NCFAA Release (Pdf)
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Former Saint John's University head football coach John Gagliardi will receive the National College Football Awards Association's (NCFAA) Contributions to College Football Award during the Home Depot College Football Awards show at 6 p.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 12, at the Atlantic Dance Hall on the Disney Boardwalk in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The two-hour ceremony is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN.
The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The organization created the Contributions to College Football Award in 2002 to recognize exceptional contributions to the sport. The award is presented to an individual "who has been closely associated with college football as a player, coach, administrator, media personality or other position attendant to the game." Past recipients of the award include Bobby Bowden (2008), Tom Osborne (2005), Darrell Royal (2002), Ara Parseghian (2012) and broadcaster Keith Jackson (2003), among others.
"It is hard to believe I am even mentioned with the previous nominees," Gagliardi said. "I have obviously out-punted my coverage and am completely out of my league.
"If I contributed anything to football perhaps it is that we were successful with a very different approach to coaching. We showed that we could win with short practices and no full-go contact (resulting in fewer injuries), as well as other out-of-the-box tactics."
In addition to Gagliardi's honor, the Home Depot College Football Awards show presents a majority of the major Division I awards, including the Chuck Bednarik Award (Defensive Player of the Year), Biletnikoff Award (Outstanding Receiver), Maxwell Award (Player of the Year), Outland Trophy (Outstanding Interior Lineman), Jim Thorpe Award (Best Defensive Back) and the Doak Walker Award (Premier Running Back).
Gagliardi announced his retirement on Nov. 19, 2012, as college football's all-time wins leader with a 489-138-11 (.775) collegiate record in 64 seasons and a 465-132-10 (.774) record in 60 seasons at SJU, including a 362-99-9 (.780) record in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) games. Gagliardi's 64 years of collegiate coaching is the most in college football history, surpassing the old record of 57 years held by former University of Chicago and University of the Pacific coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (1890-1946). He was the first active head coach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (Class of 2006) and received the American Football Coaches' Association (AFCA) Amos Alonzo Stagg Award in 2009. The MIAC named its football Coach of the Year Award after Gagliardi in August.
He coached four national championship teams (1963, 1965, 1976 and 2003), and made the 2000 national title game. His teams reached the national semifinals six other times (1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2001 and 2002). As a collegiate coach, Gagliardi's teams won 30 conference titles (including three in four seasons at Carroll, Mont., from 1949-52) and appeared in 58 post-season games.
In addition to the football program, Gagliardi served as Saint John's athletic director from 1976-94 and was the head coach for Saint John's track and field (1954-65) and hockey (1954-59) teams during his career. He was inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Hall of Fame in 2006.
"A source of great pride is to see so many of my former student-athletes have great success in so many careers," Gagliardi added. "It is very rewarding when some mention I had something to do with their achievements.
"It has been most gratifying being a part of football, the greatest game ever invented, with two great colleges (Carroll and SJU), two fine high schools (Trinidad Catholic and St. Mary's in Colorado), in hundreds of contests against excellent rivals, with and against thousands of superb young men, the cream of America's youth."
The 2007 Liberty Mutual Division III Coach of the Year, Gagliardi tied the all-time collegiate win record, held by former Grambling State head coach Eddie Robinson, on Nov. 1, 2003, and broke the all-time record on Nov. 8, 2003, en route to a perfect 14-0 season and an NCAA Division III championship. Gagliardi also broke Robinson's record for the most games coached in college football history (588) in 2008 and coached his 600th game in 2009.
In 1993, Jostens and the SJU J-Club unveiled the Gagliardi Trophy that goes to the nation's outstanding Division III player honoring excellence in athletics, academics and community service.
