After winning the vote last season for Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year, John Gagliardi is back again this year as a finalist yet again. Read the press release below and then head on over to the site to cast your vote.
NEWS RELEASE
For Release: Immediate
Contact: Ryan Klinkner
Athletic Media Relations Director, Saint John’s University
320-363-3127, rklinkner@csbsju.edu
Dec. 10, 2008
Saint John’s University head coach John Gagliardi named a finalist for the 2008 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John’s University head coach John Gagliardi has been named a finalist for the 2008 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award, which honors the college football coaches who best exemplify responsibility and excellence on and off the field of play.
Fans can cast a vote for Gagliardi to win the Division III honor from Dec. 15-22 at www.coachoftheyear.com. The winner will be announced on Dec. 31 during halftime of the Music City Bowl on ESPN. Gagliardi won the 2007 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award for Division III.
“These finalists represent what is great about college football,” said Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual senior vice president of Consumer Marketing. “Today we recognize 25 coaches who understand that how you win is every bit as important as winning itself, and who are revered by their fans for exhibiting characteristics of sportsmanship, integrity and responsibility.”
Joining Gagliardi as a finalist for Division III are Greg Debeljak, Case Western Reserve (Ohio); Larry Kehres, Mount Union College (Ohio); Dan MacNeill, the State University of New York at Cortland; and Mark Speckman, Willamette University (Ore.).
Each division winner receives $50,000 from Liberty Mutual to support his civic and charitable activities, $20,000 in scholarship to his school’s alumni association, and is recognized in the permanent Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year display at the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.
Gagliardi’s 2007 award helped form the new Saint John’s University Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship with the $20,000 grant for the Saint John University Alumni Association. Gagliardi donated his other $50,000 winnings to Saint John’s University as well.
The first active head coach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (Class of 2006), Gagliardi (Guh-lahr-dee) ended his 60th season as a collegiate head football coach and 56th season as head coach in Collegeville in 2008. The Johnnies finished the 2008 season with an 8-3 record (6-2 MIAC) to earn their MIAC-record 30th conference championship and 26th under the direction of Gagliardi. SJU made its 23rd postseason appearance and 10th appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs in the past 11 seasons. The winningest coach all-time in college football history, Gagliardi currently owns a 461-125-11 (.781) collegiate career record and a 437-119-10 (.781) record at SJU. Gagliardi’s 60 years of collegiate coaching is the most in college football history, surpassing the prior record of 57 years by former University of Chicago and University of the Pacific coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (1890-1946). 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 Nov. 8, 2003, on the way to a perfect 14-0 season and an NCAA Division III championship. Gagliardi broke Robinson’s record for the most games coached in college football history (588) Sept. 20 against Concordia-Moorhead.
While at Saint John’s, Gagliardi has coached four national championship teams (1963, 1965, 1976 and 2003) and made the 2000 national title game. His teams have reached the national semifinals in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2001 and 2002. In 2001, Gagliardi became only the third coach in NCAA college football history to coach 500 career games. As a collegiate coach, Gagliardi’s teams have won 29 conference titles, including 2006 and 2008, and have appeared in 57 post-season games. In the past 41 years, SJU has been nationally ranked 40 times, and it owns a 39-18 postseason record. In 1993, SJU averaged 61.5 points per game, setting a record that might never be broken.
In addition to his various head coaching duties, Gagliardi has also been athletic director at both Carroll (1949-53) and Saint John’s (1976-94). In June 2006, Gagliardi was inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Hall of Fame.
During the initial fan-voting phase at www.coachoftheyear.com (Sept. 17 – Dec. 6), the top 25 vote getters in each division qualified to be evaluated by an objective model designed exclusively for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award and reviewed and endorsed by the College Football Hall of Fame. The model arrived at the finalists by scoring each of these qualifying coaches in four areas: coaching excellence, sportsmanship and integrity, academic excellence and community commitment.
Fan votes in this second phase account for 20 percent of each coach’s final score, with a voting committee of college football media (25 percent) and College Football Hall of Fame coaches and players (55 percent) contributing the remainder.
About Liberty Mutual Group
”Helping people live safer, more secure lives” since 1912, Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group (LibertyMutualGroup.com) is a diversified global insurer and sixth- largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2007 direct written premium. Liberty Mutual Group ranks 94th on the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. corporations, based on 2007 revenue. The company has over 45,000 employees located in more than 900 offices throughout the world. The eighth-largest auto and home insurer in the U.S., Liberty Mutual (LibertyMutual.com) sells full lines of coverage for automobile, homeowners, valuable possessions, personal liability, and individual life insurance. The company is an industry leader in affinity partnerships, offering car and home insurance to employees and members of more than 10,000 companies, credit unions, professional associations and alumni groups.
About the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame
Founded in 1947 with leadership from Gen. Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, Play It Smart, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings.
