National Football Foundation

Marino Casem was a very successful football coach and the number seven seems to have struck a singular chord during his career. Seven times he was named National Black College Coach of the Year. Seven times he was Southwestern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Seven times he either won or shared the SWAC football title. He's been Southern University's athletic director since 1987, also served in that job for Alcorn State University and when SWAC presented its first Athletic Director of the Year Award--it went to him.

This year, Casem adds another well deserved honor to his trophy shelf as recipient of the National Football Foundation's Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award presented annually to an individual whose activities have made a positive impact on the college game. Casem has been doing that for more than four decades.

In conference circles, as well as across the nation, Casem is nicknamed the "Godfather of the Southwestern Athletic Conference".

He is regarded by his fellow athletic directors, college presidents, coaches and players as one of the finest athletic administrators in college sports, putting as much emphasis on seeing his players do well academically as well as in their respective sports.

His impact on Southern University has been so great its almost immeasurable. Casem removed athletics from the general operating budget at Southern and created a self-supporting enterprise with a $4,500,000 budget. He also used what he calls "creative financing" to engage a marketing position for athletics at Southern and developed cooperative partnerships with area businesses that account for $100,000 a year.

New construction and renovation programs have also been focal points for him in both of his tenures as athletic director at Southern and Alcorn State. Among his Southern accomplishments was the construction of a world class track field. He reestab¬lished the baseball field on the campus. He added sprinkler systems to the baseball, football and football practice fields. He installed message centers and scoreboards. He also came up with a new multi-storied state-of-the-art press box.

At Alcorn State, Casem initiated the idea of and lobbied for the construction of a new football stadium complex. He was also responsible for a new state-of-the-art Health and Physical Education Building, a new dressing facility and a new press box at Henderson Stadium.

Casem knows what his program needs to be first rate and he goes out and gets it. He's not a man of dreams. He's a man of accomplishment.

Take his career at Alcorn State. In the 22 years he coached there, Casem had 17 winning seasons. He was that school's winningest football coach racking up a 139-70 record while achieving those seven titles he either won outright (four times) or shared (three times). Under his guidance, Alcorn State sent more than 60 Braves players to the National Football League.

Casem's 1984 Alcorn State team (9-1-0) was one of his favorites. It won the SWAC championship and was the first in SWAC history to finish the season ranked number one in the NCAA I-AA football poll. He was National Black College Coach of the Year that season as well as in 1968, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1979.

Before Casem got to Alcorn State in 1964, he was head coach and assis¬tant professor of health and physical education at Alabama State University in 1963-64. When Alcorn State installed him as head coach, they knew what they were getting. He'd been an assistant coach there from 1959-63. During that stint he doubled as a physical education instructor.

Casem started coaching as soon as he graduated from the University of Colorado where he played for the Buffaloes. That was 1956 and he immediately got a job as an assistant coach at Utica Junior College. He spent 1957-59 doing military time in the Army. Then Alcorn State called and a new chapter in football history was written.

Casem's contributions to the game haven't been limited to whatever he's done on campus or on the gridiron. He's been very influential serving on a number of NCAA committees including Special Advisory Committee to Review Recommendations Regarding Distribution of Revenues, Special Events Committee, I-AA Football Committee, I-AA Athletic Directors Committee, Football Television Committee, Football Rules Committee, Executive Committee, Competitive Safeguard Committee, Search for Executive Director Committee, Budget Committee, Communications Committee and Classifications Committee.

He is also a member of NACDA and serves on the National Football Foundation's Honors Court. He has been inducted into the Alcorn State University Hall of Honor, Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.