National Football Foundation

In a career that has occupied almost four decades, Chuck Neinas has served college football with a determination that has bred extraordinary influence and accomplishment. His has been a strong voice for improvement and for change. "He is the best administrator I've seen in 30 years in college athletics," says University of Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds. Neinas has been a conference commissioner, NCAA executive and was one of the creators as well as head of the College Football Association.

His legacy is the health of his sport and Neinas is deservedly this year's recipient of the National Football Foundation Outstanding Contribution to College Football Award.

Chuck Neinas graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1957, served a hitch in the U.S. Navy, then went into athletics professionally. He started behind a mike, not a desk, doing play-by-play of the Wisconsin Badgers football and basketball games. His work in college sports broadcasting helped him get to know the workings of the NCAA. The NCAA also got to know Chuck Neinas. In 1961, he went to work for the ruling body of college athletics and embarked on a uniquely productive career.

One of his NCAA tasks was handling administrative duties of the Final Four in college basketball. His friend and former Big Eight and Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke says, "Chuck Neinas is one of the most avid sports fans I've ever met. He loves college sports, no matter the game. To this day, I'm probably the only person besides Chuck who has attended more NCAA Final Fours."

Neinas stayed at the NCAA for ten years. When he left in 1971 he was assistant executive director. He had earned a reputation as an innovator and one of the finest minds in college athletics administration. "He's always thinking ahead," says Dodds. "He's always thinking about the direction of college athletics and college football."

When the Big Eight began looking for a new commissioner in 1971, Neinas was the logical choice. Under his nine-year leadership, the Big Eight became one of the preeminent conferences in the country.

But there was a stir rolling and gathering momentum across the landscape of college football. Dodds recalls: "Neinas, and many others, obviously, felt the NCAA was not promoting or marketing college football like it should be and that Division FA was not represented in college football the way that it should be and that there was not a forum for college coaches."

It was because of those concerns that the College Football Association was founded in 1977. Neinas was hired as executive director and served for 17 years, from 1980 until it was dissolved in 1997. Under Neinas, the CFA "rattled and ultimately reshaped the world of college football," according to Vicki Michaelis in the Denver Post.

When the CFA board decided to disband in 1996, The Dallas Morning News' Cathy Harasta wrote, "Year in and year out, Chuck Neinas has monitored the various combat zones of college football with an admirable day-in-day-out steadiness. In business attire when camouflage might have seemed safe, Neinas stood for dignity and tradition when the game did not necessarily do itself proud. Neinas pushed for sportsmanship, higher academic standards and better graduation rates during his CFA tenure. Although he might be best remembered as the man who hastened the end of the NCAA football television monopoly, Neinas promoted college football by seeing it less as a spectacle than a proving ground for character."

Neinas has contributed all over the spectrum of amateur sport. He chaired the Basketball Games Committee for Men which was responsible for U.S. participation in Olympic and Pan-American competition, chaired the NCAA International Relations Committee, served on the U.S. Olympic Committee, served on the NACDA Executive Committee, served on the NFF Honors Court and chairs the new NFF Honors Review Committee.

He now heads Neinas Sports Services in Boulder, Colorado, consulting and helping colleges hire athletic personnel and is liaison to the NCAA for the American Football Coaches Association.?