Each football season, the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame pay tribute to a select few with awards of excellence for exhibiting superior qualities of scholarship, citizenship and leadership. The Foundation also recognizes individuals who demonstrate outstanding support for the NFF and its mission of promoting the game of amateur football. The NFF Gold Medal is the highest award offered by the NFF.
Gold Medal qualifications Recipient’s life must reflect the values of those who have excelled in amateur sport, particularly football. Recipients must have achieved success in an industrial, business, financial, educational, professional or related career and American citizen, most of whose business life has been spent in the United States. Moreover, they must have an unblemished reputation for honesty and integrity.
Additionally, the recipient must have "contributed notably in public service to the welfare of his country and fellow citizens," either as a private citizen or as a government official or both. and have shown a capacity for dedicated institutional commitment to the problem of our competitive economy versus a centrally dictated society and a concern for the human spirit as well as the mind. Recipient may be an elected or appointed federal or state government official, or a member of Congress or any state legislative body, however, they shall not be selected because of political power or on a partisan basis.Gold Medal - National Football Foundation
Selection process Various individuals associated with the National Football Foundation, such as former recipients, board members, corporate leaders, chapter presidents and friends, send nominations and suggestions to the NFF chairman. Selection of the recipient is made by the awards committee and ratified by the board of directors.- Gold Medal List - National Football Foundation
1958 – Dwight D. Eisenhower 1959 – Douglas MacArthur 1960 – Herbert C. Hoover and Amos Alonzo Stagg 1961 – John F. Kennedy 1962 – Byron "Whizzer" White 1963 – Roger Blough 1964 – Donold B. Lourie 1965 – Juan Trippe 1966 – Earl Blaik 1967 – Frederick L. Hovde 1968 – Chester J. LaRoche 1969 – Richard M. Nixon 1970 – Thomas J. Hamilton 1971 – Ronald W. Reagan 1972 – Gerald R. Ford 1973 – John Wayne 1974 – Gerald B. Zornow 1975 – David Packard 1976 – Edgar B. Speer 1977 – Louis H. Wilson Jr. 1978 – Vincent dePaul Draddy 1979 – William P. Lawrence 1980 – Walter J. Zable 1981 – Justin Whitlock Dart Sr. 1982 – Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) – All Honored Jim Brown, Willie Davis, Jack Kemp, Ron Kramer, Jim Swink 1983 – Jack Kemp 1984 – John McGillicuddy 1985 – William I. Spencer 1986 – William H. Morton 1987 – Charles R. Meyer 1988 – Clinton E. Frank 1989 – Paul Brown 1990 – Thomas H. Moorer 1991 – George H. W. Bush 1992 – Donald R. Keough 1993 – Norman Schwarzkopf 1994 – Thomas S. Murphy 1995 – Harold Alfond 1996 – Gene Corrigan 1997 – Jackie Robinson 1998 – John H. McConnell 1999 – Keith Jackson 2000 – Fred M. Kirby II 2001 – Billy Joe "Red" McCombs 2002 – George M. Steinbrenner III 2003 – General Tommy Franks (Ret.) 2004 – William V. Campbell 2005 – Jon F. Hanson 2006 – Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden 2007 – Pete Dawkins and Roger Staubach 2008 – John Glenn 2009 – Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman 2010 – Bill Cosby 2011 – Robert Gates 2012 – Roscoe Brown 2013 – National Football League and Roger Goodell 2014 - Tom Catena and George Weiss 2015 – Condoleezza Rice 2016 – Archie Manning 2017 – No award 2018 – Aaron Feis and Jason Seaman 2019 – Mark Harmon
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External links Official Website