Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Football Wins 1998 AFCA Academic Achievement Award
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
June 23, 1998
WACO, Texas - Northwestern University received the 1998 American Football Coaches Association's Academic Achievement Award that is presented annually by the Touchdown Club of Memphis. Northwestern recorded a 100 percent graduation rate for members of its football squad when all 20 members of the class of 1997 earned a degree.
"This award is the result of tremendous work done by our academic support program, our assistant coaches, the athletes and families of those athletes involved," Northwestern Head Coach Gary Barnett said. "It gives us a little more validation as we work towards building an exemplary college football program."
Northwestern's win snaps a five-year run by Duke University, which had won or shared the award every year since 1993 and has won or shared it nine times since it was first awarded in 1981 by the College Football Association. This year's award is the first one presented by the AFCA, and eligibility has been expanded to include all Division I-A football-playing schools.
Twenty-four other NCAA Division I-A members received honorable mention status for having graduation rates of 70 percent or better. Those institutions were: Boston College, Bowling Green, Duke, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Rice, SMU, Syracuse, Tennessee, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wake Forest, Washington and Wisconsin.
The overall graduation rate of the 79 institutions participating in the survey was 59 percent. The survey involved the freshman class from the academic year of 1992-93 who received athletically-related financial aid as a member of the institution's football squad. Of those student-athletes who completed four years of eligibility, 74 percent have graduated and another seven percent are currently enrolled and working toward a degree.
The 1998 AFCA Academic Achievement Award will be presented to Northwestern at the AFCA Kickoff Luncheon during the Association's 1999 convention in Nashville.
The AFCA was founded in 1922 and currently has more than 8,000 members around the world, ranging from the high school level to the professional ranks. According to its constitution, the AFCA was formed, in part, to "maintain the highest possible standards in football and the coaching profession" and to "provide a forum for the discussion and study of all matters pertaining to football and coaching."
All-Time Academic Achievement Award Recipients: Duke (1981), Notre Dame (1982 and 1983), Duke and Notre Dame (1984), Virginia (1985 and 1986), Duke (1987), Notre Dame (1988), Kentucky (1989), Duke (1990), Notre Dame (1991), Boston College and TCU (1992), Duke (1993), Duke (1994), Boston College, Duke and Wake Forest (1995), Boston College, Duke and Vanderbilt (1996), Duke (1997) and Northwestern (1998).
