Football

Atlanta Set to Host First Enshrinement Ceremony

24 College Football Greats Enter Hall of Fame; Tickets on Sale to the Public

IRVING, Texas (Aug. 1, 2013) – Paying tribute to the storied careers of 24 of college football’s greatest legends, The National Football Foundation (NFF) announced that the College Football Hall of Fame will stage the 2013 Enshrinement Ceremony on Aug. 28 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta.

Hosted by the NFF, Atlanta Hall Management and the Atlanta Sports Council, the event marks the first time that Atlanta will preside over the Enshrinement Ceremony. The celebration builds on the significant progress made on the construction of the new 94,256-square-foot home for the Hall, which will open in the fall of 2014 in the heart of Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park sports, tourism and entertainment district.

“The 2013 enshrinement class includes some of the greatest players and coaches to ever set foot on the gridiron,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “They will hold an extra special place in our history as the first class to be enshrined in Atlanta. The excitement continues to strengthen for this new attraction, and this event marks the first of many extraordinary celebrations that will become part of the building’s historical legacy.”

Enshrinement will provide fans an opportunity to meet the Hall of Famers and hear firsthand about their legendary exploits in college. Tickets, priced at $200 each, are available to the public by visiting www.CFBHall.com/enshrinement or by calling 404.586.1906. Tables of 10 also may be purchased for $2,000 each.  The celebration starts at 6 p.m. ET in the Grand Ballroom of the Omni, followed by a 7 p.m. dinner, a preview of the upcoming college football season by top television analysts and the official Enshrinement Ceremony. Ticket sales close on Aug. 21.

“We are excited to welcome college football fans from across the country to Atlanta for this event,” said John Stephenson, president and CEO of the College Football Hall of Fame.  “We have made strong headway on building the new Hall, and this special event will provide us the perfect opportunity to showcase our plans for the new attraction while honoring some of the game’s greats.”

The 2013 enshrinement class includes Charles Alexander (LSU), Otis Armstrong (Purdue), Steve Bartkowski (California), Hal Bedsole (Southern California), Dave Casper (Notre Dame), coach Frank Cignetti (West Virginia, Indiana [Pa.]), Ty Detmer (BYU), coach James “Boots” Donnelly (Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee State), coach Jess Dow (Southern Connecticut State), coach Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee), coach Jimmy Johnson (Oklahoma State, Miami [Fla.]), Shelby Jordan (Washington University in St. Louis [Mo.]), Tommy Kramer (Rice), Joe Micchia (Westminster College [Pa.]), Art Monk (Syracuse), Greg Myers (Colorado State), Jonathan Ogden (UCLA), Gabe Rivera (Texas Tech), Art Shell (University of Maryland Eastern Shore), Mark Simoneau (Kansas State), coach R.C. Slocum (Texas A&M), Scott Thomas (Air Force), Jeff Wittman (Ithaca College [N.Y.]) and John Wooten (Colorado).

The 2013 enshrinement class includes the 2012 Football Bowl Subdivision inductees, who were inducted during a ceremony last December in New York City and the 2013 Divisional inductees, who were announced on May 29. The 2013 Football Bowl Subdivision inductees, who were announced May 7, 2013, will be inducted at the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 10, 2013, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City and enshrined in Atlanta in the summer of 2014.

Founded in 1947, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame honored its first class of inductees in 1951. The first class recognized 32 players and 19 coaches with many notables, including Illinois' Red Grange, Notre Dame's Knute Rockne, Carlisle's Jim Thorpe and coach Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Including the recently announced 2013 Football Bowl Subdivision class and the 2013 enshrinement class, a total of 934 players and 205 coaches, have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame from the nearly 4.92 million who have played or coached the game during the past 144 years. In other words, only two one-hundredths of one percent (.0002) of the individuals who have played the game have been deemed worthy of this distinction. The latest class of inductees brings the number of schools represented with at least one College Football Hall of Famer to 296.


ABOUT The National Football Foundation & College FOOTBALL Hall of Fame
Founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame is a non-profit educational organization that runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame, the NFF Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments, Play It Smart, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, and scholarships of more than $1.3 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Bowl, the William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF corporate partners include the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the BCS, Fidelity Investments, Herff Jones, Liberty Mutual, NCAA Football, and Under Armour.  For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.org.

ABOUT ATLANTA HALL MANAGEMENT
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2014, the new College Football Hall of Fame will be a 94,256-square-foot attraction located in the heart of Atlanta's sports, entertainment and tourism district. Adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center and Centennial Olympic Park, the new Hall will provide visitors with a highly-immersive, interactive and engaging experience using a blend of historic college football artifacts and state-of-the-art, interactive multimedia exhibits.  The National Football Foundation (NFF) launched the Hall in 1951 to stand as one of the nation's premier sports shrines, immortalizing the game’s greatest players and coaches as positive role models for future generations. In 2009, Atlanta Hall Management, Inc., partnered with the NFF to construct and operate the new Hall of Fame facility, which will also provide a platform for community outreach, education and character development initiatives, as well as serve as one of Atlanta’s premier special event spaces. For more information, please visit www.cfbhall.com.

ABOUT THE ATLANTA SPORTS COUNCIL
The Atlanta Sports Council promotes the value of sports growth in Atlanta and Georgia by acting as an authority on the economic impact, visibility and quality of life issues associated with sports.  Its mission is to lead, organize and support sports development. The Atlanta Sports Council was created in 1985 under the original name of Sports 2000, and is a division of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.  For more information, visit www.AtlantaSportsCouncil.com.
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