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The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced its 2007 major awards last Wednesday, honoring football legends and military leaders Pete Dawkins (U.S. Military Academy) and Roger Staubach (U.S. Naval Academy) as co-recipients of the prestigious Gold Medal, the NFF's highest honor.
Other awardees include: Rocky Bleier (Notre Dame) - Distinguished American Award; Collegiate Bowl Games - Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football; Jeremy Foley (University of Florida) - John L. Toner Award; Bill Hillgrove (University of Pittsburgh) - Chris Schenkel Award; and Jim Kemerling (Big Ten Conference) - Outstanding Football Official Award. Each of these awards will be presented at the 50th Annual Awards Dinner on December 4, 2007, at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City. Also that evening, the NFF will recognize the National Scholar-Athlete class (announced Oct. 25), award the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and induct the 2007 College Football Hall of Fame Football Bowl Subdivision Class. NFF Chapters Close Out Banquet Season Former Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder served as the keynote speaker at the Kansas Chapter Scholar-Athlete Banquet... College Football Hall of Famer from Missouri Roger Wehrli presented plaques to the High School All-City team at the St. Louis/Tom Lombardo Chapter banquet. Dan Dierdorf, College Football Hall of Famer from Michigan, received the chapter's Bob Broeg Media Award... University of Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt spoke at the Northeastern Ohio Chapter banquet... At the Corrigan/Faircloth (N.C.) Chapter's annual awards dinner, Elon head coach Pete Lembo spoke and ACC Associate Commissioner for Media Relations Mike Finn recognized the chapter sponsors with certificates of appreciation. Two-Minute Drill The Louisiana State Bond Commission has authorized a grant of $300,000 for design and preparations for the Eddie Robinson Museum, honoring the NFF College Hall of Famer and Gold Medal recipient... The Atlanta Sports Council has approached Duke about possibly moving its 2010 game with Alabama to the Georgia Dome... Cincinnati has begun a Student Alliance group of student-athletes to promote increased community service and off- campus involvement... Eastern Michigan and Northwestern have moved their Oct. 20 match- up at Detroit's Ford Field to Friday, Oct. 19... South Dakota is in negotiations to play two Great West Conference games in 2008 before joining the conference formally in 2009... Carnegie Mellon's student body has voted to make Scottie Dog the official school mascot in honor of the Scottish roots of university founder Andrew Carnegie... Colorado State-Pueblo has begun a nationwide search for a head football coach and staff in anticipation of the sport's return in 2009... Northern Iowa assistant coach Austin Atif has been selected for the 2007 NCAA Coaching Academy from June 30-July 2 in Indianapolis... LSU's bengal tiger mascot "Mike V" died of natural causes last week after serving in that capacity from 1990-2007... Navy head coach Paul Johnson recently completed one of his most ambitious speaking tours, including stops in Jacksonville, Fla., Washington, D.C., and other key metro areas... The Southeastern Conference led NCAA FBS entries with conference home attendance of 6.5 million in 2006 and five of the Top 10 individual school attendance averages... The Mid-Continent Conference is completing its changeover to the new conference name, The Summit League... Wyoming's Cowboy Joe Club has completed a marketing agreement with Avenue Land Partners to raise in excess of $100,000 for student-scholarships through the building of new Event Day Luxury Condominiums on the UW campus... Missouri AD Mike Alden is one of the featured clinicians at the inaugural NACDA Mentoring Institute June 9-10 in Orlando... This season's Arizona State roster includes eight student-athletes who have graduated on its roster, including five of its top six interior linemen on offense - Josh Barrett, Robert Gustavis, Littrele Jones, Zach Krula, Julius Orieukwu, Mike Pollak, Brandon Rodd and Tyrice Thompson. ESPN GameDay has scheduled its first appearance for Aug. 31-Sept. 1, at Berkeley, Calif., for the California-Tennessee contest... The inaugural contest at Central Florida's new stadium will be on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. (EDT) against Texas on Sept. 15, 2007... ESPN and Verizon Wireless will launch ESPN MVP - a method to watch ESPN programming on cell phones and to receive immediate wireless updates. The network also has begun a worldwide podcasting process for much of its programming... Florida has climbed to No. 3 behind Texas and Notre Dame in IMG/Collegiate Licensing Co. 's annual royalty sales from licensed merchandise... Utah and CBS Collegiate Sports Properties have signed a 10-year multimedia rights' representation pact... A deal between LIN Television and ESPN Regional Television Inc. will air some UConn football games on local television, including a Big East football game of the week. Pittsburgh unveiled plans for $1 billion in building upgrades over the next 12-years, including additions and improvements to its athletics facilities... Arizona State has appointed an 11-person committee to study expansion and upgrades of athletics facilities. The group is working with $13.5 million in initial gifts for physical improvements... Auburn is considering $90 million in facility improvements... Grand Valley State (Mich.) is projecting $100 million in capital building improvements for athletics over the next 10 years... Central Florida is studying traffic flow challenges and public safety issues as it gears up for the opening of the 45,000-seat on-campus football stadium in Orlando. The American Football Coaches Association announced its awards for top graduation rates at 107 responding NCAA FBS institutions for spring 2007. Northwestern and Notre Dame led all schools with a 95 percent graduation rate while 30 other schools received mention for 70 percent or higher matriculation averages. Schools responding to the survey increased their average football graduation rates from 58 to 60 percent from 2005-06 to 2006-07, and the average student body graduation rate for public colleges and universities in 2006-07 was in the 45-50 percent range. Don Bailey has been named interim head coach at Montana State... Iowa State director of athletics Jamie Pollard has signed a two-year contract extension through 2012... Lee College (Texas) approved Mike Keiferas AD... Jim Dennison has resigned as AD at Walsh (Ohio) but will remain as football coach... Southwestern Athletic Conference commissioner Robert Vowels has been named NCAA vice president for educational services... Jackie Mynarski has been selected as assistant commissioner for institution services at the Ohio Valley Conference. Longtime former Evansville AD Jim Byers has been chosen as 2007 Gary Cunningham Lifetime Achievement Award recipient by the NCAA Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association... Vincent "Winnie" Mayer, Delaware's oldest living football alumnus and a star in the 1930s, is being inducted into the University of Delaware Sports Hall of Fame. The Atlantic Coast Conference announced at its 2007 spring meetings the generation of an additional $16.9 million for its re-negotiated football/basketball television package. the ACC also has asked for requests for proposals for future football championship contests from Jacksonville, Fla., Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C... Tickets for the 2007 Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship in San Antonio went on sale last week through Ticketmaster. Big 12 officials also have received proposals for future championship sites beginning with the 2008-09 academic year... CL Keedy has been named president of the Tournament of Roses Committee, which sponsors the 94th Rose Bowl game a well as the 119th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif... Raymond J. Jeandron, Jr. is the 50th president of the Sugar Bowl Committee. Two-time SMU All-America Harry Shuford, 92, died last Wednesday in Dallas... Rev. Dr. Jerry Falwell, 73, who helped begin the football program while serving as president at Liberty, died on May 15 in Lynchburg, Va. |
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