American Football Coaches Association

Infobox Organization
name = American Football Coaches Association


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formation = 1921
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headquarters = Waco, Texas
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membership = 10000
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leader_title = Executive Director
leader_name = Grant Teaff
key_people = Tyrone Willingham (President)
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website = [http://afca.com afca.com] The American Football Coaches Association is an association of football coaches on all levels and is responsible for the Coaches Poll that determines the national champion each year. The American Football Coaches Association is also responsible for the Top 25 poll for Division II and Division III.

The AFCA was founded in a meeting for 43 coaches at the Hotel Astor in New York City on Dec. 27, 1921. It is headquartered in Waco, Texas (the headquarters building is located across from Baylor University, formerly coached by AFCA executive director Grant Teaff).

Maj. Charles Daly of the U.S. Military Academy was the first president. He was followed by John Heisman. Other presidents have included Bear Bryant, Darrell Royal, Eddie Robinson, Bo Schembechler and Vince Dooley.

In 2006 the Association has 10,000 members and represents coaches at all levels including the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the National Junior College Athletic Association, the National Federation of State High School Associations, the National Football League, the Canadian Football League, USA Football, the National Football Foundation, College Football Hall of Fame, and Pop Warner Football.

Since 1940 it has awarded the annual Amos Alonzo Stagg Award to the "individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football."

The Association has established a code of ethics and has made safety recommendations. It teams with USA Today for the Division I-A Coaches Poll.

All-American Teams

Since 1945, the American Football Coaches Association has selected an All-American team. It is the only one selected exclusively by the coaches themselves.

The AFCA currently selects an All-American team in four divisions: Division I-A, Division I-AA, Division II (NCAA Division II and all NAIA teams) and Division III (NCAA Division III teams). From 1945 until 1967, only one team was chosen. From 1967 through 1971, two teams, University Division and College Division, were selected. In 1972, the College Division was split into College I and College II. In 1979, the University Division was split into two teams — NCAA Division I-A and NCAA Division I-AA, yielding the four teams the Association names every November. In 1996, the College I and College II divisions were renamed AFCA Division II and AFCA Division III respectively.

All four AFCA divisions have an All-America Selection Committee consisting of a committee chairman, a district representative head coach from each of the AFCA districts in each division and two committeemen in each district who are also head coaches. The selection committees in each division conduct a conference call to select the team. The committee chairman and the district representatives are on the call. The district committeemen are not. Prior to the call, the district chairmen and his committeemen are responsible for gathering information on worthy players in their districts. In Division I-A, each head coach is polled in the preseason and at mid-season and asked for up to three deserving All-America candidates on their team and up to three players on other teams. Then in late October, the coaches vote on a 25-player team. The voting results are a part of the information that is considered when the selection committee names the team.

The Coaches’ All-America Team has been sponsored by various entities throughout the years but it is now under its own banner, the AFCA. These are the sponsors/publishers of the team throughout the years.

1945-47: Published in "Saturday Evening Post"
1948-56: Published in "Collier's"
1957-59: General Mills
1960-93: Eastman Kodak
1994: Schooner’s International
1995-96: AFCA
1997-1999: Burger King
2000-present: AFCA

AFCA National Championship Trophy

The AFCA National Championship Trophy is the trophy awarded by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) to the winner of college football's BCS National Championship Game, which determines the national champion for purposes of the Coaches Poll. The trophy has been awarded since 1986.

Amos Alonzo Stagg Award

The Amos Alonzo Stagg Award is presented annually by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) to the “individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football.’’ The award is named in honor of Amos Alonzo Stagg, who was instrumental in founding the AFCA in the 1920s.

Winners

*1940 Donald Herring, Jr.
*1941 William H. Cowell (posthumously)
*1942 "No award given"
*1943 "No award given"
*1944 "No award given"
*1945 "No award given"
*1946 Grantland Rice
*1947 William A. Alexander
*1948 Gilmour Dobie, Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, Robert C. Zuppke
*1949 Richard C. Harlow
*1950 "No award given"
*1951 DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry
*1952 A.N. "Bo" McMillin
*1953 Lou Little
*1954 Dana X. Bible
*1955 Joseph J. Tomlin
*1956 "No award given"
*1957 Gen. Robert R. Neyland
*1958 Bernie Bierman
*1959 Dr. John W. Wilce
*1960 Harvey J. Harman
*1961 Ray Eliot
*1962 E.E. "Tad" Wieman
*1963 Andrew Kerr
*1964 Don Faurot
*1965 Harry Stuhldreher
*1966 Bernie H. Moore
*1967 Jess Neely
*1968 Abe Martin
*1969 Charles A. "Rip" Engle
*1970 Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf
*1971 Bill Murray
*1972 Jack Curtice
*1973 Lloyd Jordan
*1974 Alonzo S. "Jake" Gaither
*1975 Gerald B. Zornow
*1976 "No award given"
*1977 Floyd "Ben" Schwartzwalder
*1978 Tom Hamilton
*1979 H.O. "Fritz" Crisler
*1980 "No award given"
*1981 Fred Russell
*1982 Eddie Robinson
*1983 Paul W. "Bear" Bryant
*1984 Charles B. "Bud" Wilkinson
*1985 Duffy Daugherty
*1986 Woody Hayes
*1987 Field Scovell
*1988 G. Herbert McCracken
*1989 David Nelson
*1990 Len Casanova
*1991 Bob Blackman
*1992 Charles McClendon
*1993 Keith Jackson
*1994 Bob Devaney
*1995 John Merritt
*1996 Chuck Neinas
*1997 Ara Parseghian
*1998 Bob Reade
*1999 Bo Schembechler
*2000 Tom Osborne
*2001 Vince Dooley
*2002 Joe Paterno
*2003 LaVell Edwards
*2004 Ron Schipper
*2005 Hayden Fry
*2006 Grant Teaff
*2007 Bill Curry
*2008 Bill Walsh (posthumously)

Tuss McLaughry Award

The Tuss McLaughry Award, established in 1964, is given to a distinguished American (or Americans) for the highest distinction in service to others. It is named in honor of DeOrmond “Tuss” McLaughry, the first full-time secretary-treasurer of the AFCA and one of the most dedicated and influential members in the history of the Association.

Tuss McLaughry, the award's namesake, began his coaching career at his alma mater, Westminster (Pa.) College in 1916. During his early days in coaching, McLaughry spent his spare time playing pro football with the Massillon (Ohio) Tigers. Knute Rockne was a teammate. He went on to become head coach at Amherst (1922-25), Brown (1926-40), and Dartmouth (1941-55). McLaughry retired from coaching in 1954, but continued in his capacity as chairman of the Physical Education Department at Dartmouth until 1960, when he accepted the appointment with the AFCA. He retired from that position in 1965.

Winners

*1964 Gen. Douglas MacArthur, armed forces
*1965 Bob Hope, entertainer
*1966 Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. President
*1967 Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President
*1968 J. Edgar Hoover, director, FBI
*1969 The Reverend Billy Graham, evangelist
*1970 Richard M. Nixon, U.S. President
*1971 Edwin Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronauts
*1974 John Wayne, actor
*1975 Gerald R. Ford, U.S. President
*1977 Gen. James A. Van Fleet, armed forces
*1979 Jimmy Stewart, actor
*1980 Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, armed forces
*1981 Dr. Jerome Holland, educator, business executive
*1982 Robert L. Crippen & John W. Young, astronauts
*1983 Ronald Reagan, U.S. President
*1985 Pete Rozelle, commissioner, NFL
*1986 Gen. Pete Dawkins, armed forces
*1987 Gen. Chuck Yeager, armed forces
*1988 Lindsey Nelson, sportscaster
*1989 George Shultz, U.S. Secretary of State
*1990 Burt Reynolds, actor
*1993 Tom Landry, Dallas Cowboys
*1994 Charley Boswell, war hero
*1996 Eddie Robinson, Grambling State University
*1998 George Bush, U.S. President
*2001 Andrew Young, U.N. Ambassador
*2002 Roger Staubach, Businessman, Pro and College Football Hall of Famer
*2003 Dr. Stephen Ambrose, Author and historian
*2004 Gen. Tommy Franks, armed forces
*2005 Dr. Christopher Kraft, NASA
*2007 Paul Tagliabue, commissioner, NFL
*2008 Tom Osborne, Coach and Congressman

ee also

*List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association
*AFCA National Championship Trophy
*Amos Alonzo Stagg Award
*Walter Camp Man of the Year
*Walter Camp Distinguished American Award
*Walter Camp Alumni of the Year
*National Football Foundation Distinguished American Award
*National Football Foundation Gold Medal Winners
*Theodore Roosevelt Award (NCAA)

External links

* [http://www.afca.com/ Official site]