Good in the Game 8/13

Joe Moglia went from Wall Street CEO to head coach at Coastal Carolina.

Good morning, football fans! You have found the newest edition of the weekly Good in the Game newsletter — we’ll be here each Tuesday morning keeping you up to date on everything happening at the National Football Foundation, as well as pointing out all the good that is happening in the game we love.

Joe Moglia has quite the resume. He began his college coaching career in the late 1970s and early 1980s before giving it up to go cut his teeth on Wall Street. After 17 years at Merrill Lynch, he left to become the CEO of TD Ameritrade. And in 2012, he was named the head football coach at Coastal Carolina. Pretty normal trajectory, right?

Moglia shared his remarkable story at the 7th Annual Campbell Trophy Summit, with the conversation revolving around leadership in college sports. He discussed the importance of personal responsibility, self-awareness, and courage in decision-making. It’s worth the watch!

What is the William V. Campbell Trophy Summit? The event serves as a vehicle for the many leaders impacted by Campbell to pass on his insights about success, leadership and personal growth, and gives past Campbell Trophy nominees the chance to interact and learn from many of the nation’s top entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley CEOs.

“It just means so much. My hard work paid off. All the nights I was up past midnight studying because I had two practices. It’s nice to be honored.”

Sayville’s (New York) Ava Rueb is the NFF’s 2024 Top Scholar Athlete for flag football!

In Part 1 of a two-part interview, NFF CEO Steve Hatchell joined the On The Fly podcast and host Gene DeFilippo to discuss his career and the NFF’s impact on both amateur and college football!

Hatchell spoke in-depth about the importance of promoting and protecting the good in the game and the initiatives aimed at doing just that.

🏈 Click to listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify

COME JOIN US IN LAS VEGAS!

The 66th Annual National Football Foundation Awards Dinner will be here before we know it, and tickets are going fast — buy yours now to ensure you get the NFF discounted rate!

And if you want an idea of what the NFF Annual Awards Dinner is all about, here’s a look back at last year’s banquet!

Photo: ESPN

What do you get when you put the music of Jelly Roll, Post Malone, Yungblud, Imagine Dragons, Juice WRLD and Thirty Second to Mars together?

Quite possibly the best college football hype soundtrack of all time!

Donnie Edwards was an All-American linebacker at UCLA in the 1990s, racking up more than 20 sacks in a Bruins uniform.

Thirty years later, he’s even more of an inspiration — Edwards and his wife Kathryn are the founders of the Best Defense Foundation, which arranges for veterans who were part of D-Day to return to Normandy each year on the anniversary of that historic event. Their work was recently highlighted during NBC’s Olympics coverage.

Photo: Danny Wild/USA Today Sports

Army defensive lineman Dre Miller was recognized individually recently as a preseason nominee for the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy, college football’s community service award.

Miller doesn’t see it as an individual honor, however — he believes he owes it all to being on a team full of like-minded student-athletes.

Photo: Eli Pace/Steamboat Pilot & Today

Grab your helmets, playbooks, footballs and… kayaks?

That’s right — Team River Runner, a nonprofit group that serves disabled veterans in Steamboat Springs, has been organizing kayak football tournaments since 2009. It includes elements of football, kayaking and ultimate frisbee!

Woody Thompson, who rushed for more than 1,300 yards for Miami (FL) in the 1970s and went on to a three-year career in the NFL, has passed away. He was 71.

Jim Ninowski, who quarterbacked Michigan State to a No. 3 AP Poll finish during the 1957 season, has passed away. He was 88.

Jerry Simmons, who starred at wide receiver for Bethune-Cookman in the 1960s and later became an NFL scout, has passed away. He was 81.

Doug Smith, an All-American defensive lineman for Auburn during the 1983 season, has passed away. He was 64.

Waddell Smith, who played collegiately at Kansas and later became a CFL All-Star, has passed away. He was 70.

Duane Thomas, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards at West Texas State and became a first round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970 NFL Draft, has passed away. He was 77.

Steve Kragthorpe, who served as head football coach at both Tulsa and Louisville in the 2000s, has passed away. He was 59.

If you don’t already, you should give us a follow over on Instagram — we’ve been highlighting the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame class with videos like the one below on Michigan legend Steve Hutchinson!

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