"[2] It was founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, longtime Army Black Knights football coach Earl Blaik and journalist Grantland Rice.

[4] The Foundation also tabulated and released the Bowl Championship Series Standings each Fall and hosts an Annual Awards Dinner in December at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

[citation needed] The NFF was incorporated as the National Football Shrine and Hall of Fame on December 8, 1947, in Syracuse, New York by Arthur Evans.

[8] The NFF was reorganized in 1954 with 11 schools serving as "founding subscribers": Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Manhattan, Michigan, Navy, Notre Dame, Penn, Princeton, Syracuse, and Yale.

[11] Notable former National Scholar-Athletes in the NFL include Ryan Tannehill (Texas A&M, 2011)[12] and Joe Thomas (Wisconsin, 2006)[13] and Super Bowl winners Peyton (Tennessee, 1997) and Eli Manning (Mississippi, 2003), Drew Brees (Purdue, 2000), Jonathan Vilma (Miami, 2003)[14] and Dennis Dixon (Oregon, 2007).

Non-sporting former recipients include Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor Mark Harmon (UCLA), NASA astronaut and USAF flight test engineer Michael S. Hopkins (Illinois), former USAF pilot and incumbent Hampden–Sydney College President Christopher B. Howard (U.S. Air Force Academy)[15] and NBC anchor Stone Phillips (Yale).