National Football Foundation Gold Medal winners

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.

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.


 * 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