Stanford running back Toby Gerhart accepted the Doak Walker Award on Friday night at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas. Former SMU running backs Eric Dickerson and Craig James, known in college as the "Pony Express", received the Doak Walker Legends Award. Notable attendees included: Emcee and NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas board member Scott Murray; presenter and CBS broadcaster Verne Lundquist; the hosts of ESPN College GameDay Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso; Inaugural Doak Walker Award winner Greg Lewis (Washington); College Football Hall of Famer Roger Staubach (Navy) ; SMU athletics director Steve Orsini; SMU head coach June Jones and Dallas Cowboys VP Stephen Jones.

The NFF Touchdown Club of Houston, in conjunction with Houston ISD (Texas), hosted a football showcase that gave 398 Houston-area seniors the opportunity to showcase their talent in hopes of earning a scholarship from Division II, Division III and NAIA schools. Last year the showcase earned the athletes an estimated $3 million in scholarships.

The Black College Football Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class of eight players, two coaches and a journalist on Saturday in Atlanta. The class is made up of nine College Football Hall of Famers including: Buck Buchanan (Grambling State); Willie Gallimore (Florida A&M); Willie Lanier (Morgan State); Walter Payton (Jackson State); Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State); Ben Stevenson (Tuskegee (Ala.)); Paul Younger (Grambling State); Alonzo Gaither (Florida A&M) and Eddie Robinson (Grambling State)

Over 100 former players gathered for the opening of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum, named for the College Football Hall of Fame coach, on the Grambling State campus on February 13. Robinson, who spent 57 years at Grambling, won a record 408 games and coached four College Football Hall of Famers during his career. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly delivered the keynote address and notable former player Willie Brown, one of four Pro Football Hall of Famers coached by Robinson, was in attendance.

College Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno's glasses brought in $9,000 at a benefit for Penn State Public Broadcasting.


Chapter News



Tate Nichols of Ryles (Kentucky) and Andrew Perkins of Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (Ohio) took home the "That's My Boy" football scholar athlete awards at the 43rd annual NFF Greater Cincinnati Chapter banquet on Thursday. Dale Muller was named the Marvin Lewis Community Fund Coach of the Year. The Anthony Munoz Offensive and Defensive Lineman of the Year awards were presented to Matt James and Marcus Rush. Dr. Angelo Colisomo received the Contribution to Amateur Football Award and Cory Hardin from the College of Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) received the Tom Potter Award of Courage.

The NFF Central Indiana Chapter will award 13 local high school players at its banquet on February 27 at the Indianapolis Colts Complex. Indiana High School Athlete Association commissioner Blake Ress will be given the Distinguished American Award. Indiana head coach Bill Lynch will be the guest speaker.

The NFF Mike Cleary/Northeastern Ohio Chapter named former Cincinnati coach and current Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly its 2010 Lee Tressel Ohio College Coach of the Year, which will be given at the chapter's annual awards banquet on April 26. NFF board member and College Football Hall of Famer Archie Griffin (Ohio State) will be awarded the Distinguished American Award.

Former Wyoming and Purdue coach Joe Tiller will be the keynote speaker at the NFF Wyoming Chapter banquet on March 20 in Laramie.

The NFF Miss-Lou Chapter will hold its 29th annual awards banquet on February 25. The keynote speaker will be Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen.

The 50th annual NFF Lehigh Valley Chapter Awards Dinner (Pa.) will take place March 7 at the Northhampton Community Center. Former UCLA and St. Louis Rams Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil will serve as the guest speaker for the event.

The NFF Minnesota Chapter is holding its 3rd annual "Honoring Legends-Inspiring Leaders" awards banquet on April 18 at the University of St. Thomas. Former Delaware quarterback and NFL MVP Rich Gannon will be the featured speaker.

The NFF Central Pennsylvania Chapter is hosting its 13th annual awards banquet on March 28 at the Penn Stater in University Park. Rutgers' coach Greg Schiano will serve as the guest speaker.

Michigan head coach Rich Rodriquez will serve as the guest speaker at the NFF Toledo Chapter Scholar-Athlete awards dinner on March 8.

The NFF South Jersey Chapter is holding its 18th Annual Scholar-Athlete Banquet on Sunday at 5. Gettysburg College's (Pa.) Matt Flynn and Delaware Valley College's (N.J) Mike Isgro will be honored as Collegiate Players of the Year.

The NFF Chicago-Metro Chapter awards dinner will be tonight. College Football Hall of Famers Gary Beban (UCLA, 1967 NFF National Scholar-Athlete), coach Tom Beck, Jimbo Covert (Pitt), Ted Hendricks (Miami), John Lattner (Notre Dame) and Steve McMichael (Texas) will be in attendance. Wisconsin-Whitewater kicker Jeff Schebler will receive the Fred Mitchell Outstanding Kicker award.

Arizona State linebacker Mike Nixon will speak on behalf of the scholar-athlete class at next month's NFF Valley of the Sun Chapter's 29th Annual Banquet at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort on March 6. Nixon is only the third athlete in the history of the chapter to be named both a high school and college scholar-athlete.

To become an NFF member, please contact NFF Director of Membership Ron Dilatush at 800-486-1865 or via email at rdilatush@footballfoundation.com. Worldwide membership now is at 12,000-plus in 119 chapters. Visit www.footballfoundation.org to join online.



TWO-MINUTE DRILL





Scheduling




Business



Long-time Ole Miss Senior Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations Langston Rogers will retire effective at the end of April. Rogers began his career at Ole Miss in 1981... Cal hired Clancy Pendergast as defensive coordinator... Tommy Bain has been elected to a two-year term as chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, the sponsoring agency of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic.

Awards and Honors



Current New York Giants center Shaun O'Hara is funding a $100,000 scholarship that will be given to a walk-on football player who earns scholarship status at Rutgers, his alma mater... College Football Hall of Famer Ron Simmons (Florida State) was inducted into the state of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame last weekend... College Football Hall of Famer Pervis Atkins (New Mexico State) will be inducted into the state of New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame on March 4... Northern Arizona Athletics Director Jim Fallis was inducted into the University of Northern Colorado Athletics Hall of Fame... The NACDA and the McLendon Foundation are excited to announce the 2010 Hall of Fame inductees: Percy Bates; Howard Gentry Sr. ; Mike HayneskRafer Johnson. Additionally, this year, the McClendon Foundation will be honoring minority "firsts" in athletics with the Pioneer Award. The 2010 recipients include Barry Alvarez, first Hispanic to win the Rose Bowl; College Football Hall of Famer Ernie Davis (Syracuse) ; USC Athletics Director Mike Garrett; UCLA athletics director Dan Guerrero; Tommy Hawkins; Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage and Burl Toler... Five college football student-athletes have been named finalists for the 2010 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award. Read their inspirational stories today at www.upliftingathletes.org/vote.


Miscellaneous



College Football Hall of Famer Jim McMahon (BYU) was introduced Friday as the new owner of the Chicago Slaughter, an indoor football team for the CIFL, who are coached by fellow College Football Hall of Famer Steve McMichael (Texas) ... College Football Hall of Fame coach Bobby Bowden will serve as the keynote speaker at the 2010 Nebraska Football Spring Coaches Clinic... Inaugural William V. Campbell Trophy winner and former Air Force football player Dr. Chris Howard's book "Money Makers" Inside the New World of Finance and Business" has been released by Macmillan Publishing. The book illuminates the often secretive industries of the private sector that drive the modern economy. Robert Steel, the former CEO of Wachovia and Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, wrote the foreword for the book.

Obituaries



Life-long official John Bruce Finlayson died Friday at age 86. Finlayson began his career in 1947 and by 1953 was officiating games for the Big 7 (precursor to the Big Eight and Big 12). In 1962, he began a 12-year NFL officiating career. Following his time in the NFL, he accepted a position with the Big Eight as Supervisor of Football Officials and held that position for 15 years... Long-time college football coach (Boston College, Duke and Wake Forest) Sam Timer, passed away at age 83... Former Bates College (Maine) athletics director and head coach Robert Hatch died on February 13. He was 85... Irv Etler, a former defensive coordinator and head coach at Xavier University passed away Feb. 16. He was 74 years of age... Ole Miss player Bennie F. Abram died on Friday at 20... Rajaan Bennett, a recent signee at Vanderbilt, died Thursday at age 18.

Key NFF Dates for 2010



July 16-17, 2010- 2010 Enshrinement Festival, South Bend, Indiana

Tuesday, December 7, 2010- 53rd Annual Awards Dinner, New York City, New York



NFF Information



The NFF is currently accepting nominations for the Hampshire Honor Society; nominations are due no later than February 26. To request nominations forms please contact Hillary Jeffries by email at hjeffries@footballfoundation.com.

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