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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSJuly 27, 2009Matthew SignDALLAS, TEXAS PETER IRWIN: We're very pleased this afternoon to have Matthew Sign, Chief Operating Officer of the National Football Foundation to make a few comments. MATTHEW SIGN: Thank you. On behalf of the National Football Association, our president, Archie Manning, and our president and CEO, Steve Hatchell. Greetings and a warm welcome. It's an honor and privilege to be with you here today. Let me start by thanking commissioner Dan Beebe, Bob Burda and Dan Stewart and the entire Big 12 Conference staff for providing us with this wonderful opportunity. Not only are they our Highway 114 neighbors in Las Colinas, they're great friends and great supporters of the National Football Foundation, its programs, and its initiatives. For that, we are grateful. I'm here today to talk about academic excellence, athletic excellence, and leadership. The National Football Foundation and the schools of the Big 12 Conference go way back. In 1947 the National Football Foundation was founded by sports writer Grantland Rice, Colonel Red Blake, Hall of Fame Army coach, and General Douglas MacArthur. Since then, no organization has honored or celebrated the football scholar-athlete more or better than the National Football Foundation. This year we'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Scholar-Athlete Awards and the 20th presentation of the Draddy Trophy. Our motto is building leaders through football, so much comes from academic excellence. It is our job to promote the scholar-athlete ideal and its leadership-building qualities nationwide. It is our job to showcase the wonderful accomplishments of those who play college football and excel off the field as well. We firmly believe that there are so many positives taking place through college football, and we will continue to highlight the great kids, the great people, doing great things. We were able to accomplish this with four major initiatives, all of which reward academic excellence and graduation. The National Scholar-Athlete Awards program was founded again over 50 years ago. Each school across the country that plays college football can nominate one player. They must be a starter. They must carry a 3.2 GPA. And it must be their last year of eligibility, meaning they are on track to graduate. Each year we receive over 200 nominations from across the country. Of those, 15 will earn an NFF National Scholar-Athlete Award, which carries an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship, a trip to New York, and they are named a finalist for the Draddy Trophy, college football's premiere scholar-athlete award. Past honorees have gone on to careers in medicine, law, and science. They are become astronauts, actors, and top gun instructors. They have included Mark Harmon, who played at UCLA, Stone Phillips from Yale, Leroy Sellman from Oklahoma, and Steve Young of BYU. Last year Missouri's Chase Daniel and Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell joined this illustrious group. Since 1957, over $8 million has been handed out in post-graduate scholarships by the National Football Foundation. Of the 15 national scholar-athletes, one is chosen to receive football's most important award, the Draddy Trophy. Bringing with it a $25,000 post-graduate scholarship. The trophy will be presented for the 20th time this December. Four of those winners have come from the Big 12 Conference, including Texas offensive lineman Dallas Griffin in 2007. Past winners include Peyton Manning, Danny Wuerffel, and Chad Pennington. Last year's winner, Alex Mack of California, not only was an All-Pac-10, All-America, and the first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns, but he graduated before his senior season with a 3.6 GPA in legal studies. The success of our National Scholar-Athlete Awards and the Draddy Trophy led to the creation of the New Hampshire Honor Society in 2007. It started with a phone call to president-CEO Steve Hatchell from a Big Ten coach. He called to say he was not going to nominate a player for the Draddy Trophy not because he didn't have a player that was eligible but because he had five players that were eligible. We knew immediately we needed to expand the program and honor more and more of these kids. The program follows the requirements of the National Scholar-Athlete Awards, but instead just one candidate per school, anyone who meets the qualifications and is a member of the squad is honored. This past spring we honored over 600 football student-athletes. The feedback for all these programs is that, when they are honored, they have an edge. That edge helped them get into law school, medical school, graduate school, or assisted in helping land that first job. Our work also extends to the high school level. Each year 121 chapters in 47 states reach 4,800 high schools and over 400,000 high school football players. They recognize over 1,000 football players for their work on the gridiron and in the classroom, handing out nearly $1 million in scholarships. At the National Football Foundation, we believe we are making a difference through our programs. We believe football has and will continue to make a difference in people's lives. There are great stories of achievement to be told and passed on. To further prove my point, let me rattle off those who have played the sport, graduated and gone on to make a difference. Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan all played college football. It is also clearly evident today with the likes of G. Jeffrey Amell [phonetic], who was an All-Ivy League tackle at Dartmouth. Former Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson also played at Dartmouth. Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, earned a scholarship to Northern Michigan as a quarterback. Actor Tommy Lee Jones played at Harvard. NFF board members, including Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, played at Arkansas. New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft played Sprint football at Columbia. And NFF board member George Steinbrenner not only played football at Williams College, he was an assistant coach at Northwestern and Purdue. These are just a few. They all played and they all are making a difference. In conclusion, I would like to point out the Big 12 will have two of its own inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame this December. Nebraska's Grant Wistrom, who is also a national scholar-athlete, and University of Texas defensive lineman Steve McMichael. Also to be honored in December will be Larry Zimmer, the voice of Colorado football, who will be receiving the Chris Schenkel Award for excellence in broadcasting. And former Big 12 supervisor of officials, Tim Millis, who will receive the outstanding official award. Once again, I'd like to thank the Big 12 Conference, the individual institutions, and the Football Writers Association of America, especially Steve Richardson, for your continued support of the National Football Foundation programs and initiatives. Thank you for helping us build leaders through football, and I look forward to seeing you all in New York. Thank you very much. PETER IRWIN: Thank you, Matthew. End of FastScripts |
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