NFF Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta

 

• When the 2024 Hall of Fame Class is officially inducted Dec. 10 in Las Vegas, only 1,093 players and 233 coaches will have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame from the nearly 5.71 million who have played or coached the game during the past 154 years. In other words, less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of the individuals who have played/coached the game have earned this distinction.
• Founded in 1947, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame inducted its first class of inductees in 1951. The first class included 32 players and 22 coaches, including Illinois’ Red Grange, Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne, Iowa’s Duke Slater, Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg and Carlisle (PA)’s Jim Thorpe.
• 323 schools are represented with at least one College Football Hall of Famer.
• Induction for the 2024 Class will take place Dec. 10, 2024, during the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas.

 
 

 

• 184 inductees, including 28 coaches and 156 players.
• 111 different colleges and universities with at least one inductee.
• 23 schools with their first inductee ever, bringing the total all-time list of schools with a coach or player inductee to 323.
• 19 NFF National Scholar-Athletes inducted.
• Eight Heisman Trophy winners inducted: Reggie Bush (Southern California), Eric Crouch (Nebraska), Matt Leinart (Southern California), Carson Palmer (Southern California), Rashaan Salaam (Colorado), Tim Tebow (Florida), Ricky Williams (Texas) and Charles Woodson (Michigan).
• Three Campbell Trophy® winners inducted: Peyton Manning (Tennessee), Matt Stinchcomb (Georgia) and Tim Tebow (Florida).
• Ricky Williams (Texas) and Charles Woodson (Michigan).
• Three Campbell Trophy® winners inducted: Peyton Manning (Tennessee), Matt Stinchcomb (Georgia) and Tim Tebow (Florida).
• One active coach, Bill Snyder (Kansas State), inducted, bringing the total number of active coaches ever inducted to only four.
• The induction of the coach with the highest winning percentage (93 percent) in college football history: Larry Kehres (Mount Union, OH). 

 
“A Journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”
–Chinese proverb

 
In football, as in Life, you usually don’t score without a lot of talented people doing their part at the right moment in time to advance the ball down the field.
 
And so, it was for the College Football Hall of Fame which, on Aug. 23, 2024, will celebrate its 10^th anniversary in Atlanta.
 
“It’s an incredible story and one that we’re very proud of,” said Steve Hatchell, CEO of the National Football Foundation, the Dallas-based organization with 120 chapters in 47 states. The NFF, which was founded in 1947 with early leadership from Gen. Douglas MacArthur, has a variety of programs that allow it to use the power of amateur football to foster scholarship, citizenship, and athletic leadership among young people and our culture as a whole.
 
Among its programs is the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame, which is located downtown, just across the street from Atlanta’s famed Centennial Olympic Park, the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
 
“You couldn’t have a better location for the College Football Hall of Fame,” said William Pate,” the President and CEO of the Atlanta Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “And when this opportunity (to get the College Football Hall of Fame) came about, Atlanta did what it always does. We rolled up our sleeves and got it done together.”
 
The journey that ultimately brought the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta was not an easy one. And it certainly was not on a straight line. There were bumps, curves and hurdles. And yes, there were nervous moments when it looked like the project might be in trouble.
 
“But every time we needed it, there was someone new to pick up ball and run with it,” said Hatchell.

Here is the story. And, as Hatchell said, it’s a good one.

 
“AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LEVEL”

In 1995 the College Football Hall of Fame moved from Kings Island, Ohio, (about 25 miles from Cincinnati) to South Bend, Indiana hoping to take advantage of the large crowds that would come to Notre Dame football games at least six times a year.
 
But South Bend, even with its rich football tradition, is not a destination city. There just wasn’t enough foot traffic the rest of the year to make the Hall financially viable.
 
And here was another reality. The South Bend building was more of a museum than a Hall of Fame. It was in need of some serious updates.
 
The South Bend College Football Hall of Fame left its city with $3 million in outstanding bond payments.
 
When it was announced that the Hall was moving to Atlanta, Archie Manning, chairman of the NFF, put it as delicately as he could:
 
“We take this action not because of any failure on your part but because we have an opportunity to take the exposure to the Hall of Fame to an entirely new level.”
 
What the Hall of Fame needed was a fresh set of eyes who saw the vast potential that a change of venue and some intelligent risk taking could bring.
 
And that is exactly what happened. Yes, there we some difficult moments the Atlanta group had to face before the doors finally opened on Aug. 23, 2014.

GARY STOKAN: THE VISIONARY

Gary Stokan played basketball for Norman Sloan at N.C. State and would later parlay that experience into a job with Adidas.
 
But he wanted to do more. In 1998 he became CEO and president of the Peach Bowl. In just a few years he transformed the Peach from a second-tier bowl into one of the New Year’s Six bowls that participated in the College Football Playoffs.
 
At the request of Stokan, Hall of Fame player George Morris, the Georgia Tech All-American who played for Hall of Famer Bobby Dodd) had been talking to a number of his contacts about the financial struggles in South Bend. Morris believed that that the NFF would be open to a conversation about moving the Hall of Fame.
 
“He said I should go up there (to South Bend) and look at it and so I did,” said Stokan when we met in his office. “After I walked though it, I thought it could really be something if we moved it to Atlanta. They had already begun to develop the space around Centennial Olympic Park. And with the love our people have for college football, it just made sense.”
 
But it would have to be a delicate process. The contract between the NFF and South Bend stipulated that the NFF could not solicit offers to move. The offer would have to come to the NFF from a third party.
 
So, in 2005 Stokan and Morris reached out to Hatchell and asked that the NFF consider moving the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta. Stokan and Hatchell had been friends for years as Stokan ran the Peach Bowl and Hatchell was commissioner of the Metro Conference.
 
But there were issues.

 
COMPETITION FROM NASCAR, DALLAS

Stokan had to back away from the Hall of Fame talks for a while because Atlanta was in discussions with NASCAR which was looking for a site to build its Hall of Fame. On March 6, 2006, NASCAR announced that its Hall of Fame would be in Charlotte.
 
“Raising money was an issue in that economy,” said Stokan.
 
On March 20, 2008, the NFF’s executive committee met with Dan Cathy (Chick-fil-A), Chuck Fruit (Coca-Cola), and Stokan in New York about moving the College Football Hall of Fame Atlanta. The Atlanta contingent said it would build a new Hall of Fame at no cost to the NFF.
 
But on April 13, 2009, there would still be one more obstacle to climb for the Atlanta group before the project went forward. Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, billionaire T. Boone Pickens, and Hall of Fame players Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Roger Staubach announced that they were pursuing the College Football Hall of Fame for Dallas.
 
On Sept. 24, 2009, a press conference was held to formally announce that the Hall of Fame was moving to Atlanta. Among the attendees were Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-a, Hall of Fame coach Vince Dooley, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, A.J. Robinson of Central Atlanta Progress, and Stokan, among others.

 
A FRESH SET OF EYES

Stokan had been a driving force in putting together all the elements needed for a massive project like the Hall. But he also knew his plate was full with the Peach Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff, the College Football Playoff and other projects. It was a very tough decision for all concerned, but once again it was time to put a fresh set of eyes on this project.

“We agreed that I would resign, and they would bring in John Stephenson and Steve Robinson to complete the deal,” said Stokan. “I had done everything I could do to get the Hall here.”
 
On Nov. 7, 2011, it was announced that Stokan had resigned. Stephenson was a well-known attorney at the prestigious Atlanta firm of Troutman-Sanders. Among his clients was the Peach Bowl.
 
Stephenson was the right person at the right time. He was asked to be the CEO of the project on an interim basis. His management skills would be put to good use in this situation.
Robinson, a long-time executive at Chick-fil-A was the driving force to getting his company involved with college football. When it came to mixing business with college football, there was no one more effective and respected than Steve Robinson.

 
THE FINAL TIMELINE

On Dec. 2, 2011, Stephenson and Robinson flew to Dallas to meet with Steve Hatchell and NFF COO Matthew Sign to discuss next steps.
 
On April 18, 2012, Stephenson, Robinson and Frank Poe of the Georgia World Congress Center attended the NFF Board Meeting in Dallas. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a member of the board, put his Atlanta friends on notice: Get this deal done or we are coming after the Hall of Fame for Dallas.
 
On Feb. 13, 2013, Stephenson was officially named the CEO and president of Atlanta Hall Management, a corporation created to manage the project of building the new College Football Hall of Fame.
 
On Aug. 12, 2014, the College Football Hall of Fame opened its doors in Atlanta.
 
“You have to give John a lot of credit,” said Hatchell. “He stepped in and got the building opened.”

And it opened with a powerhouse lineup of major sponsors: KIA, Southwest Airlines, Coca-Cola, AT&T, and, of course, Chick-fil-A.
 
Stephenson, who now is an executive with Chick-fil-A, said there were so many others who played major roles in getting the doors open.
 
“Gary (Stokan) and Steve (Hatchell) are the reason it’s here,” said Stephenson. “They got it here and I was able to help close it.”
 
Dennis Adamovich came on as CEO of Atlanta Hall Management in 2016. An ultra successful marketing and television executive, Adamovich was charged with maximizing the resources of the Hall and making it an attraction that people would want to return to again and again.
 
“My plan was to stay for two years but two somehow turned into four,” said Adamovich, who now has his own marketing company based in New York, but he still chooses to live in Atlanta.
 
“I love this place,” he said.
 
And this will be a good season for the Hall to celebrate 10 years in the ATL.  National powers Georgia and Clemson open their season just a brisk walk from the Hall of Fame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (MBS).
 
In December there will be the Celebration Bowl, which hosts the best of the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). The SEC championship will be on Dec. 7. On Jan. 1, the Peach Bowl will host a quarterfinal game in the new 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP). And, to top it all off, the CFP will play its national championship game on Jan. 20 at MBS.
 
In short, it’s going to be a busy fall at the College Football Hall of Fame now headed by President & CEO Kimberly Beaudin.

And here’s what they will see. Today, visitors to the College Football Hall of Fame are greeted with a three-story wall of 774 helmets, representing every college at every level that plays football.
 
There is a three-story mural by renowned artist Steve Penley, a regulation size football field for kids to play and for special events to be held. A lot of folks love celebrating their special moments surrounded by the best college ball has to offer. The third floor includes the rotunda for all the Hall of Famers. It is literally a shrine for the greatest players and coaches in the history of this great game.
 
Sign, the Chief Operating Officer of the National Football Foundation was asked to look back at the journey that bought the Hall of Fame from South Bend to Atlanta.
 
“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “But we did it right.”
 
The College Football Hall of Fame is home.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION & COLLEGE HALL OF FAME

Founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame is a non-profit educational organization that runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship, and athletic achievement in young people. With 120 chapters in 47 states, NFF programs include the criteria, selection and induction of members of the College Football Hall of Fame; the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta; Future For Football; The William V. Campbell Trophy®; the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments; the NFF National High School Academic Excellence Awards presented by the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation & Hatchell Cup presented by the Original Bob’s Steak & Chop House; and a series of programs and initiatives to honor the legends of the past and inspire the leaders of the future. NFF corporate partners include Bruin Capital, Catapult, Delta Air Lines, Fidelity Investments, Hampshire Companies, Hanold Associates Executive Search, Jostens, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, New York Athletic Club, Pasadena Tournament of Roses and Sports Business Journal. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @NFFNetwork and learn more at footballfoundation.org.

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