DALLAS, Sept. 27, 2007 - The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced today that eight exceptional individuals are joining its national board of directors. Representing communities nationwide and joining 36 other active members of the prestigious board, the new board members are:


(Full Bios Included)

• Jerry Jones, Owner, President and General Manager, Dallas Cowboys - Irving, Texas
  
  
• Robert Kraft, Founder, Chairman & CEO, The Kraft Group; Chairman & CEO, New England Patriots - Boston, Mass.
  
  
• Michael Moe, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, ThinkEquity Partners, LLC - San Francisco, Calif.
  
  
• Kevin Plank, Chairman & CEO, Under Armour, Inc. - Baltimore, Md.
  
  
• Roger Williams, Former Secretary of State, State of Texas - Ft. Worth, Texas
  
  
• Jim Delany, Commissioner, Big Ten Conference - Chicago, Ill.
  
  
• Mike Slive, Commissioner, Southeastern Conference - Birmingham, Ala.
  
  
• Deborah Yow, Athletics Director, University of Maryland - College Park, Md.

"It's an honor to welcome these eight individuals to our board," said NFF President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell. "If you were to name the top leaders in collegiate athletics and our nation's business communities, this group would be on everybody's short list. Their combined business acumen and knowledge of collegiate athletics will greatly aid in our ability to carry out our mission as we greatly expand our efforts on all fronts."

Founded in 1947 with leadership and support from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and renowned journalist
Grantland Rice, the NFF serves as a leading voice in the promotion of amateur football and its ability to develop the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic achievement in America's young people.

"Adding individuals of this caliber to our national board reinforces our role as a driving force in the promotion of amateur football from border-to-border and coast-to-coast," said NFF Chairman Ron Johnson. "As we celebrate the NFF's 60th anniversary, this widely respected group of individuals will provide precious insight and guidance in our ability to promote the good in the game."

The eight new members increase the total number of people on the board to 44, including Chairman Ron Johnson, Vice Chairman John L. Toner, President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell and Secretary/Treasurer George M. Weiss. They also compliment the four stalwarts recently added in 2006: Archie Griffin, President/CEO, Ohio State University Alumni Association and two-time Heisman Trophy Winner; John Junker, President & CEO, Fiesta Bowl and Executive Director of the Insight Bowl; Bill Martin, Director of Athletics at Michigan and former head of the U.S. Olympic Committee; and Chuck Neinas, President, Neinas Sports Services, and former Executive Director of the College Football Association and Commissioner of the Big Eight Conference.

With the addition of NFL franchise owners Jones and Kraft, the NFF Board now taps the insights of the owners from the three major sports leagues in the country. They join George M. Steinbrenner III, Principal Owner of the New York Yankees, and Clayton I. Bennett, the Chairman and Owner of the Seattle SuperSonics and President of Dorchester Capital.

The NFF programs cover the entire spectrum of amateur football. The College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., one of the nation's premier sports museum, stands as the centerpiece to organization's efforts, showcasing the accomplishments of the 993 legends from all divisions of college football who are immortalized within its walls. The 120 NFF chapters in 47 states reach more than 4,800 high schools and 400,000 football players with more than 315 annual events, including coaching clinics, leadership conferences, college nights, media days, awards banquets, and comprehensive free physicals for high school student-athletes via the TOPS program (Team of Physicians for Students).

The NFF is a leader in programs encouraging academic performance by student-athletes. Launched in 1959 with funds donated by Coach Blaik, the NFF Scholar-Athlete Awards program became first initiative in history to credit a player for both academic and athletic accomplishments. Currently, the program annually distributes $320,000 in highly sought-after post-graduate scholarships to the best from the college gridiron, and since its inception the program has awarded $8.3 million. Combined with the more than $800,000 distributed by the NFF chapters, total annual NFF scholarships currently exceed $1.1 million each year. The NFF National Honor Society also recognizes all the college football players from all divisions who maintain a 3.2 GPA or better.

Launched in 1998 and currently in 140 schools in 85 cities, Play It Smart, the NFF's highly successful mentoring program for at-risk kids, has quickly established itself as one of the most comprehensive and effective youth development programs in the country. The program dramatically increases graduation and college enrollment rates while earning more than $6 million a year in scholarships for its participants.

Major Awards presented by the NFF include the MacArthur Trophy, representing the pinnacle in team achievement and claimed by every college football national champion since 1959; the NFF Gold Medal granted for exceptional contributions to our society and claimed by seven U.S. Presidents and numerous other business titans since 1958; the Draddy Trophy (presented by HealthSouth), which is bestowed annually on the nation's top college scholar-athlete since 1990; and numerous other awards designed to promote the good in the game and recognize unique contributions to the sport.

The NFF also plays a prominent role as a resource for the media by releasing the weekly Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings; producing the widely acclaimed Monday's Chalktalk, which provides a weekly compendium of college football news; adding historical perspective to the college football season with This Week in College Football History; and providing access to the wit and wisdom of NFF Historian Dan Jenkins, the celebrated sportswriter and best selling novelist.

Jerry Jones
Owner, President and General Manager
Dallas Cowboys
Irving, Texas

In one of the most dramatic eras of ownership in professional sports, Jerry Jones’ stewardship of the Dallas Cowboys has brought unprecedented success to one of the world’s most popular sports entities. Aside from being one of only four current owners to guide their franchises to at least three Super Bowl titles, Jones is one of the most active figures in the NFL’s current leadership and success. His daily influence is visible on a wide range of committees, while his enthusiasm for the future of the sport plays a critical role in guiding the league’s future direction.

Highlighted by Super Bowl victories after the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons, Jones became the first owner in history to guide his team to three NFL championships in his first seven years of ownership. In 1995, Dallas also became the first team in history to win three Super Bowls in four seasons while tying the NFL record for most Super Bowl victories by an organization with five. Jones closed out his first decade of ownership with eight playoff appearances, six division titles, four conference championship appearances and three world crowns.

While his stewardship of the Cowboys has brought championships and the game’s brightest stars to North Texas, the team’s future success and its new stadium provide the driving inspiration for the entire Jones Family. Scheduled to open in 2009, the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas will help the area stake its claim as a major sporting and entertainment center for the entire country.

Jones’ innovations in marketing, corporate sponsorships, television, stadium management, stadium development, and community service have made an indelible impact in professional sports. His NFL service includes positions on the Management Council Executive Committee, the Broadcast Committee, the Hall of Fame Committee, the Special Committee on League Economics and the Los Angeles Stadium Working Group. In the past, he served on the Competition Committee and the Business Ventures Committee, and the search committee that hired NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as the successor to Paul Tagliabue.

Involved in numerous civic causes, the Jones Family’s love and dedication to The Salvation Army has played a driving force in their charitable efforts, and they are credited with increasing donations to the organization by hundreds of millions of dollars through the use of the Cowboys Thanksgiving Day halftime show to kick off the Army’s annual Red Kettle Drive. With children as another major force in their efforts, The Gene and Jerry Jones Family Charities have also made a 33-year pledge of $16.5 million to youth sports in Arlington, Texas.

Support for other civic organizations includes the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home, the National Board for The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Kent Waldrep Paralysis Foundation, and the Rise School of Dallas and The Family Place. The family has been honored with numerous awards, including the Chairman’s Award from The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the Hope Award, the highest community service recognition from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Lone Star Chapter.

Co-captain of the 1964 National Championship Arkansas Razorbacks, Jones is one of a few NFL owners who actually achieved significant success as a player and is the only man in history to play for a collegiate national championship and own a Super Bowl winner. Jones has been inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Business Hall of Fame, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Born Oct. 13, 1942, Jones and his wife Gene live in Dallas. They have three children Stephen, Charlotte and Jerry, Jr., and nine grandchildren.

Robert Kraft
Founder, Chairman & CEO
The Kraft Group
Boston, Mass.

Robert Kraft is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group, based in Foxborough, Mass. The Kraft Group is the holding company of the Kraft family’s many businesses, with interests concentrated in five areas: paper and packaging manufacturing and the distribution of forest products; sports and entertainment; real estate development; private equity investing and philanthropy.

The Kraft Group's holdings in paper and packaging include the Rand-Whitney Group and International Forest Products. The Rand-Whitney Group is comprised of a number of companies that manufacture corrugated packaging and linerboard. In 1972, Kraft founded International Forest Products, a trader of paper commodities that now does business annually in more than 80 countries and has offices located throughout North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. International Forest Products is the leading exporter in Massachusetts and consistently ranks among the Top 50 exporters in the United States. Together, Rand-Whitney Group and International Forest Products comprise one of the largest privately-owned paper and packaging companies in the world.

The Kraft Group's holdings in sports and entertainment include the National Football League’s New England Patriots, Major League Soccer's (MLS) New England Revolution and Gillette Stadium. In 1994, Kraft paid a record amount to purchase the Patriots and keep the franchise in New England. Kraft’s investment provided a new foundation from which to build and immediately pumped life into the once moribund franchise. In his first 13 years of ownership, Kraft’s Patriots won an unrivaled three Super Bowl Championships, four conference championships and seven division championships. The transformation of the Patriots under Kraft’s leadership constitutes one of the greatest long-term, worst-to-first revivals in sports history. In 2005, Forbes magazine described the Patriots as the “best team in sports” and valued the franchise at over one billion dollars. The Patriots became just the fourth sports franchise in history to eclipse that financial plateau. Kraft invested in the MLS’s Revolution in 1995, allowing professional soccer to debut in New England the following year. Since then, the Revolution have qualified for the playoffs seven times, including each of the last five seasons, and have won three conference championships. In 2002, Kraft privately-financed the $325 million construction of Gillette Stadium, New England’s premier entertainment venue and home to both the Patriots and the Revolution. The venue also annually hosts New England’s largest concerts and was home to the highest revenue-producing country music festival in history in 2006.

The Kraft Group’s real estate interests include Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place, a 1.3 million square foot lifestyle and entertainment complex that will surround the stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Patriot Place will include approximately 80 stores and restaurants and will feature New England’s first outdoor superstore – Bass Pro Shops.
The Kraft Group also holds a number of private equity and venture-stage investments that span diverse industries. The most common theme to the ventures is in the field of technology.

Over the last three decades, the Kraft family has been one of New England’s most philanthropic families, donating millions of dollars in support of local charities and civic affairs. In 2004, the Kraft family received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at an annual sports legends event in Boston. They were also recognized as Boston’s most influential family by Boston magazine.

A native of Brookline, Mass., Kraft attended public schools before being accepted to Columbia University on an academic scholarship. He earned two letters in football at Columbia, first as a member of the ’59 freshman team and again as a member of the ’60 varsity lightweight football team. Upon graduation, he received a fellowship to attend Harvard Business School, where he earned a master's degree in business administration.

Kraft serves on the board of directors for Viacom and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is also on the executive committee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he established the Robert K. Kraft Family Blood Donor Center. He is a trustee emeritus at Columbia and is a trustee at Boston College. He has served on the board of directors of numerous institutions, including the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has received honorary degrees from several New England colleges and universities. In 2006, Kraft was presented with the highest honor bestowed by the NCAA as the recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Award.

Michael Moe
Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO
ThinkEquity Partners
San Francisco, Calif.

Michael Moe is Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of ThinkEquity Partners, a research-centric institutional investment firm based in San Francisco which has raised over $11 billion in 109 equity transactions through September 2007, acting as the lead agent on 35 deals and completing 31 M&A transactions.

Focused exclusively on the growth sectors of the economy, ThinkEquity Partners offers targeted research, investment banking, wealth management and asset management services for institutional investors, corporate clients, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and financial sponsors.

Before founding ThinkEquity Partners in 2001, Moe, 44, was the Director of Global Growth Stock Research and a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1998, Moe was a Senior Managing Director and Director of Growth Stock Strategy at Montgomery Securities. Moe has been named to Institutional Investor's "All American" research team and has been awarded "Best on the Street" by The Wall Street Journal. He has testified in front of the U.S. Congress on the subjects of education technology, the new economy and initial public offerings, and he has appeared before the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee.

Moe is frequently cited in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for his opinions on growth companies. He appears regularly on financial programs on CNBC and CNN and is a contributor to the AlwaysOn Network - a blog site about new media technology and venture capital news.

Moe earned his BA in Political Science and Economics at the University of Minnesota, where he lettered as a quarterback for the Gophers. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, a member of the San Francisco Analyst Society and is a past advisor for the Center for Innovation. In 2007 he published his first book, Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow.

Kevin Plank
Chairman & CEO
Under Armour, Inc.
Baltimore, Md.

Kevin Plank launched Under Armour (NYSE: UA) in 1995 while playing college football as a special teams captain for the University of Maryland football team. Tired of repeatedly changing the cotton T-shirt under his jersey as it became wet and heavy during the course of a game, he set out to develop a next generation shirt that would remain drier and lighter and consistently perform under the most extreme conditions.

A year of fabric sourcing and product testing resulted in the first Under Armour compression t-shirt and a new category of sporting apparel called performance apparel – a synthetic shirt worn beneath an athlete’s uniform or equipment that provided a snug, second-skin fit that wouldn’t retain moisture or its weight. Since that first prototype, Under Armour products have evolved and expanded to include a wide variety of shirts, shorts, underwear, outerwear, gloves and most recently, footwear. In August 2006, Under Armour became an authorized footwear supplier to the National Football League, elevating the company’s new line of football cleats to a national stage.

As Chairman & CEO of Under Armour, Mr. Plank oversees all aspects of the business. The company that recorded $17,000 in its first year of business, while then 23 year-old Mr. Plank was operating out of his grandmother’s basement in Washington, D.C., has since become a force in sporting goods and a Wall Street darling. High percentage growth and brand strength has propelled Under Armour to yearly revenues in excess of $500 million. Plank also works very closely on product creation and the marketing of the brand, including the award winning “PROTECT THIS HOUSETM” and “CLICK-CLACKTM” advertising campaigns. His work to deliver on the brand’s “Universal Guarantee of Performance” has been recognized by Sporting Goods Business, which has named Under Armour “Apparel Supplier of the Year” four years in a row.

Beyond basic American team sports, Plank has grown the Under Armour brand globally. The Company's products are sold worldwide and worn by athletes at all levels - from youth to professional - on playing fields around the globe. The Under Armour global headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland, with European headquarters in Amsterdam’s Olympic Stadium, and additional offices in Denver, Hong Kong, Toronto, and Guangzhou, China.

While at the helm of Under Armour, Plank has been awarded a wide variety of accolades that demonstrate his growing influence within the industry. Plank, now 35, has already earned a spot in Sports Business Journal’s “40 under 40” Hall of Fame, having been counted among a distinguished group of leaders in the sporting goods industry for the past three years, and he was honored in 2006 with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year national award in the Retail and Consumer Products Category.

Kevin Plank, who now lives in Baltimore with his wife DJ and two young children, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland. He is an active member of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and the American Equipment Managers Association (AEMA).

Roger Williams
Former Secretary of State, State of Texas
Ft. Worth, Texas

Roger Williams was sworn in as Texas’ 105th Secretary of State on February 8, 2005, serving until July 2007. As Texas’ chief election officer, Secretary Williams worked to ensure the uniform application and interpretation of election laws throughout the state. Williams worked tirelessly to promote economic development, investment and job creation in Texas, and he served as the state’s Chief Liaison for Texas Border and Mexican Affairs, also chairing the state’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Response Strike Force.

Williams is a former professional baseball player with the Atlanta Braves organization and head baseball coach at Texas Christian University. He was instrumental in the planning and building of Lupton Stadium / Williams-Reilly Field at TCU, both as a fundraiser and a contributor. He duplicated his efforts at Weatherford College, resulting in the Roger Williams Ball Park. A former owner of the Texas League San Antonio Brewers and a member of the TCU Athletic Hall of Fame, Williams currently serves on the Board for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.

A small business owner in North Texas for over 35 years, he is chairman of the board of Roger Williams Auto Mall in Weatherford and Vestry Financial Corporation of Fort Worth. His industry honors include national recognition as a member of the Automotive Hall of Fame. He was recognized as Tarrant County’s Business Man of the Year in 1997 by the Lockheed Martin Management Association and Outstanding Young Businessman of the Year in 1984 by the Fort Worth Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Williams’ civic activities include serving on the Board of Trustees for the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University where he co-chairs the school’s capital fundraising campaign and serving as a member of the Texas Christian University Board of Trustees, his alma mater.

Williams has been involved in Republican politics since 1994. He currently serves as chairman of Texas Victory 2008, a coordinated Republican campaign effort for the ’08 elections. He also serves as the Republican National Committee Eagles Chairman and Republican National Committee Texas Finance Chairman.

Williams and his wife, Patty, currently reside in Weatherford and have two daughters attending TCU.

Jim Delany
Commissioner
Big Ten Conference
Chicago, Ill.

Only the Big Ten’s fifth commissioner since its founding in 1896, James E. Delany took the reins of the conference in 1989 and has led the league through significant change and growth helping its member schools maintain their preeminent positions as the nation’s leaders in providing quality athletic and academic experiences for young people.

A well-known innovator, his accomplishments include expanding the conference to 11 institutions with Penn State in 1991; establishing Big Ten bowl tie-ins to seven bowl games; creating the first national conference-owned television network, the Big Ten Network; developing the first collegiate football instant replay system in 2004; negotiating agreements with ABC, CBS and ESPN to cover 130 events annually; participating in media negotiations since 1990 resulting in rights fees in excess of $10 billion; adoption of the Gender Equity Action Plan (GEAP); implementing conference-wide sportsmanship initiatives; and building a Big Ten library of more than 4,000 classic football and basketball games.

Active in developing the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, Delany has seen more Big Ten teams compete in more BCS games than any other conference, including two national champions in the last decade. He has led the conference to unprecedented growth in football attendance with the top 10 single-season total attendance seasons coming during his tenure, including a single-season total of 5.5 million in 2002 and an average record of 72,566 patrons per game set in 2005. The league has led the country in average attendance for men’s basketball in each of the last 31 years, including a conference record of 2.2 million fans in 2000-01.

A pillar in the community, Delany has created several outreach programs, including SCORE (Success Comes Out of Reading Everyday), which has reached over 6,000 elementary school children in Chicago over the past 17 years; the “Big Ten 9-11 Scholarship Fund”, which pledged $1 million to assist families affected by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; and a relief campaign to support victims of the 2005 hurricane season along the Gulf Coast. Delany has coached several youth teams and has been associated with Special Olympics and YMCA endeavors.

After earning his law degree, Delany served as counsel for the North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee from 1973 to 1974, and was staff attorney for the North Carolina Justice Department from 1974 to 1975. Delany’s distinguished career in administering intercollegiate athletics began at the NCAA where he was employed as an enforcement representative from 1975 79. For the next decade, he served as commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference, where he oversaw the growth and enhancement of all OVC athletic programs.

His service includes the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA); College Basketball Partnership; USA Basketball; Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee; UNC General Alumni Association Board of Directors; and various NCAA and CCA committees and working groups. He has been inducted into the St. Benedict’s Preparatory, Ohio Valley Conference, Newark, N.J., and Chicagoland Halls of Fame.

A native of South Orange, N.J., Delany, 59, received his B.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina in 1970 and J.D. from UNC in 1973. As a Tar Heel, Delany lettered three times on the varsity basketball team, serving as tri captain in 1970 and twice participating in the NCAA Final Four.

Delany and his wife, Catherine “Kitty” Fisher Delany, also an attorney, have two sons, Newman and James. The Delanys reside in Hinsdale, Ill.

Mike Slive
Commissioner
Southeastern Conference
Birmingham, Ala.

From his early days as an athletics administrator to his current post, Mike Slive has stood in the vanguard of the ever-changing world of intercollegiate athletics, assuming his current position as the seventh Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference on July 2, 2002.

Since becoming commissioner, Slive has created numerous committees within the SEC that are designed to assist member institutions with the operations of their athletics departments and coupling those operations with the academic mission of each university. He has set in place cutting-edge policies and procedures to assist league schools with NCAA and SEC compliance and enforcement rules. Slive has also been instrumental in the operations of the Bowl Championship Series, and in January of 2007, he began a two-year stint as coordinator of the BCS.

Slive’s many accomplishments include: playing a leading role in the development of the Sportsmanship and Fan Behavior Summit, a national forum held to discuss sportsmanship and how to prevent inappropriate fan behavior; developing an initiative to ensure gender and ethnic diversity in the SEC; serving on the Commission of Athletic Opportunity, set up by the U.S. Secretary of Education to review the workings of Title IX; creating the SEC Academic Consortium to increase academic cooperation and the sharing of resources between the SEC schools; launching a partnership with The Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University to implement the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program.

Slive’s service to intercollegiate athletics includes: chairing the first NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee; membership on the National Letter of Intent Steering Committee; serving as president of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA); membership on the NCAA Management Council; chairing the Board of Directors of NCAA Football USA; serving on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA); membership on the Board of Advisors of the Marquette Sports Law Institute; the chairmanship of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee; service on the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association; and chairing the Division I-A Commissioners.

Prior to joining the SEC, Slive helped create one of the nation’s top conferences as the first commissioner of Conference USA from 1995-2000. He also served as the first commissioner of the Great Midwest Conference from 1991-95. His previous athletic administrative experiences include: assistant director of athletics at Dartmouth College (1968-69), assistant Executive Director of the Pacific-10 Conference (1979-81), and Director of Athletics at Cornell University (1981-83), prior to developing his sports practice specializing in representing colleges and universities in athletic-related matters.

A native of Utica, N.Y. and born July 26, 1940, Slive founded the Mike Slive-Mike Glazier Sports Group in 1990. He was a partner in the Chicago law firm of Coffield Ungaretti Harris & Slavin from 1986-91 and operated his own firm in Hanover, N.H. while serving as a judge with the Hanover District Court from 1972-77.

A 1962 graduate of Dartmouth College, Slive earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia Law School in 1965 and an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1966. Slive and his wife, Elizabeth, are the parents of a daughter, Anna, who was the executive director of the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee of the 2007 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.

Deborah Yow
Director of Athletics
University of Maryland
College Park, Md.

Since 1994, Deborah A. Yow has built an outstanding record of success as director of athletics at the University of Maryland, a tenure that has seen unprecedented growth and achievement in Maryland athletics.

During Yow's tenure, the Terrapins have won a remarkable 15 national championships, including an unprecedented six national titles from 2005 through 2007. The Terps have also graduated student-athletes at an enviable rate as Maryland athletics has soared to sustained new heights among the nation’s elite intercollegiate athletic programs.

A visionary, Yow has overseen a remarkable set of improvements and an expansion of the university’s athletics facilities, growing the school’s offering to 27 sports with more than 700 student-athletes, and her keen sense of fiscal responsibility has balanced all of the department’s annual budgets. Her efforts recently helped win Maryland Athletics a PRISM Award as the best-managed intercollegiate athletics program in the nation.

Maryland also was named the sixth-best athletics program in the nation by the Center for the Study of Intercollegiate Athletics, based on comprehensive criteria such as graduation rates, financial efficiency, equity effectiveness and competitive excellence. Sports Illustrated also ranked Maryland athletics as one of the top 20 athletics programs in the nation based on overall achievement. The University of Maryland, Stanford and UCLA are the only universities in the nation to have won national championships in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.

The comprehensive success of Terrapin athletics under Yow's leadership is a clear and compelling testimony of her values for excellence, teamwork and accountability, and her prior election to the presidency of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics serves as a testament to the wide respect she commands among NACDA’s 6,100 members representing 1,600 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada.

Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal honored Yow as one of the 20 most influential people in intercollegiate athletics, and she has received the Carl Maddox Sport Management Award presented by the United States Sports Academy for excellence in athletics administration.

The author of numerous articles and books on athletics management, Yow was selected to serve on the U.S. Department of Education's Commission on Opportunities in Athletics to review the status of Federal Title IX regulations. She recently served as the chair of the Atlantic Coast Conference Committee on Television. Yow, who has served on the NCAA Management Council and the NCAA Division I Budget Committee, has become one of the strongest and most consistent voices on behalf of intercollegiate athletics in America.

Yow is an inductee into the State of Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, the State of North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, and the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame. She holds a master’s degree from Liberty University in Virginia and a B.A. from Elon University in North Carolina. She has been recognized for lifetime achievements with three honorary doctorates from Elon University, the United States Sports Academy and Liberty University.

NFF OFFICERS

Chairman Ron A. Johnson

Vice Chairman John L. Toner

President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell

Secretary/Treasurer George M. Weiss

NFF DIRECTORS

Clayton I. Bennett, President, Dorchester Capital

J. Murry Bowden, Founder, Chairman & CEO, The Hanover Company; College Football Hall of Famer, Dartmouth College

Bill Byrne, Director of Athletics, Texas A&M University

William V. Campbell, Chairman of the Board, Intuit Inc.; Former Head Football Coach, Columbia University

Joseph R. Castiglione, Director of Athletics, University of Oklahoma

Michael J. Cleary, Executive Director, National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA)

Jeffrey Cooney, Director, EUE Screen Gems Ltd.

Eugene F. Corrigan, Former NCAA President; Former Commissioner, Atlantic Coast Conference

Thomas R. Curtin, Esq., Partner, Graham Curtin, P.A.

David M. Davis, Principal, Gamble, Jones, Morphy & Bent; Director, Pasadena Tournament of Roses Football Committee

Gene DeFilippo, Director of Athletics, Boston College

Jim Delany, Commissioner, Big Ten Conference

Michael C.J. Fallon, President, Fallon & Associates, LLC

Jack Ford, Anchor, Court TV, Host, "Banfield & Ford: Courtside"

Archie Griffin, President/CEO, Ohio State University Alumni Association; College Football Hall of Famer, Ohio State; Two-time Heisman Trophy Winner

President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell, Former Commissioner, Big 12, Southwest and Metro Conferences; Former Executive Director, Orange Bowl

Terry S. Jacobs, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, The JFP Group

Chairman Ron A. Johnson, Owner and President, Rackson Corporation; College Football Hall of Famer, University of Michigan

Jerry Jones, Owner, President and GM, the Dallas Cowboys

John Junker, President & CEO, Fiesta Bowl; Executive Director, Insight Bowl

Robert Kraft, Founder, Chairman & CEO, the Kraft Group; Chairman & CEO, the New England Patriots

Jefferson W. Kirby, Managing Member, Broadfield Capital Management, LLC

Willie Edward Lanier, Senior Vice President, Wachovia; College Football Hall of Famer, Morgan State University

Jack Lengyel, Former Director of Athletics, U.S. Naval Academy

Archie Manning, Consultant, Entergy Corporation; College Football Hall of Famer, University of Mississippi

Bill Martin, Director of Athletics, University of Michigan

Edward F. McGinley III, Former Senior Account Exec. Speer Leads and Kellogg

Michael Moe, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, ThinkEquity Partners LLC

Robert E. Mulcahy III, Director of Athletics, Rutgers University

Chuck Neinas, President, Neinas Sports Services, Inc.; Former Executive Director, College Football Association

Kevin Plank, Chairman & CEO, Under Armour

Christine A. Plonsky, Director of Women's Athletics & Men's and Women's Athletics External Services, University of Texas

Robert A. Simms, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Simms Capital Management, Inc.; VP, NFL Alumni Assoc. of NY

Mike Slive, Commissioner, Southeastern Conference

George M. Steinbrenner III, Principal Owner, New York Yankees

Larry D. Striplin, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Nelson-Brantley Glass Contractors, Clearview Properties

Grant Teaff, Executive Director, American Football Coaches Association (AFCA); College Football Hall of Fame Coach, Baylor University

Dr. Dennis E. Thomas, Commissioner, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Vice Chairman John L. Toner, Retired AD, University of Connecticut; Former NCAA President

Gene Washington, Director of Football Operations, National Football League

Secretary/Treasurer George M. Weiss, Chairman & CEO, Beechtree Capital Group (Merchant Banking)

Roger Williams, Former Secretary of State, the State of Texas

Deborah Yow, Director Athletics, the University of Maryland

NFF DIRECTORS EMERITUS

H. Jesse Arnelle, Esq., Retired Senior Partner, Arnelle & Hastie; Former Chairman, Penn State University Trustees

Jon F. Hanson, (NFF Chairman Emeritus); Chairman, The Hampshire Companies; Chairman, HealthSouth

Richard W. Kazmaier, Jr., President and CEO, Kazmaier Associates, Inc: College Football Hall of Famer, Princeton Univ.

E. Douglas Kenna, Former Chairman of the Board, Carlisle Corp.; College Football Hall of Famer, Army

Donald R. Keough, Chairman of the Board, Allen & Co.; Retired President and COO of The Coca-Cola Company

F. M. Kirby, President & Director, F. M. Kirby Foundation; Chairman Emeritus, Alleghany Corporation

John F. McGillicuddy, Retired Chairman & CEO, Chemical Banking Corporation

Ambassador Joe M. Rodgers, Chairman, JMR Investment Group, Inc.

William A. Schreyer, Chairman Emeritus, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

Thomas C. Scott, President, Thomas C. Scott & Associates, College Football Hall of Famer, University of Virginia

Walter J. Zable, Chairman & CEO, Cubic Corporation