December 4, 2007
Coach Broyles Recognized For
Achievements
in Responsibility On and Off the Field
Coach Broyles
is a Finalist for Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award;
Fans Can Cast Vote for Coach Broyles
at coachoftheyear.com by December
15 to Win $50,000
for Charitable Support and $20,000 for Alumni Scholarship
PITTSBURG
-- Pittsburg State University head football coach Chuck
Broyles has been named a finalist for the 2007 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 Coach Broyles to win for NCAA
Division II by December 15 at www.coachoftheyear.com.
The winner will be announced on December 29 during an ABC/ESPN special.
“More than a half-million fan votes were
cast for 597 college football coaches this season, a tremendous and passionate
outpouring of support from college football fans across the nation,”
said Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual vice president, Consumer Marketing. “Each
finalist embodies what makes this award different than any other: responsibility
-- not only to his own team and players, but also to his school and his
community.”
Broyles, who has serves as diretor
of intercollegiate athletics, recently completed his 18th season as head
football coach at his alma mater, guiding the Gorillas to an 8-3 overall
record. During his decorated tenure, Broyles has compiled a 182-39-2 (.821)
overall record, averaging more than 10 wins per season for his nearly
two-decade career.
He led Pitt State to the 1991 NCAA-II National Championship
as well as appearances in the 1992, 1995 and 2004 NCAA-II National Championship
Games. His squads have qualified for the NCAA-II national playoffs 14
times in his 18-year tenure and Coach Broyles became the first coach since
the 1890s to record his 100th coaching victory in less than 10 full seasons
during the 1999 season.
In the classroom, the Pitt State football squad
had produced 13 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans since January
2000, leading the Division II membership and ranking second to only the
University of Dayton (14) among all college football programs. Forty-four
percent of his Pitt State football squad members currently maintain 3.0
GPAs or higher.
Broyles’ civic and charitable contributions
have been far and wide-ranging.
Joining Coach Broyles as Division
II Finalists are, in alphabetical order: Pat Behrns,
Nebraska-Omaha; Dale Lennon, North Dakota; Dr.
George Mihalik, Slippery Rock; and Bill O’Boyle,
Chadron State.
Each divisional 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.
During the initial fan-voting phase at www.coachoftheyear.com
(September 6 – November 27), 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.
The winners will be announced December 29, 2007,
on an ABC special presentation hosted by Hall of Fame Sportscaster Keith
Jackson and Analyst Kirk Herbstreit at 5:30 p.m. (EST). The special award
presentation will re-air January 8, 2008, on ESPN2 at 2 p.m. (EST).
About Liberty Mutual Group
“Helping people live safer, more secure lives” since
1912, Liberty Mutual Group (www.libertymutual.com)
is a leading multi-line insurer in the U.S. whose largest line of business
is personal auto based on 2006 direct written premium. A top ten provider
of auto and home insurance to individuals, Liberty Mutual is an industry
leader in affinity partnerships, offering its personal lines products
to employees and members of more than 10,000 companies, credit unions,
and alumni and professional associations. Liberty Mutual Group ranks 95th
on the Fortune 500 list of largest corporations in the United States.
The company, headquartered in Boston, Mass., employs over 40,000 people
in more than 900 offices throughout the world.
About the National Football Foundation &
the College Football Hall of Fame
With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, 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. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy presented
by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings.
NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend,
Ind., Play It Smart, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and
high school scholar-athletes. For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.org
or www.collegefootball.org.
Press Contact:
Dan Wilkes, SID
Pittsburg State University
(620) 235-4147
dwilkes@pittstate.edu
Lynne Cavanaugh Glenn
Greenberg
Weber Shandwick Liberty
Mutual
(617) 520-7046 (617)
574-5874
lcavanaugh@webershandwick.com
glenn.greenberg@libertymutual.com