game, the Liberty Bowl.
• First Wolfpack football player to become a consensus All-America in 1967.
• Only North Carolina State defensive player to
have his number (77) retired by the school.
• First football player to achieve All-Atlantic Coast
Conference Honors three times.
“We played a 5-2 defense,” Byrd said. “It was very
consistent and safe. Nobody ever scored on us much
those years.” Byrd played right in front of linebacker
Chuck Amato, who later became the Wolfpack’s head
coach from 2000-06.
“Amato was fiery,” Byrd remembered. “He was just
like a coach. He was hollering at guys out there.”
Because of the nagging knee injury, Byrd’s career in
professional football was brief. He played in only 14
games with the Boston Patriots and then returned to
his native North Carolina to teach high school and
coach football for the next 30 years.
RONNIE CAVENESS • Linebacker • 1964-67 • Arkansas
R
onnie Caveness, a standout at
Smiley High School in
Houston, had his choice between
Alabama and Arkansas when he
graduated in 1961. He chose the
Razorbacks over Bear Bryant and
put together a stellar career as a defensive stopper in
the Southwest Conference.
“When it came time to make a decision Coach
Broyles came into my house,” Caveness said. “I had a
train ticket to go to Tuscaloosa. But I told him I
planned on going to Arkansas, and I got on an airplane
with him and went to Arkansas with a train ticket to
Tuscaloosa in my pocket.”
Caveness became one of the top tacklers in
Arkansas history. In 1963 and 1964 alone, when he
played just defense, he registered 309 tackles over the
two seasons. During a 14-13 victory over Texas in
1964 that propelled the Razorbacks to an unbeaten
season, he logged 25 tackles. In the previous season’s
UT game, Caveness posted 29 tackles, an Arkansas
record that still stands today.
“In the Southwest Conference in the 1960s, if you
didn’t beat Texas, you weren’t going to the Cotton
Bowl,” Caveness said. “That was a big game for us. If
you didn’t beat them, they pretty well had the run of
Summer 2010 Issue
the other teams. Everybody got fired up for Texas. I
was particularly motivated, being from Texas. That was
our only year to beat them (his senior year). We had
lost 7-3 my sophomore year and 17-13 my junior year.
That was my last shot, all of the seniors’ last shot.”
Caveness was one of the 14 senior captains on the
1964 Arkansas team, which also included notables
Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson and Ken Hatfield.
Following the Texas victory, Arkansas shut out its last
five regular-season opponents before playing in the
Cotton Bowl.
Caveness wound up being one of the Cotton Bowl’s
Most Outstanding Players for his 15 tackles in a 10-7
victory over Nebraska that allowed the Razorbacks to
win their only football national championship in some
polls taken after the bowls.
He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs 16th
• The 17th Razorback player or coach to be
inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
• Led Arkansas in tackles for 21-straight games.
• Has been named to the University of Arkansas
All-Century Team, state of Arkansas Sports Hall
of Fame and is a member of the Cotton Bowl’s
All-Decade team for the 1960s.
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overall (second round) in the 1965 American Football
League Draft, but after one season was traded to his
hometown Houston Oilers and played there three
seasons before ending his career with the Boston
Patriots. Upon retirement, Caveness went into sales
and has remained close to the Arkansas program. He
was president of Arkansas Little Rock Razorback Club
for five years.
“I always said Coach Broyles had the touch,”
Caveness said. “He knew exactly how to handle the
situation. He is kind of like an orchestra leader. He
knew how to motivate you. And at same time, he
said, ‘With you, all I had to do with was let you go
(on the field).’ ”
RAY CHILDRESS • Defensive Lineman • 1981-84 • Texas A&M
R
ay Childress moved to Dallas
when he was a junior in high
school in the late 1970s and began
playing for Pearce High School.
Because he had grown up in
Memphis, Tenn., he had little
knowledge about college football in the state of Texas.
But he liked Texas A&M assistant coach R.C. Slocum,
the Aggies’ defensive coordinator at the time under
Coach Tom Wilson, who was recruiting him.
“I got real comfortable with Texas A&M and never
regretted it,” said Childress.
By the time Childress arrived in College Station,
Slocum had departed for USC before the 1981 season.
Still, Childress played for Wilson as a freshman in
1981 and helped lead the Aggies to an Independence
Bowl victory over Oklahoma State. After Wilson was
terminated with one year remaining on his contract,
Jackie Sherrill was hired as head coach. Slocum
returned as defensive coordinator for Sherrill and
coached Childress the next three seasons.
The groundwork for the great defenses was being
laid at Texas A&M, although Childress never played in
another bowl game as an Aggie nor won a Southwest
Conference championship.
“Ray didn’t say too much, he was a quiet leader,”
Sherrill said, remembering back to Childress’ senior
season in 1984. “After we got shut out at Arkansas (280 in the ninth game), he challenged everyone on the
team. We were facing two bowl teams in TCU and
Texas to finish out the year, and we won both games,
and that set the course for three straight Southwest
Conference championships.”
Childress, the captain of the 1984 team, registered
25 sacks in his career at Texas A&M. He had 124 tackles and 10 sacks as a senior when the Aggies ranked
fifth nationally in pass defense and posted Sherrill’s
first winning record (6-5) in College Station.
“I think by the end of my senior year Jackie Sherrill
had put a lot of things in place,” said Childress, the
Aggies’ captain in 1984. “I really think the thing came
together in the second half of my senior year. They
went on to win several championships. I am very
happy for them.”
• A two-time All-American at Texas A&M in 1983
and 1984.
• Ended his career with 360 career tackles, still
the most by an Aggie lineman.
• A member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame
Class of 2007.
By the time Sherrill’s team won its first SWC title in
1985, Childress was already a rookie with the Oilers.
He starred 11 seasons there, helped Houston to seven
playoff appearances and made All-Pro six times. He
played his final season for the Dallas Cowboys in 1996.
Childress shares an NFL record with several players for
opponents’ fumbles recovered in a game (three).
Upon retirement Childress went into private business and also founded the Childress Foundation for atrisk youth. He and his wife, Kara, live in the Houston
area. Their four children — three boys and a girl — are
all up-and-coming athletes, led by the eldest, the 6foot-4, 245-pound Wells, who is a 4.00 student in
business honors and on the current Aggie team.
RANDY CROSS • Offensive Guard • 1973-75 • UCLA
R
andy Cross grew up in southern
California watching the Bruins
play. So there was little doubt where
he was going to play college football
when he graduated from high
school in the early 1970s — UCLA.
“My late father, Dennis Cross, raised me to be a
Bruin and my mother, Rita, was manager of Dykstra
and Sproul residence halls on campus, so UCLA has
been part of my life ever since I can remember,” Cross
said. “Joining some of the legendary Bruins in the
College Football Hall of Fame is a dream come true for
a young boy who grew up in Tarzana.”
Cross is the 13th person and 10th player from
UCLA to be selected to the College Football Hall of
Fame. But he is the first Bruin lineman to be inducted
since 1983.
“Coaches from UCLA shaped me as a young man,
taught me lessons on and off the field and helped in life
well after I left Westwood,” Cross said. “I owe those
men — Steve Butler, Moe Freedman, Terry Donahue,
Pepper Rodgers, Dick Vermeil and Bob McKittrick —
more than I can ever repay.”
Cross actually played for two head coaches at UCLA
— Rodgers in 1973 and Vermeil in 1974 and 1975. A
shot put champion in high school, he began his career
Summer 2010 Issue
at center, but was moved to right guard his junior year,
then played both positions as a senior. The durable
Cross started 28 of his 34 career games and the final 23
of his college career.
His final season was his payoff, when the Bruins
won the Pacific-8 title during a 9-2-1 season in 1975.
UCLA dropped a 41-20 decision to then secondranked Ohio State in early October and also fell to
Washington, but the Bruins beat USC, 25-22, in the
season finale, tied for the Pacific-8 title and gained a
Rose Bowl berth.
In 1975, Cross was the stalwart on an offensive line
that not only protected dual-threat quarterback John
Sciarra, but opened holes for him and running back
Wendell Tyler. In a Rose Bowl rematch with top-ranked
Ohio State, UCLA rallied from a 3-0 halftime deficit
and pulled off a stunning 23-10 upset.
Cross went on to an even more successful professional career with the San Francisco 49ers, as he was
• Named a first team All-American in 1975.
• UCLA posted a 24-7-3 record during his three
years of varsity competition
• Part of the 1975 Pacific-8 and Rose Bowl championship team.
11
selected to three Pro Bowls and was named All-Pro six
times from 1976-88. In 1985 Cross was named the
49ers’ Man of the Year for his many outside activities in
the community.
Since retirement from pro football, Cross has been
involved in network television and radio coverage of
NFL and college games and has continued philanthropic work. He and his wife, Patrice, live in Alpharetta, Ga.,
and have three children. Son Brendan is a quarterback
on the Wake Forest football team.
SAM CUNNINGHAM • Running Back • Southern California • 1970-72
I
t didn’t take Sam Cunningham
long to get going once he became
eligible for varsity competition at
Southern California. Try his first
game at the onset of the 1970 football season; No. 39 made it an historic night for more than just himself.
Cunningham, then only a sophomore, rushed for
135 yards on 12 carries and scored two touchdowns as
the Trojans knocked off Alabama, 41-21, at Legion
Field in Birmingham, Ala.
That performance by Cunningham, who had the
skills of a tailback but was moved to fullback because
of his great blocking ability, helped integrate college
football programs in the South. Cunningham’s performance made a great impression on Tide coach Bear
Bryant because shortly thereafter Alabama became a
fully integrated team.
The 6-foot-3, 212-pound Cunningham, from Santa
Barbara, Calif., rushed for 1,579 yards and 23 touchdowns in his career at USC. He received the nickname
“Bam” for his ability to score near the goal line with his
leaping ability. During his college career he averaged
4.7 yards per carry.
Because of his speed and great hands, Cunningham
could be used as a pass receiver on occasion; he caught 34
passes out of his fullback position for 293 yards and two
touchdowns — an 8.6 yards-a-catch average. He also ran
track, with a 9.8-second time in the 100-yard dash.
During the course of his three seasons at USC, the
Trojans compiled a 24-8-2 record. The highlight was the
1972 season, when the Trojans were 12-0 and considered one of the great college football teams of all time.
“USC’s not the No. 1 team in the country,” quipped
Washington State coach Jim Sweeney, whose Cougars
dropped a 44-3 decision to the Trojans that season.
“The Miami Dolphins are better.”
Cunningham was one of five All-Americans on the
1972 USC team, which averaged 39 points per game
and never trailed in the second half of any game. The
Trojans defeated six ranked teams that season — No. 4
Arkansas, No. 15 Stanford, No. 18 Washington, No.
14 UCLA, No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 3 Ohio State —
• Named a 1972 first team All-American as a
senior.
• Older brother of All-American punter and
quarterback Randall Cunningham (UNLV).
• Inducted into the USC Hall of Fame in 2001
and Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1992.
with the closest margin being a 17-point victory over
Stanford.
As a senior, Cunningham played in the same backfield with either quarterback Mike Rae or Pat Haden
and tailback Anthony Davis, then only a sophomore.
Cunningham was the captain of the 1972 team and
also “Troy’s Back of the Year” when he scored 13 rushing touchdowns. Cunningham was at his best when he
scored four times on short runs in a 42-17 rout of the
Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl that season and was named
the Most Valuable Player.
After professional football, Cunningham has been
active in raising money for cancer and works as a landscaping contractor in Inglewood, Calif.
MARK HERRMANN • Quarterback • Purdue • 1977-80
I
n a long line of great quarterbacks
at Purdue University, Mark
Herrmann now joins an elite College
Football Hall of Fame list that
already includes Boilermakers Bob
Griese and Mike Phipps. Because of
the coaching prowess of another NFF Hall of Famer,
Purdue coach Jim Young, Herrmann set record after
record during his star-studded Purdue career.
“I knew if I ended up being the starter when I went
there, he (Young) would create an offense I could have
success in,” said Herrmann, who also had offers from
Notre Dame and Michigan State. “I was more of a dropback passer. And in the past he had created offenses
around the talent he had at quarterback. We spread it
out much more than they had been used to in the Big
Ten. We were pioneers in the passing game.”
Recruited out of Carmel, Ind., where he also was a
forward on a state basketball championship team,
Herrmann, as a Purdue freshman, was on the bench to
start the opener of the 1977 season. But he was soon in
the game and would start 45 of the next 46. The only
game that Herrmann failed to start the rest of his career
was the 1980 season-opening loss at Notre Dame,
because of a right thumb injury.
The lanky 6-foot-4 Herrmann would set nine NCAA
Summer 2010 Issue
passing records, including those for career passing
yards and career completions. He became the first
quarterback to pass for 8,000 yards in a career and
eventually more than 9,000.
In 1980, Herrmann broke the NCAA career passing
yards standard (owned by Washington State’s Jack
Thompson at the time), in a 36-25 victory over
Michigan State in West Lafayette. A 14-yard pass to
Purdue senior split end Bart Burrell fittingly broke the
record.
“That was big moment and to be able to throw it to
a guy I had played with since seventh grade, that was
a pretty good moment in front of the home fans and
being able to share with teammates,” Herrmann said.
While the Boilermakers failed to win a Big Ten title
during Herrmann’s career, he did lead them to 28 vic• In 1980, he was the Big Ten’s Most Valuable
Player and finished fourth in the Heisman
Trophy balloting.
• The senior All-American finished his Purdue
career with 71 touchdown passes.
• Thirty years later, he still holds Purdue’s singleseason percentage pass completion record (65.8
percent) set in 1980.
13
tories in his final three seasons and postseason triumphs from 1978-80 in the Peach, Bluebonnet and
Liberty bowls. He was named a Most Outstanding
Player in each of those games.
After pro football, Herrmann was a radio color commentator for the Indianapolis Colts from 1994-2004
and was the NCAA’s associate director of Educational
Programs from 2002-2009. He currently is a consultant to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis and
involved with Peyton Manning’ s Project 18 Challenge
that fights obesity. He and his wife, Susie, have three
children and reside in Indianapolis.
CLARKSTON HINES • Wide Receiver • 1986-89 • Duke
C
larkston Hines got a new lease
on his football career when
Steve Spurrier became the Blue
Devils football coach before the
1987 season. Suffering from knee
problems that required multiple surgeries during his first two seasons on campus, Hines
would go on to dizzying heights in Spurrier’s wideopen passing offense.
“It was a Godsend,” said Hines, who still held 10
Duke receiving records entering the 2010 season. “I
knew exactly what we were getting due to me seeing
the Tampa Bay Bandits play the Jacksonville Bulls in the
USFL. I was going to high school there in Jacksonville.
I saw his team (the Bandits) going up and down field. I
thought, ‘Here is my opportunity to start all over again,
and I am going to take advantage of it.’ ”
Before the 1987 season, Spurrier’s first in Durham,
Hines had another surgery on an already delicate left
knee. The first surgery forced him to take a medical
redshirt in 1985. Before Spurrier arrived, Hines had
caught only three passes at Duke for a total of nine
yards.
“I tore the same ligament (anterior cruciate) again
before the 1987 season,” Hines said. “I did not want
the same surgery. The surgeon took out the ligament. I
was never the same athlete as I was before. But the fact
that I played in an imaginative and innovative offense
that predicated itself on spacing and timing allowed
me to be successful playing with one knee with all the
ligaments intact.”
Hines, as a senior, was a part of Duke’s most recent
ACC football championship team in 1989. He finished
his career with his third straight 1,000-yard receiving
season as the Blue Devils tied Virginia for the league
title, went to the All-American Bowl and finished with
an 8-4 record. But Spurrier says his fondest memory of
Hines was the previous season during a 43-43 tie at
North Carolina State.
“He caught a middle pass ... and one safety hit him
high and a couple of linebackers hit him low,” Spurrier
• Hines was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player
of the Year in 1989.
• A decade later, he was inducted into the Duke
Sports Hall of Fame.
• Only player in ACC history to lead the league in
receiving yardage three consecutive seasons
(1987-89).
• Still holds ACC record for career touchdown
receptions (38), entering the 2010 season.
recalled. “He made the catch from about 16 yards, and
they sort of hurt him. But he wouldn’t let them know
that it hurt him. He got up and shook his shoulder a
little bit, as if to say, ‘You dudes can’t hurt me. Let’s go
play another play.’ ”
More than two decades later, Hines is currently vice
president for human resources of health care company
DaVita Inc. and resides in Statesville, N.C., with his
wife and four children.
“(Many good) receivers don’t stay four years any
more and leave after three years,’’ Hines said of the reason some of his ACC records still stand. “That helps
insulate me a little bit. More importantly, defenses have
gotten a whole lot more intricate. The schemes that
they have now are head and shoulders above where
they were 20 years ago.”
DESMOND HOWARD • Wide Receiver • 1989-91 • Michigan
D
esmond Howard came to
Michigan as a tailback out of
Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly after he
arrived in Ann Arbor, he was summoned for a conference with three
coaches on the Wolverine staff —
head coach Bob Schembechler and assistants Gary
Moeller and Cam Cameron. The meeting would
change the course of Howard’s career and the future of
Michigan football.
“They said we think you can help us better and
much more effectively at wideout,” Howard said. “So I
made the switch. Didn’t even push back, didn’t even
debate it. This is what you said I should do. This is
what I did. I dedicated myself to becoming the best
wideout I could be, even though I hadn’t played wide
out since I was a little shorty.”
Howard dedicated himself to making the switch of
positions and by his senior season of 1991 became an
All-America and caught 19 touchdown passes — still a
Big Ten Conference single-season record.
In his final collegiate season Howard started to gain
traction as a Heisman Trophy favorite when he caught
four touchdown passes in a 35-13 season-opening victory at Boston College. The following week Michigan
met Notre Dame in Ann Arbor in a battle of top seven-
Summer 2010 Issue
ranked teams.
“I had the catch in the corner of the end zone,”
Howard said of a touchdown in Michigan’s 24-14 victory. “That was a special moment. It was really ironic
because the week before we played Boston College
and I scored four touchdowns, people didn’t pay
much attention to me. The next week we play Notre
Dame and I score two touchdowns, the next thing
you know I am a Heisman candidate on the cover of
Sports Illustrated.”
Howard went on to pile up 985 yards in receptions
in 1991. During his final career home game against
Ohio State, he made his famous Heisman Trophy pose
in the end zone after returning a punt 93 yards for a
touchdown in the Wolverines’ 31-3 victory.
Howard claimed the 1991 Heisman Trophy by more
than 1,500 votes over the runner-up, Florida State
quarterback Casey Weldon, after he became the first
• The 1991 Heisman Trophy winner also won the
Maxwell and Walter Camp Awards that season.
• Helped lead Wolverines to three Big Ten titles
and two Rose Bowls.
• Still holds Michigan record for most points
(138) and touchdowns (23) in a season (1991).
14
receiver in Big Ten history to lead the league in scoring.
Howard bypassed his final season of athletic eligibility at Michigan, but he graduated in four years. In
the NFL, Howard played for Washington,
Jacksonville, Green Bay (twice), Oakland and Detroit
and was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXI when Green
Bay beat New England, 35-21. He currently works as
a college football analyst on ESPN and appears on the
Emmy-Award winning College GameDay. He and his
wife, Rebkah, reside in Miami, Fla., with their three
children.
CHET MOELLER • Safety • 1973-75 • United States Naval Academy
C
het Moeller was never one to be
caught up in his own press clippings for a simple reason — the
humility he gained from transforming himself from a fourth-stringer at
Navy to a hard-hitting All-America
safety.
“I was about 165 pounds and 5-foot-11,” said
Moeller of his high school playing days in Kettering,
Ohio. “My high school coach at Fairmont West told
Michigan assistant Gary Moeller when he came to my
high school that I was too small. I had scholarship
offers from Ball State, Bowling Green, Cornell and
Navy. That was about it.”
Moeller chose Navy and played his freshman season
for coach Rick Forzano, but the playing schemes
changed dramatically when George Welsh became the
Midshipmen’s head coach starting with the 1973 season.
“I was fourth-string in spring practice before my
sophomore year,” Moeller said. “George changed to the
5-2 defense and we had a rover on defense, which I
played. We were in a 4-3 defense under Forzano.
Slowly, by the end of spring practice, I was secondstring. A pretty big guy in front of me ended up being
moved to linebacker, so I started the fall of my sophomore year.”
Given his opportunity to start, Moeller never let up.
“By the time my junior year rolled around, there was
a recognition of where I should be, and I could beat the
offense to the punch,” Moeller said. “I wasn’t gifted
with great speed, but I was pretty quick. I did not have
great size, but somebody believed in me. I did like to
hit. My sophomore year, I broke my nose on the face
mask of the scout team quarterback.”
Moeller received national recognition after a 7-6
Navy victory over Penn State in State College in 1974
when he was named Sports Illustrated Player of the
Week. As a junior, he registered a school-record 25
tackles-for-losses. During Moeller’s unanimous AllAmerica senior season the team ranked No. 3 in total
defense, the Midshipmen finished 7-4, beat Tony
• The 1975 East Coast Athletic Conference Player
of the Year.
• He piled up 275 tackles during his three-year
career in Annapolis.
• One of only six Navy players to be named unanimous All-America (1975).
• He was a finalist for the NCAA’s Top Five Award
and a second team Academic All-America as a
senior.
Dorsett’s Pittsburgh Panthers, 17-0, and lost two onepoint decisions by identical 14-13 scores to
Washington and Georgia Tech.
Upon graduation, Moeller was not selected in the
NFL Draft because he had a five-year military commitment. After four years serving as an officer in the
Marine Corps, it was discovered he had diabetes and
was excused from the rest of his military commitment.
He signed a free-agent contract with the New York
Giants but never played in a regular-season game.
Moeller, who has two children, then held various
computer-related jobs until starting his own company
in 1985 and has been running it ever since. He and his
wife, Jenny, reside in Montgomery, Ala., where he is
also a church elder.
He is the 22nd Navy player or coach to be inducted
into the Hall.
JERRY STOVALL • Halfback • 1960-62 • LSU
J
erry Stovall has had a lot of good
days during his star-studded
career on and off the field. But he
admits when he got a call from LSU
Athletics Director Joe Alleva last
spring, his day picked up considerably with the news that he had just been elected to the
College Football Hall of Fame.
“How is your day going?’ Stovall recalled Alleva asked
him. “I said, ‘I am really having a good day.’ And he asked:
‘Do you want me to make your day a little bit better?’”
Stovall, originally from West Monroe, La., is a Tiger
through and through. The 52nd and final player
signed by LSU coach Paul Dietzel in 1959 when another player backed out, Stovall describes himself this
way: “I was the runt of the litter. I was never really very
fast, strong or big. But I came from a home where the
daddy stressed the value of working hard.”
Once at LSU, he quickly fit into Dietzel’s unique
three-platoon system designed to rest players: the
White Team (starting offense and defense), the Gold or
Geaux Team (second-team offense) and the Chinese
Bandits (second-team defense). Stovall began starting
at halfback and defensive back as a sophomore in 1960
when LSU finished 5-4-1 and lost four games by a total
of 14 points.
Summer 2010 Issue
“We had (a bunch) of sophomores and were only a
hair’s breadth away from being really good,” Stovall
said. “In 1961, we went over to Rice and got beat and
then won our next 10 games. The 1962 team was the
best team I ever played on in high school, college or
pro. We had good depth, we were recruited together,
and we came to maturity.”
Stovall was a top runner, receiver, returner and
punter and put up good numbers in all the categories.
Charlie McClendon became the head coach for his senior season, and the winning continued with a 9-1-1
record and 13-0 victory over Texas in Dallas’ Cotton
Bowl.
“I got so tired of the ‘Eyes of Texas’, I couldn’t see
straight,” Stovall recalled. “We went over and had a
pretty good game. That year we were killing people
with defense, special teams and the running game.
• Unanimous All-America selection in 1962.
• Runner-up in 1962 Heisman Trophy balloting to
Oregon State’s Terry Baker.
• LSU tied Alabama for the SEC championship in
1961 when Stovall was a star.
• Held LSU’s single-season punting record (42.1
yards) upon graduation.
15
That’s the lifeblood of the SEC.”
Stovall was selected second overall in the 1963 NFL
Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals and played safety nine
seasons there and was selected to three Pro Bowls.
Later, he was LSU’s head football coach from 1980-83.
The high point was an 8-3-1 record during the 1982
season when Tigers lost to Nebraska by one point in
the Orange Bowl and Stovall was named the Walter
Camp Coach of the Year. He also served as Louisiana
Tech’s athletics director from 1990-93.
Stovall is back in Baton Rouge with his wife of 48
years, Judy, with whom he has had two children. He
serves as President and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area
Sports Foundation.
PAT TILLMAN • Linebacker • 1994-97 • Arizona State
I
n one of the most sterling games
of any college season, upstart
Arizona State shocked top-ranked
and two-time defending national
champion Nebraska, 19-0, on Sept.
21, 1996, at Sun Devil Stadium. The
Sun Devil defense desperately wanted to shut out the
Cornhuskers, who had humiliated ASU the previous
season in Lincoln.
Linebacker Pat Tillman suffered through the 77-28
loss in 1995. But he was the player who made a touchdown-saving tackle late in the 1996 game to preserve
the shutout and hand coach Tom Osborne only his
third (and final) shutout in 25 years of head coaching.
That Nebraska victory was a springboard to
Arizona State’s 1996 Pac-10 title season and trip to the
Rose Bowl. Tillman was an important part of that season when he was second on the team in tackles while
also being named to the Pac-10 All-Academic team
with a 3.86 GPA in marketing.
The week after the Nebraska game, Tillman may
have played his best game as a collegian when he intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble, notched a sack, five
tackles and assisted on seven others in a 48-27 victory
over Oregon in Tempe. He even recovered an onside
kick in the fourth quarter.
As a senior in 1996 Tillman led the Sun Devils with
93 tackles — 47 of those were unassisted and 15 were
for 60 yards in losses. He also had three interceptions
during Arizona State’s 9-3 season that ended with a
Sun Bowl victory over Iowa.
Tillman was selected in the seventh round of the
1998 draft by the Arizona Cardinals and became the
team’s starting safety. In 2000 he set a franchise record
with 144 tackles, but played only one more season. In
the spring of 2002, he put his NFL career on hold and
joined the service with his younger brother Kevin to
serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tillman was killed in Afghanistan on April 22,
2004, serving his country in the U.S. Army Rangers.
Shortly thereafter, he was awarded the Purple Heart by
• Selected as the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the
Year as a senior.
• In 1997 he also was named the Sporting News
Honda Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
• In 2006, he was posthumously awarded the
NFF’s Distinguished American Award.
• In 2008, he was inducted into the Arizona State
University Athletics Hall of Fame, four years
after his No. 42 was retired.
the U.S. Army and a Silver Star by the U.S. military.
The Tillman family and friends established the Pat
Tillman Foundation, which carries forward Tillman’s
legacy of leadership and civic service and also provides
resources and educational support to veterans, active
service members and their dependents. Pat’s Run, the
foundation’s main fund raiser, has drawn 30,000 participants annually.
“On behalf of the entire Tillman family, we are so
excited that Pat is now part of the College Football Hall
of Fame,” said his wife, Marie. “He would have been
truly honored to be included alongside these other
great players. Thank you to everyone who has sent
congratulations and well wishes to our family.”
ALFRED WILLIAMS • Linebacker • 1987-90 • Colorado
A
lfred Williams made the most
of his senior season at
Colorado, when he was the driving
defensive force behind the Buffs’
road to the national championship
in 1990. The Buffaloes started that
season 1-1-1 with a tie against Tennessee, a victory
over Stanford and a loss to Illinois.
The fourth game of the season was a night road
game at Texas, then a member of the Southwest
Conference. It was a pivotal final non-conference game
before the Buffaloes entered Big Eight league play.
Williams, a native of Houston, played one of his
greatest games when he helped rally the Buffaloes from
eight points down to a 29-22 victory, the first of 10
straight that season. Against Texas, Williams made 10
tackles, two of which were sacks. And with one of
those sacks, he scored a safety that put the final points
on the board.
“I remember that fourth quarter ... we took over,”
Williams said. “It had been so long since we were in
that kind of situation, trailing on the road in the fourth
quarter in a hostile environment.”
Two games later Williams and Co. also had to survive the harrowing “Fifth Down” game in Columbia,
Mo., when they posted a controversial 33-31 victory.
Summer 2010 Issue
The Buffaloes actually scored the winning points with
an extra down. But Williams was extraordinary
through it all and registered at least one sack during
the first 10 games of the 1990 season, which finished
with a second-straight trip to the Orange Bowl.
“When he was at his best, he was the best,” said former Colorado coach Bill McCartney. “When he wanted
it bad, look out. You couldn’t keep him out of the
backfield. He loved to compete. He was the consummate defensive end or outside linebacker. He could
rush, he could drop back and cover, he could doubleteam anyone.”
When Colorado trailed 6-0 at halftime at Nebraska
late in the 1990 season, Williams proved to be the
emotional leader. While walking off the field at halftime, Williams was upset by a fan in the stands holding a sign referencing former CU quarterback Sal
Aunese, who had passed away with stomach cancer.
• A unanimous first team All-American in 1990
when CU won a second straight Big Eight title.
• Claimed the 1990 Butkus Award, which is given
to the best linebacker in the country.
• Holds Colorado records for career sacks (35)
and tackles for loss (59).
16
“Since we were down 6-0 in the rain, and the fact
the last time we were there we lost 7-0 and should have
won, that sign just pushed me over the top,” Williams
said. “I am sure everyone could see the veins sticking
out on my neck.”
Colorado came back to win 27-12 and later beat
Notre Dame 10-9 in the Orange Bowl to win the
national title.
Williams eventually claimed Super Bowl rings with
the Denver Broncos during the 1997 and 1998 seasons. And he still resides in the Denver area with his
four sons. He hosts a daily sports radio talk show on
KKFN, while also volunteering as a Pop Warner football coach.
BARRY ALVAREZ • 118-73-4 (.615 ) • Wisconsin (1990-2005)
B
arry Alvarez’s coaching roots
started when he played for Bob
Devaney from 1965-67 at Nebraska.
They began to expand under
Hayden Fry at Iowa from 1979-86
and gained even more traction when
he was an assistant for Lou Holtz at Notre Dame from
1987-89. He now joins all three of them in the College
Football Hall of Fame.
“There were things I took from both of them, as well
as Devaney, that kind of fit my philosophy and allowed
me to create my beliefs and my plan that I felt was necessary for success,” said Alvarez, who took over a
Wisconsin program in 1990 that had won just nine
games in the previous four seasons.
Things didn’t get much better his first season (1990)
when Wisconsin went 1-10. It took Alvarez four seasons to turn around the Badgers, who put back-toback 5-6 seasons together before a 10-1-1 season in
1993 signaled they had arrived in the Big Ten
Conference.
“I thought we had a good foundation or I wouldn’t
have taken the job,” Alvarez said. “I knew there was a
way of getting the job done if there was patience. And
I had a very good administration. I knew I could put a
good staff together, and we could recruit well. And it
didn’t take long for us to get things going. But it wasn’t easy to start with.”
In 1993, the Badgers had to go all the way to Tokyo
in the final game of the season against Michigan State
to win the Big Ten title and gain their first Rose Bowl
berth in 31 years.
“To win that game (41-20), that far away and to see
the response...,” Alvarez remembered of the welcome
back. “We landed in Chicago, took the bus, and we
drove into Wisconsin. As we crossed the border, fans
were lined up waiting for us. The bus drove straight
into the stadium, and the stadium was full of people
acknowledging our players. So that really was special.”
• His 118 victories were 53 more than any
Wisconsin coach had achieved heading into the
2010 season.
• He won three Big Ten titles and three Rose
Bowls during his head coaching career.
• His 8-3 bowl record translates into the best winning percentage in NCAA history (.727) for
coaches who have appeared in at least 11 bowls.
• During his tenure, Wisconsin produced 59 NFL
Draft choices, 34 All-Americans and two NFF
National Scholar Athletes.
The 1998 and 1999 seasons produced two more Big
Ten titles and Rose Bowl victories and a Heisman
Trophy-winning running back in Ron Dayne during
the latter season.
“Sometimes you are competing against coaches and
you don’t really understand the magnitude of what
they are up against and what they accomplish in their
careers,” said Michigan wide receiver and fellow 2010
inductee Desmond Howard of Alvarez, the only Big
Ten coach to win back-to-back Rose Bowls in consecutive years. “That’s unbelievable to me for him to
accomplish that.”
Alvarez, a Pennsylvania native, became Wisconsin’s athletics director in 2004 and coached two more years before
moving into the role of athletics director only, a position he
still holds. Alvarez, who serves on several NCAA committees, and his wife, Cindy, have three children.
GENE STALLINGS • 89-70-1 (.559) • Texas A&M (1965-71),Alabama (1990-96)
G
ene Stallings, a Paris, Texas,
native, became steeped in the
tradition of Paul “Bear” Bryant at an
early age. First, as a collegian in
1954, he practiced for him during
the dreadfully hot and arid pre-season training camp prior to Bryant’s first season at Texas
A&M made famous by the book “Junction Boys.”
Stallings survived and was the captain of Bryant’s
Southwest Conference title team as a senior in 1956.
Then Stallings, an Alabama assistant from 1958-64
under Bryant, eventually followed Bear (after stints by
other head coaches) at both Texas A&M and Alabama.
“I wanted to play Alabama. I wanted them (his players) to be exposed to Coach Bryant,” Stallings said of
the 1968 Cotton Bowl when his Aggies upset the
Crimson Tide, 20-16.
“As the game got underway, I understood what his
reputation was,” Stallings recalled. “On third down, he
sent his punter in and took out Kenny Stabler (his
quarterback). I sent in a safety who could only field
punts.
“He scratched his hat and realized the mistake he
had made and sent Kenny back in. I sent my safety
back in. You couldn’t send a player back in unless he
played a play. The official told me I couldn’t send my
Summer 2010 Issue
safety in. I said 75,000 people saw Coach Bryant take
out his punter. I asked, ‘Why I couldn’t send my player back in?’ The official said, ‘Because you aren’t coach
Bryant.’ ”
Stallings’ Aggies would win only the one SWC title
in 1967. He would then become an assistant coach for
the Dallas Cowboys (1972-85) and head coach for the
St.Louis/Phoenix Cardinals (1986-89), before taking
the Alabama job prior to the 1990 season.
By his third season in Tuscaloosa, the Tide was
contending for the 1992 national title and defeated
Miami (Florida) in the Sugar Bowl to win it. All told,
Stallings won four SEC West Division titles at
Alabama, five bowl games and posted a 28-game winning streak from 1991-93. He won various national
coach of the year honors.
“Coach Stallings was more than just a head coach at
• His 1992 Alabama team won the national championship with a 13-0 record.
• Coached 13 first team All-Americans during his
career.
• Stallings already has been inducted into
Alabama and Texas state sports halls of fame,
plus Texas A&M, Cotton and Gator Bowl halls.
17
Alabama — his manner of doing things, his leadership
and his passion took our entire program to another
level,” Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore said.
After Alabama, Stallings has remained active and coauthored a book, “Another Season: A Coach’s Story of
Raising an Exceptional Son,” with the late John Mark,
who was born with Down syndrome. Stallings was
appointed to the Texas A&M Board of Regents in 2005
and has served on various Aggie committees and won
numerous humanitarian awards. He and his wife, Ruth
Ann, live in Powderly, Texas.
2010 Hall of Fame Enshrinement
P
omp, pageantry and literal and emotional fireworks ruled the day in South Bend, Ind., as
thousands of football fans from across the country flocked to the College Football Hall of Fame for the
2010 Annual Enshrinement Festival July 16-17.
Celebrating the storied careers of 24 of the game’s
greatest stars, family, friends and admirers seized the
opportunity to get up close and personal with the
inductees during a wide range of intimate events
staged by the National Football Foundation.
The jam-packed weekend included a celebrity golf
tournament, downtown block party, a fan festival, a
grand parade, a youth football clinic, a pep rally and a
fireworks spectacular, with the celebration culminating
with the Enshrinement Dinner & Show.
2
1. Hall of Famer Grant Wistrom (Nebraska) waves to the crowd at the parade.
2. Hall of Fame Coach Dick MacPherson (Syracuse, Massachusetts) rides in style during the parade.
3. Hall of Famers Pervis Atkins (New Mexico State), Curt Warner (Penn State), Chuck Cecil (Arizona) and
Gordon Hudson (Brigham Young) enjoy their trip through the streets of South Bend.
1
4. The College Football Hall of Fame Gridiron Plaza was near capacity throughout the festivities.
3
4
FBS ENSHRINEMENT CLASS
Players
Pervis Atkins - HB, New Mexico State (1959-60)
Tim Brown - WR, Notre Dame (1984-87)
Chuck Cecil - DB, Arizona (1984-87)
Ed Dyas - FB, Auburn (1958-60)
Major Harris - QB, West Virginia (1987-89)
Gordon Hudson - TE, Brigham Young (1980-83)
William Lewis* - C, Harvard (1892-93)
Woodrow Lowe - LB, Alabama (1972-75)
Ken Margerum - WR, Stanford (1977-80)
Steve McMichael - DT, Texas (1976-79)
Chris Spielman - LB, Ohio State (1984-87)
Summer 2010 Issue
Larry Station - LB, Iowa (1982-85)
Pat Swilling - DE, Georgia Tech (1982-85)
Gino Torretta - QB, Miami (Fla.) (1989-92)
Curt Warner - RB, Penn State (1979-82)
Grant Wistrom - DE, Nebraska (1994-97)
Coaches
Dick MacPherson - 111-73-5 (.601) Massachusetts (1971-77), Syracuse (1981-90)
John Robinson - 132-77-4 (.629) Southern California (1976-82, 1993-97),
Nevada-Las Vegas (1999-2004)
DIVISIONAL ENSHRINEMENT CLASS
Players
Emerson Boozer - Maryland Eastern Shore, HB (1962-65)
Troy Brown - Marshall, WR (1991-92)
Brian Kelley - California Lutheran, LB (1969-72)
Milt Morin* - Massachusetts, TE (1963-65)
Coaches
Willie Jeffries - 179-132-6 (.574);
Howard (1984-88), Wichita State (1979-83),
South Carolina State (1973-78, 1989-2001)
Ted Kessinger - 219-57-1 (.792); Bethany (Kan.)
(1976-2003)
* deceased
18
5
6
7
5. Hall of Famer Chris Spielman (Ohio State) drew a large crowd of fans from Columbus, including
Brutus, the Ohio State mascot.
6. Hall of Famer Tim Brown (Notre Dame) responds to the crowd’s calls at the pep rally to strike the
Heisman Trophy pose. He won the award in 1987.
7. Hall of Famer Woodrow Lowe (Alabama) and Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore at the VIP tent.
8. ESPN’s Mike Golic interviews Hall of Famer Steve McMichael (Texas) at the pep rally.
9. ESPN analysts Jesse Palmer (left) and Mark May emceed the 2010 Enshrinement Show. May, an offensive guard at Pitt from 1977-80, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
8
10. Hall of Fame Coach John Robinson (Southern California, UNLV) at the 2010 Enshrinement Show.
9
Summer 2010 Issue
10
19
Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award
Dr. Joseph Kearney
Longtime Athletics Administrator
The Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award is intended to
provide national recognition to an individual(s) whose efforts and activities in support of the Foundation and its goals have been local in nature.
It also applies to individuals who have made significant contributions to
the game of football either to the manner in which it is played and
coached or to the manner in which it is enjoyed by spectators.
A
s one of the most highly respected administrators in the country, Dr. Joseph Kearney left an
indelible mark on the gridiron throughout his
nearly 30 years in college athletics.
Kearney’s career began as an assistant athletics director under former University of Washington coach and
athletics director Jim Owens. After Owens dropped his
administrative duties to focus solely on football,
Kearney was appointed to the helm, serving as
Huskies’ athletics director from 1969-76. He is credited with hiring legendary UW head coach Don James,
who was inducted into the College Football Hall of
Fame in 1997.
Kearney was hired as Michigan State’s athletics director in 1976, and the Spartans would go on to claim 11
Big Ten championships during his tenure. MSU captured conference titles in football, basketball and baseball in 1978-79, winning the NCAA men’s basketball
championship the same year. He also hired College
Football Hall of Fame coaching nominee Darryl Rogers,
who led the Spartans to national acclaim.
After a one-year stint as athletics director at Arizona
State, Kearney was hired as the Western Athletic
Conference Commissioner in 1980, a post he would
hold until his retirement in 1994. Under his tutelage,
the conference crowned its first national football champion (BYU, 1984); earned its first Heisman and
Outland Trophy winners; and oversaw the expansion
to add Fresno State. For his devotion to intercollegiate
athletics and its betterment, he was awarded NACDA’s
prestigious Corbett Award in 1991.
Dedicated to promoting the good that comes from
the game of football, Kearney established three chapters (Colorado, Southern Arizona, King County
[Wash.]) of the National Football Foundation
throughout the country and was actively involved in
the Southern Arizona Chapter until his health
declined. He also served as a board member for the
College Football Association; acted as president of
the Collegiate Commissioner’s Association; gained
recognition as a special delegate to Congress on Title
IX; and served on the U.S. Olympic Committee for
16 years. In his honor, the WAC established the Joe
Kearney Award, which has been presented to the
conference’s top male and female athlete each year
since 1991-92.
Kearney passed away on May 5, 2010, after an
eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife, Dorothea, five children and 11
grandchildren.
Summer 2010 Issue
As Michigan State athletics director in 1976, Kearney hired
football coach Darryl Rogers, who led the Spartans to a
24-18-2 record during the next four years.
Kearney (front row, right) began his career as
an assistant under Washington head coach and
athletics director Jim Owens (back row, right)
replacing him as athletics director in 1969.
Kearney coached freshman football at Washington while he
worked on his doctorate.
Kearney served as commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference from
1980 to his retirement in 1994.
As Washington Athletics Director from 1969-76, Kearney (center) hired future hall of fame coaches Don James (left) to
lead the football team and Marv Harshman (right) to head the basketball team.
21
John L. Toner Award
Robert Mulcahy
Former Director of Athletics, Rutgers University
Presented annually, the Toner Award is given to a director of athletics who has demonstrated superior administrative abilities and shown outstanding dedication to
college athletics and particularly college football.
A
visionary in New Jersey athletics, Robert
Mulcahy has spent his life working
towards the betterment of sports in his
home state, steering the Rutgers football program toward national prominence during his
time in Piscataway.
With the Scarlet Knights coming off a winless
season the year before his arrival as athletics director in 1998, he worked quickly to improve conditions for Rutgers football. In 2001, he hired Greg
Schiano, who in four short years would lead the
Scarlet Knights to their first postseason appearance in nearly 30 years. Mulcahy, a Villanova
graduate, also obtained funding from the state legislature for a massive renovation of the university’s
athletics facilities, raised the athletics department’s
endowment and secured increased television coverage for the football program.
Mulcahy is also credited with positively
affecting student-athlete welfare, putting an
emphasis on academics and community service.
He initiated significant upgrades in athlete tutoring and supervision programs, boosting Rutgers
to one of the top academic institutions in the Big
East. He also encouraged participation in area
toy drives, blood drives, reading programs and
hospital visits. And, in 2006, Scarlet Knights’
team captain Brian Leonard took home the NFF’s
William V. Campbell Trophy as the top senior
football scholar-athlete in the country for his
combined academic, athletics and community
involvement.
Prior to joining Rutgers, Mulcahy served as
president and CEO of the New Jersey Sports and
Exposition Authority (NJSEA) for 19 years.
Under his watch, the NJSEA created the Kickoff
Classic, attracted the Army-Navy game, and
hosted eight NCAA men’s basketball regionals
and the last NCAA Men’s Final Four to be held
in an arena. He also negotiated contracts to host
the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, the NFL’s New York
Jets and Giants and the MLS’ MetroStars to play
at the Meadowlands.
Mulcahy has served on the NFF Board of
Directors since 1990, chairing the organization’s
Awards Committee. He is also an honorary
member of the American Football Coaches
Association. He and his wife, Terry, live in
Basking Ridge, N.J., and have seven children and
11 grandchildren.
Summer 2010 Issue
As the chairman of the NFF Awards Committee, Mulcahy joins
Tim Green, a College Football Hall of Inductee and a NFF
National Scholar-Athlete from Syracuse, in presenting the 2009
NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards.
Mulcahy greets 2003 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Eli
Manning (Ole Miss) at an NFF Gridiron Club of New York
City event in 2008.
Mulcahy joins Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano (right) in congratulating Scarlet
Knights fullback Brian Leonard on claiming the NFF William V. Campbell Trophy
as the nation’s top scholar-athlete in 2006.
Before the 1992 Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium, current NFF Chairman Emeritus Jon
F. Hanson (left) joined then-NJSEA President Robert Mulcahy.
22
Mulcahy hoists the The Papajohns.com
Bowl Trophy after Rutgers beat North
Carolina State, 29-23, in the 2008 game.
2010 Award Winners
Chris Schenkel Award
Named in honor of its first recipient, the Chris Schenkel Award seeks
to recognize a sports broadcaster who has enjoyed a long and distinguished career broadcasting college football at a single institution.
Joe Starkey
Sports Broadcaster, University of California-Berkeley
T
he renowned voice of Cal football, Joe Starkey will return for
his 36th season with the Bears
this fall. Perhaps best known for his
legendary call of “The Play” in 1982 —
when the Cal football team famously
returned a five-lateral kick-off return for a touchdown
in between Stanford band members — Starkey has
been named the Best Play-by-Play Announcer in the
state of California nine times.
A graduate of Loyola University, after briefly playing
football at Thornton Junior College, Starkey began his
career as a television and radio broadcaster for the
California Golden Seals in 1972. Three years later, he
became a freelance announcer for Cal games, a relationship that would continue for the next 36 years. He
joined KGO Radio as its sports director in 1979, leading the station to a No. 1 ranking in the market for 15
Outstanding Football Official Award
The Outstanding Football Official Award honors an official for his
officiating abilities, demonstrated in intercollegiate competition and
for his sportsmanship, integrity, character and contribution to the
sport of football.
Rogers Redding
SEC Coordinator of Officiating
H
aving officiated football for
more than three decades,
Rogers Redding started his
career working high school football
in Texas. He later officiated in the
Southwest Conference from 198893 and served as a referee in the Southeastern
Conference for nearly a decade.
Redding boasts several postseason assignments,
including three national championship games: the
1991 Orange Bowl (Colorado-Notre Dame); 1993
Sugar Bowl (Alabama-Miami); and 1998 Rose Bowl
consecutive years. After stints with the Minnesota
Vikings and with the USFL’s Oakland Invaders, Starkey
became the play-by-play announcer for the San
Francisco 49ers until his retirement from the franchise
in 2008.
Starkey has narrated for NFL and HBO films and has
offered his vocal talents for various commercials and
civic organizations. He and his wife, Diane, have three
children, and they reside in Walnut Creek, Calif.
(Michigan-Washington State). Other postseason honors include the 1998 Holiday Bowl (NebraskaArizona); 2001 Tangerine Bowl (Pittsburgh-North
Carolina State); 2003 Las Vegas Bowl (New MexicoUCLA); and the 2004 Gator Bowl (Maryland-West
Virginia). He also was the referee in the 1999 SEC
Championship game (Florida-Alabama). Since his
retirement from active officiating in 2004, Redding has
served as a technical advisor and instant replay official
for the SEC before becoming the conference’s current
coordinator of officials.
Redding has served as an instructor at camps spon-
FWAA’s Bert McGrane Award
sored by the Texas Association of Sports Officials and
has annually written and published “Redding’s Study
Guide to the NCAA Football Rules” since 1991.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech
and later obtained a masters and Ph.D. in physical
chemistry from Vanderbilt. He has served as a physics
professor and senior academic administrator at the
University of North Texas, Northern Kentucky
University, the United States Air Force Academy, and
the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Redding and his wife, Shirley, live in Birmingham,
Ala.
Presented to a member of the Football Writer’s Association of
America who has performed great service to the organization and/or
the writing profession.
Tom Mickle
Former Executive Director of Florida Citrus Sports
T
om Mickle, who was the
Executive Director of Florida
Citrus Sports and 55 at the
time of his death in 2006, was a
long-time FWAA member who
championed writers’ causes. When
Mickle was an assistant commissioner in the Atlantic
Coast Conference, he was instrumental in developing
what is now the Bowl Championship Series. And, at
the time, Mickle was the point person who encouraged
the FWAA to move its meetings to the championship
game site each year and worked out the details for the
move to happen in the mid-1990s.
But just as significant was his passion for the FWAA’s
Summer 2010 Issue
All-America team. Shortly after he went to Florida
Citrus Sports in 2002, Mickle’s group started hosting
the FWAA All-America Team celebration on the floor
of the Citrus Bowl Stadium. Eventually, the AllAmerica event was moved to the Disney property and
aired on ABC Television. Thanks to Mickle and his initial ties with ABC, the FWAA All-America team is still
announced on ABC/ESPN each year.
A native of Media, Pa., Mickle attended Duke
University and graduated in 1972. He remained there
and worked in several capacities in sports information
and the Varsity Club, the Blue Devils’ fund-raising
group for former athletes. He joined the ACC and
became commissioner Gene Corrigan’s right hand
23
man. He helped negotiate blockbuster television deals
in basketball and football for the ACC and the league’s
first series of bowl agreements. On the back of a cocktail napkin, Mickle sketched the beginnings of what
has turned out to be the BCS. The Bowl Coalition started in 1992 and eventually became the BCS.
In 2002, Mickle was named to replace Chuck Rohe
as executive director of Florida Citrus Sports. He held
that post until his death. Shortly thereafter, the BCS
established an internship program in Mickle’s memory.
In late 2006, the Citrus Bowl renamed its press box
after Mickle. A brushed aluminum plaque that features
Mickle’s face now resides between the stadium’s main
television and radio booths.
The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Inc.
433 E. Las Colinas Blvd., Suite 1130
Irving, Texas 75039
Presorted
First Class
U.S. Postage
Paid
Lebanon Junction, KY
Permit #607
53rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner Set for December 7
A
nother sellout crowd of 1,500plus fans is expected to pack the
storied three-level Grand
Ballroom of the Waldorf=Astoria in
New York City for the 53rd edition of
the NFF Annual Awards Dinner on
Dec. 7, 2010
Since 1958, when U.S. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower took a break
from the election trail to accept the first
NFF Gold Medal at the inaugural event,
the NFF’s Dinner has proven to be one
of our nation’s most magnetic affairs in
all of sports, attracting giants of industry and leaders from all walks of life to
the Waldorf to celebrate America’s passion for football.
As the culmination of the regular season, the event features the induction of
the 2010 College Football Hall of Fame
class from the Football Bowl
Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) as
well as the presentation of the NFF Gold
Medal, the organization’s highest honor,
the NFF National Scholar-Athlete
Awards, the William V. Campbell
Trophy endowed by HealthSouth, and
several other major awards.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact
Will Rudd at the National Football
Foundation, 972-556-1000 or at
[email protected].

Vol. 52, No. 3 - Summer Issue

Transcription

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