College Football weekly notes

-Courtesy of the National Football Foundation

Legendary Notre Dame Coach to Speak at College Football Hall of Fame:

-The College Football Hall of Fame's 11th Annual KeyBank Gridiron Legends Luncheon Series will continue on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 when legendary coach and College Football Hall of Famer Ara Parseghian will take the stage.

Parseghian, who coached Notre Dame from 1964-1974, compiled a record of 95-17-4 and a .836 winning percentage during the "Era of Ara." The College Football Hall of Fame coach won two national championships and three bowl games while at the helm for The Fighting Irish.

He is currently the National Spokesman for the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, a non- profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for Niemann-Pick disease. Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in the 2007 Blue-Gold game at Notre Dame, along with Lou Holtz.

Tickets can be purchased by contacting Becky Hayden at 574-235-5717. Visit the Hall of Fame's Web site at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=nml7ydcab.0.xm88izbab.7d5muybab.5850&ts=S0270&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.collegefootball.orgfor more details.

Nautilus, Inc. Takes Active Role in NFF Chapter

-Nautilus, Inc. , the fitness company that makes Nautilus and Bowflex among several other fitness equipment and apparel brands, has provided financial and product support to the NFF's Clark County (Washington) Chapter for local youth football initiatives.

Nautilus has made its full-size artificial turf football field available as Clark County Youth Football's "home field," and also supplies its 350-seat conference center for the chapter's coaching clinics. Moreover, Gregg Hammann, Nautilus, Inc. chairman & CEO as well as former letterman at Iowa under legendary coach Hayden Fry, also serves as a coach in the youth football league.

"We need to give companies like Nautilus our business whenever we can," said Clark County Chapter President Gery Gehrmann. "They will keep giving back to the NFF and related programs."
Under Hammann's leadership, Nautilus has revamped 95 percent of its product line and launched a new college and professional line, Nautilus XPLOAD Athletic Performance equipment. The company has also partnered with College Football Hall of Famer Dick Butkus to encourage proper nutrition and fitness as the alternative to steroid use.

Two-Minute Drill

-Florida is using part of its $6 million athletics' surplus to provide scholarships for deserving non- athletes from the UF student body. Florida athletics has donated $40 million to the university's general fund since 1990... The North Carolina Legislature will provide $500,000 in student- athletes' scholarships for 10 smaller (non-FBS) colleges and universities in 2007-08. Each institution will receive at least two $1,250 grants... Birmingham-Southern officially took the field in varsity football for the first time since 1939 with 126 candidates reporting for head coach Joey Jones (a standout student-athlete at Alabama) last week... The Sports Network's preseason NCAA FCS Top 10 rankings include defending champion Appalachian State, Montana, Massachusetts, North Dakota State, Youngstown State, New Hampshire, Illinois State, James Madison, Northern Iowa, and McNeese State... Illinois took a special "cooling off" trip to nearby Rantoul Water Park last week as a surprise break for the student-athletes during two-a-days... The 9,000-plus members of the John Purdue Club at Purdue contributed $6 million in 2006-07... Fans who ran or walked in the Coach Fran Charities/Citibank 5,000 meters last Saturday were invited to Texas A&M's closed practice last Saturday. Proceeds went to the Lincoln Center for Youths in College Station... Danny White Foundation recently presented $10,000 to the NFF Valley of the Sun (Ariz.) Chapter for academic honor scholarships... Brigham Young University will retire the No. 14 football jersey worn by former QB greats Ty Detmer and Gifford Nielsen at halftime of its Sept.1 game against Arizona... The Sun Belt Conference has passed a strategic sports initiative to require all its members to sponsor 15 NCAA Division I sports by 2010-11... Texas is ranked No. 1 in sales of college sports merchandise for the second year in succession in research by Collegiate Licensing Co. Notre Dame is second while Florida climbed from No. 6 to No. 3 from 2006 to '07.

Utah set another school record for season ticket sales with 24,400 (and counting) last weekend and broke the previous standard of 24,250 in 2006... Southern Miss has sold just over 13,000 season tickets... Harvard will host Brown in a rare Ivy League night game at 7:30 (EDT) on Thursday, Sept. 20, and has received night traffic and non-disruption of area neighborhoods' pointers from Boston College officials... Virginia and Richmond have scheduled a four-game series in 2008, '10, '12, and '14 seasons... New Mexico State will wear pink socks, and the coaching staff will don pink shirts to help raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research when the Aggies host Arkansas- Pine Bluff on Sept. 29.

Notre Dame is honoring five coaches who have produced national championships at the university - Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz - as part of a Gate D exhibit at Notre Dame Stadium... Utah State is in the process of constructing a $14.5 million academic, training, office, and dressing room complex. The project is set for completion in 2008... Wyoming's new $10 million practice facility is almost set for 2007 season usage... Albany has named its practice fields in memory of late New York Giants' owners Wellington Mara and Preston R. Tisch, who brought the Giants' training camp to Albany's campus in 1996... Tennessee also has named its new locker room facility the Bronson-Johnson Locker Room after football standouts and benefactors Tommy Bronson and Bill Johnson. The duo joined UT alumnus and first-term Tennessee U.S. Senator Bob Corker in addressing student- athletes at last Friday's practice.

Nevada head coach Chris Ault has had his contract extended through 2011... Bill Chaves is the new AD at Eastern Washington... Chuck Sullivan has been named the director of communications at the Big East Conference... Greg Blackwell has been named assistant director of the TCU Frog Club and Lettermen's Association... Bill Donoghue been named the volunteer coordinator at the College Football Hall of Fame.

Notre Dame and the Game That Changed Football: How Jesse Harper Made the Forward Pass a Weapon and Knute Rockne a Legend by Frank P. Maggio with a foreword by Jim Harper (Jesse's Harper's son), introduction by Keith Jackson, and afterword by Joe Doyle, is on sale at bookstores nationwide this week... NFF Valley of the Sun (Ariz.) board of director Bob Boyles has co-authored Fifty Years of College Football, which is now available in bookstores. The encyclopedic tome covers college football's 70 leading programs, including all their starting lineups, from 1953-2006... Fifteen Oklahoma graduate students have helped publish Sports By the Numbers: University of Oklahoma Football with a portion of book receipts going to coach Bob Stoops Champions Charity.

The NFF's Southern Arizona Chapter conducted the Tucson Youth Football Coaching Academy on Aug. 10-11 under the leadership of former Arizona, Southern California and Missouri head coach Larry Smith. The program emphasized proper warm-up and stretching exercises, hydration, equipment, and blocking and tackling drills. The clinic also taught strategies to allow kids and coaches to have fun, reap success and develop leadership, teamwork and character. Over 700 coaches attended the event, considered one of the largest free youth coaching clinics in Arizona history.

NFF College Hall of Fame coach Barry Switzer will host a weekly show on college football and other topics on XM Satellite Radio in 2007-08... Rutgers' 2007 contests will be carried by XM Satellite Radio... Game Plan Technologies of Omaha, Neb., has unveiled a first-ever help program for nationwide collegiate compliance with the new GPCompliance program... Ole Miss has inked a 10-year contract for multi-media athletics rights with TeleSouth Communications... The Big Ten Network will launch its "Friday Night Tailgate" series on Aug. 31 to highlight activities at Big Ten schools leading up to kickoff... Midcontinent Communications has agreed to televise three South Dakota football games live in 2007... Randy Lee will handle lead radio duties for the Western Kentucky network... Phil Woodall of the West Texas A&M radio network also serves as a district judge in Randall County, Texas... CSTV has denoted its on-air talent and studio hosts for 2007 football, and they include Trev Alberts, Tom Hart, Roland Williams, Jonathan Coachman, Brian Jones, Carter Blackburn, Pete Medhurst, and Scott Zolak. Medhurst and Zolak will be the broadcast team for all six Navy telecasts in '07.

Utah State College Football Hall of Fame member Merlin Olsen will receive the Ronnie Lott IMPACT Award for service after his college and pro careers at a Dec. 9 banquet in Newport Beach, Calif... Jerry LeVias, SMU's great and 2003 College Football Hall of Fame selection, has received the 2007 Touchdowner of the Year Award from the Houston Touchdown Club. LeVias also spoke with student-athletes and coaches at Texas A&M- Commerce earlier this month... The Colorado Springs Hall of Fame, administered by the Colorado Springs Sports Commission, has elected Air Force All-America OL Brock Strom and former Tennessee QB Alan Cockrell to its 2007 Hall of Fame class... Former Florida All-America LB and SEC/National Defensive Player of the Year Wilber Marshall will be inducted into the Florida Ring of Honor... Oklahoma standout and 1986 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Waddy Young will be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. He's also the first OSHOF to be inducted and to receive the prestigious Bob Kalsu Award in memory of the OU football student- athlete who was killed in action in Vietnam... The Ed Block Courage Award Foundation hosted a "Puttin' Away Child Abuse" benefit with several football celebrities in Westminster, Md... Three writers have earned multiple awards in the 15th Annual Football Writers Association of America Writing Contest sponsored by Insight. Christopher Walsh of The Tuscaloosa News, Ian R. Rapoport of The Birmingham News and Pete Thamel of The New York Times captured the FWAA laurels for their variety of stories.

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors had seven new members at its August meeting: Frank Brogan, president of Florida Atlantic; Nancy Zimpher, president of Cincinnati; Timothy White, president of Idaho; Edward Ray, president of Oregon State; Charles Bantz, chancellor of IUPUI; Mordechai Rozanski, president of Rider; and Thomas Powell, president of Mount St. Mary's University (Md.).

Bill Ireland, 80, the first director of athletics and head football coach at UNLV, died in Reno, Nev... Former Missouri AD Mel Sheehan died recently... Brandon Ratcliff, defensive back at New Mexico from 1999- 2003, passed away last week in Dallas.