for July 14, 2008
NFF News

Liberty Mutual Insurance and Bayer HealthCare will be the presenting sponsors of the 2008 College Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival Dinner & Show on July 19 at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. Noted broadcaster Charles Davis will serve as dinner emcee.

The Enshrinement Parade will take place on July 19 at 9:30 a.m. It will feature over 100 units including the 2008 enshrinees, the Indy 500 Princess, the Ohio State Brutus Mobile, various floats, marching bands, and many more entertainment groups. For a complete list of Enshrinement events, please visit www.collegefootball.org. Media should contact the Hall of Fame's Becky Hayden and NFF Director of Communications Phil Marwill for credentials, satellite feed coordinates and other key aspects of the festival.

The annual Play It Smart National Conference on July 23- 26 in Arlington, Texas, will feature some of the nation's leading practitioners in the field of youth development and sports psychology. The three-day intensive training session for the individuals responsible for the results in the organization's highly successful youth development program will take place at the Sheraton Arlington Hotel. Featured speakers include NCAA President Myles Brand on July 25 and AFCA Executive Director and NFF Board Member Grant Teaff on July 26.

The NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas will host a kick-off social on July 22 at SMU's Ford Stadium. New Mustangs' Head Coach June Jones as well as area College Football Hall of Famers will also be on hand for the event. For more information, please contact NFF Director of Membership Ron Dilatush at rdilatush@footballfoundation.com.

Two-Minute Drill

USC Head Coach Pete Carroll, and former Trojan greats Matt Leinart, Brad Budde, Ron Yary, and former NFF National Scholar-Athlete Jeremy Hogue recently joined the crew of the USS John C. Stennis for a morale booster... Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel will begin his national book-signing tour with the official release of his new book "The Winners Manual for the Game of Life" on Tuesday. Proceeds from the publication will be donated to the Ohio State Library... Former Texas A&M head coach and McNeese State graduate R.C. Slocum will be the featured speaker at the Southland Conference's Football Media Day Luncheon in Houston on July 22... Brent Musburger will host the 37th annual Big Ten Conference Kickoff Luncheon in Chicago on July 25... Virginia and Richmond will engage in a "Retro Game" with throwback uniforms on Sept. 6 in Charlottesville... Houston and Texas Tech will play a two-game series in 2009 and '10 - their first meetings in football since the final year of the Southwest Conference in 1995... Duke football student-athletes visited and worked at the Durham Rescue Mission for the less fortunate this summer... Georgia Tech has completed internet voting for its "Magnificent Seven" all-time top games and will feature each memorable bout in each of seven 2008 game programs... 2008 Divisional College Football Hall of Fame inductee John Randle of Texas A&M-Kingsville was recently inducted into the Lone Star Conference Hall of Honor... Forty top defensive backs have been tabbed for the early 2008 Jim Thorpe Award watch list.

Connecticut added football operations' personnel Tim Pendergast as director of football operations and David Wilczewski as football recruiting assistant... NACDA's Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association selected Western Illinois AD Tim Van Alstine as its 2008-09 president.

Florida and Kansas both recently completed projects with XOS Technologies to design their new Football Operations Facilities XOS is also engaged in facilities design and integration work at Arkansas and Western Kentucky... The University of Sioux Falls (S.D.) and Daktronics have formed a partnership in the funding and building of a new USF sports complex.

Victoria's Secret has partnered with 33 universities to launch Pink's Collegiate Collection, a series of shirts, accessories, and sports gear cross-branded with names, colors, and mascots due to lunch on July 17... Mississippi State and Learfield Sports have launched a multi-year broadcast, signage marketing, and promotional contract... Arkansas unveils its newly designed official Web site at www.ArkansasRazorbacks.com on Monday, July 21... Notre Dame and South Bend's WBST Radio have inked a football broadcast pact through the 2013 season.

Mike Souchak, 81, who was a standout receiver at Duke from 1948-50 before embarking on a 56-year career in golf, died last week in Clearwater, Fla... Bill Malone, 62, the longtime officer of the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando and co-founder of the Dick Butkus Trophy, died last week in Orlando... Former Marshall RB/LB Donte Newsome, was killed on July 5. Thundering Herd team doctor Jose I. Ricard, 81, also died on July 5.