DALLAS, June 4, 2008 – Archie Manning, chairman of The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF), announced today the recipients of the NFF’s 2008 Major Awards:
GOLD MEDAL
“We are thrilled to honor this year’s major award winners as not only leaders within our football community but as outstanding members of society,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “The NFF mission is to build leaders through football and these gentlemen are without a doubt the definition of that creed.”
Each of these awards will be presented at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 9, 2008, at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City. Also that evening, the NFF will recognize the National Scholar-Athlete class (announced in the fall); award the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth; and induct the 2008 Football Bowl Subdivision College Football Hall of Fame Class.
“The awards committee did a tremendous job in selecting the 2008 recipients,” said NFF Awards Committee Chairman Bob Mulcahy. “John Glenn, who is an American icon, and Boone Pickens, one of our nation’s foremost philanthropists, highlight this distinguished group. We are more than proud to remind this year’s honorees of the impact they have had on us and our sport through the NFF Major Awards.”
The Gold Medal, the NFF’s highest honor, has been presented to seven U.S. Presidents, four U.S. Generals, three U.S. Admirals, one U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 25 Corporate CEOs and Chairmen, John Wayne and Jackie Robinson. Glenn becomes the 53rd recipient of the award, which has been bestowed since 1958.
THE GOLD MEDAL
The highest and most prestigious award bestowed by the Foundation, the Gold Medal has been awarded annually since 1958 and recognizes an outstanding American who has demonstrated integrity and honesty, achieved significant career success and has reflected the basic values of those who have excelled in amateur sport, particularly football.
JOHN GLENN
Former U.S. Senator / Astronaut
A true American icon, John H. Glenn, Jr., has defined himself as a leader in every step of his life. The holder of countless titles, including soldier, pilot, pioneering NASA astronaut, corporate executive, and U.S. Senator, his accomplishments place him in rarefied company, becoming the 53rd recipient of the National Football Foundation’s Gold Medal, the organization’s highest honor.
The son of a plumber, Glenn grew up in New Concord, Ohio before attending nearby Muskingum College where he excelled as a football student-athlete. As a junior, he made a decision that would define the rest of his life by enrolling in a Civilian Pilot Training program. He earned his pilot’s license in the spring of 1941, and following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in March of 1942. Commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943, Glenn would go on to fly 149 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War, claiming the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions and rising to the rank of Colonel.
Following Korea, Glenn attended the Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, and in 1957 he set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York, crossing the continent in 3 hours and 23 minutes as part of “Project Bullet.” His accomplishments led to his selection as a Project Mercury Astronaut, and on February 20, 1962, he flew on Mercury-6, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth at a breathtaking 17,500 miles per hour. With the Cold War in full force, Glenn’s accomplishments made him one of the national heroes of the space race, providing him a launching pad for his political career.
After several unsuccessful forays on the campaign trail, interspersed with a career as a board member and president of Royal Crown Cola and overseeing four Holiday Inn franchises, Glenn won election in 1974 to his first term to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Ohio. He would win three more terms during his 24-year Senate career before his retirement in 1999. The chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee in the U.S. Senate, he became known as an advocate of a streamlined federal government. He also severed on the Armed Services committee where he established himself as the expert in Congress on the issue of nuclear proliferation, advocating for the prevention of the assembling of nuclear weapons by foreign nations. On the short list of leaders in the Democratic Party, he received consideration for the vice presidential nomination three times and ran in the Democratic primaries as a presidential candidate in 1984. Nearly 40 years after his Mercury-6 flight, Glenn returned to space by joining the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on October 29, 1998 and becoming the oldest person ever in space at the age of 77.
A highly decorated military hero, Glenn’s other awards include the United Nations Service Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and the NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award. In March 1999, NASA renamed its Cleveland center the "John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field" in his honor. Glenn and his wife founded the John and Annie Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Ohio State University to inspire citizenship and leadership.
DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN AWARD
Presented on special occasions when a truly deserving individual emerges, the award honors someone who has applied the character building attributes learned from amateur football in their business and personal life, exhibiting superior leadership qualities in education, amateur athletics, business and in the community.
T. BOONE PICKENS
Philanthropist
The epitome of an American success story, T. Boone Pickens came from humble beginnings to become one of the country’s most lucrative entrepreneurs and Oklahoma State University’s most generous alumnus.
As the founder and chairman of BP Capital, Pickens is responsible for the management of more than $4 billion, administering one of the nation’s most successful energy-oriented investment funds. Nicknamed the “Oracle of Oil” by CNBC, Pickens started his career in the gas and oil industry, building Mesa Petroleum into the largest independent oil company in the country. He frequently uses his knowledge in the evaluation of potential equity investments and energy sector themes with an uncanny ability to accurately predict gas and oil prices. Also invested in a wide range of other businesses, he is the largest private holder of permitted groundwater rights in the U.S. through Mesa Water, and another Pickens’ investment, Mesa Power, is planning the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle.
An avid philanthropist, Pickens has given away more than $700 million, supporting educational initiatives, medical research, corporate wellness, at-risk youth, conservation and athletics. He has donated nearly $400 million to his alma mater. In 2005, the business tycoon donated $165 million to Oklahoma State, the largest single gift given to an NCAA athletics program in history. The athletic donation was aimed at creating an athletic village surrounding the football stadium that was renamed in his honor in 2003. Recently, he balanced the athletics gift with a $100 million gift for academics at Oklahoma State. In 1989, OSU’s School of Geology was named for the Holdenville, Okla., native. Continually listed on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of top U.S. philanthropists, his $7 million donation to the American Red Cross in 2005 is the largest individual contribution in the 150-year history of the organization.
Pickens is a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the Texas Business Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Named one of Oil & Gas Investor’s “100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum Century,” he is a frequent guest on some of the nation’s most-watched business programs and has appeared on the cover of Time and Fortune. Also a seasoned author, his next book “The First Billion Is the Hardest: How Believing It's Still Early in the Game Can Lead to Life's Greatest Comebacks," which takes a critical look at the problems facing the U.S. as a result of ever-escalating foreign oil import and lays out a comprehensive solution, will be released in the fall. Honored numerous times for his community service and humanitarian efforts, Pickens resides in Dallas.
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO AMATEUR FOOTBALL AWARD
This 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.
BILL BATTLE
Collegiate Licensing Company Founder
A legend in the world of collegiate marketing, Bill Battle leveraged his experiences as a player for Bear Bryant at Alabama and as a head coach at Tennessee to build the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) into a major force in the $4 billion collegiate merchandise market, earning more than $800 million in royalties for his clients over the years.
His passion for the collegiate athletics and a strong interest in marketing led him to launch Golden Eagle Enterprises in 1981, and he landed his coach, Bear Bryant, and alma mater, Alabama, as his first licensing client. By 1983, Battle had signed eight other schools and moved the renamed Collegiate Licensing Company to Atlanta, Georgia from Selma, Alabama. With a unrelenting focus on providing his clients greater exposure and the broadest range of licensing services, Battle built CLC into a national leader in the $4 billion annual market for collegiate licensed merchandise. Now, the nation’s oldest and largest collegiate licensing company, the company boasts more than 200 colleges, universities, bowls and conferences as clients, representing more than 75 percent of the current annual market. In 2007, Battle sold the company to IMG, and he remains active in the company, serving as its chairman with his son Pat overseeing the day-to-day operations as president.
A member of Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first national championship team in 1961, Bryant followed his playing days by entering the coaching profession as an assistant at the University of Oklahoma. From 1964-1965, he served at the U.S. Military Academy, including work as an assistant football coach. He arrived at the University of Tennessee in 1966 as an assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Doug Dickey, and in 1970, when Dickey left for Florida, Battle, 28 years-old, assumed the head coaching position, becoming the youngest coach at the time, tallying a 59-22-2 record and five straight bowl appearances with three squads finishing in the top ten.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., Battle was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of fame in 1982 and was the first member inducted into the National Collegiate Licensing Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He has been named one of Street & Smith’s 20 Most Influential People in College Athletics. He currently serves on the boards of Collegiate Images and Birmingham Southern College. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama.
JOHN L. TONER AWARD
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.
GENE SMITH
Director of Athletics, Ohio State University
In only three years at Ohio State University, Gene Smith has successfully continued the legacy of Buckeye sports, quickly establishing himself as one of the country’s most respected athletics directors in college sports.
Smith oversees the nation’s largest Division I-A athletics program, featuring 36 varsity sports, more than 900 student-athletes and an operating budget of $97 million. OSU’s athletics department is completely self sufficient, receiving no tax dollars, university money or student fees. In the fiscal year 2007-08, Buckeye athletics will contribute nearly $22 million in assessments to the university, including more than $12 million in grant-in-aid reimbursements. Equally impressive, the OSU athletics department has recently been selected to receive one of the NCAA’s Diversity in Athletics Awards in the category of Overall Excellence in Diversity, which is based on achievement in the areas of diversity strategy, gender and racial diversity of departmental employees, minority graduation rates and more.
Under Smith’s watch, Ohio State has garnered three straight Big Ten titles and has been invited to three BCS bowl games, including the last two national championship games. The Buckeyes have finished in the Top 5 nationally since 2005 and boast the 2006 Heisman Trophy winner, Troy Smith. OSU players have been named First Team All-America picks seven times and First Team All-Big Ten selections 23 times.
Named one of Black Enterprise Magazine’s “50 Most Powerful African Americans in College Sports,” Smith was named the first African American president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in 2007. He serves on numerous NCAA committees, including the Football Rules Committee, the Committee on Infractions and the Management Council. The Cleveland, Ohio, native attended Notre Dame on a football scholarship and joined the Irish coaching staff following graduation. He has also served as the athletics director at Eastern Michigan, Iowa State and Arizona State.
- NFF -
John Glenn
Former U.S. Senator / Astronaut
DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN AWARD
T. Boone Pickens
Philanthropist
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO AMATEUR FOOTBALL AWARD
Bill Battle
Founder, Collegiate Licensing Company
JOHN L. TONER AWARD
Gene Smith
Director of Athletics, Ohio State University
