IRVING, Texas (June 1, 2020) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame put out the following statement today regarding the damage to the Chick-fil-A College Hall of Fame Friday night during the riots that occurred in Atlanta:
 
Our primary concern is always the safety of people, and everyone associated with the Hall was unharmed during the events. Many people have reached out over the past two days, expressing their concern for the safety of our people while also asking about the Hall's collections, which are priceless and have been donated by countless people from the college football community around the country.
 
All of the Hall's treasured artifacts, collections and displays were untouched and remain well protected in secured locations. While there was substantial damage to the exterior, the interior damage was limited to the gift shop and its merchandise. Countless people showed up to help with the clean-up, and many more have reached out to us to express their concern and support. We would like to thank everybody for their support and concern.
 
As for the events impacting the nation at moment and college football's role, we thought it would be poignant to share with you a piece written by Georgia native, Bill Curry, who played and coached just a few miles from the Hall at Georgia Tech and also at Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia State. Originally, played in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks at NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 11, 2001, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, his words always resonate at times like this, highlighting football's role as a unifying force.

 

     
"The football huddle is a metaphor of our culture; imperfect like all metaphors.
 
"In that huddle is a bunch of folks that are black, brown, white, red, yellow, liberal, conservative, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu. We are slim, fat, short, tall, fast and slow. We are analytical people, and we are impulsive people. We have some of the finest men on Earth, and heaven knows, we've got a few rounders.
 
"We have been through the fires of Bear Bryant and Bo Schembechler, or some such coach that knows how to extract every ounce of our energy. Americans see all of that, and they resonate with it. They crave it. They take it and us into their hearts. The men who earn a place in the huddle have experienced the miracle of team.
 
"The training camp experience is unbelievable. It is day-after-day, week-after-week, two-a-day, three-a-day practices in the heat, often in 14 pounds of equipment. Many drop out. Numbers thin, and everybody thinks about quitting. Trust me, everybody.
 
"For those who do stay, there is the opportunity to participate in the greatest team sport ever devised. It is the only sport in which every player, needs every teammate, on every play just to survive. We learn ever so slowly that our differences do not matter in the huddle. When we trudge in after each interminable workout, we know that sweat smells about the same on everybody's body. When we get busted in the mouth, that blood that trickles is the same color. Everybody's tired. Everybody's hurt.

"It is in this process that the miracle occurs. Men who have been raised to hate each other's guts become brothers. I've seen racists reformed. I've seen the most unlikely hugs after victories or losses. I've seen inner-city kids invite country boys from the mountains to go home with them for Thanksgiving Dinner, and I've seen those invitations accepted and reciprocated, thus changing parents' lives. Our players become brothers for life. It is what America is supposed to be; could be; might be in our best dreams."
 
The Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame opened Aug. 23, 2014, next to downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. The Hall measures 94,256 square feet, including 50,000 square feet of exhibit space and Chick-­fil-A Peach Bowl Field, a 45-yard indoor playing turf.
 
Having inducted its first class in 1951, the Hall represents the highest level of achievement for players and coaches, and the facility plays a central role in the National Football Foundation's mission by dramatizing the history of the game in such a way as to inspire young people to excellence throughout their lives. The Hall's archives contain more than one million artifacts, dating back to the 1870s with more than 1,500 items currently on display, plus another 65,000 pieces of digital content within the Hall's interactive exhibits.
 
More than 5.4 million student-athletes have played college football since the first game on Nov. 6, 1869, and only 1,229 legends will have been inducted (1,010 players and 219 coaches) or less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of those who have played the game during the past 150 years. 311 schools are represented with at least one Hall of Famer.