Little Rock, Ark. – The Broyles Award, established to honor college football’s assistant coach of the year, announced today that the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) was added to their selection process. In addition, the Broyles Award added College Football Hall of Fame coach and player Steve Spurrier and Oklahoma’s all-time winningest coach Bob Stoops to its selection committee.

“We are thrilled to add the FWAA, an organization who has intensely covered college football for eight decades, to our selection process. The addition of Coach Spurrier and Coach Stoops, means we are committed to having the sport’s very best evaluating the invaluable work of assistant coaches each season.” said Molly Arnold, vice president of the Frank & Barbara Broyles Foundation and granddaughter of Frank Broyles. Since the creation of Broyles Award in 1996, 42 finalists and winners have become head coaches, with 28 currently holding that title in both college and the NFL.

“Coach Broyles was an outstanding coach and person during his career in the Southwest Conference and later in the Southeastern Conference”, said FWAA Executive Director Steve Richardson. “The establishment of this award in 1996 has benefited in the promotion of assistant coaches. The FWAA is proud to be a part of it, simply because we share history with Coach Broyles and the winners of his award.”

The FWAA will announce the 10-12 members of the Broyles Award advisory panel later. The group will present a broad cross section of the organization’s members. There are several tie-ins between the Broyles Award and FWAA. In 1964 Broyles accepted the FWAA’s Grantland Rice Trophy for the Arkansas Razorback’s national championship team. Additionally, the FWAA has selected a Coach of the Year since 1957. The FWAA Award, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, has been presented in the name of the late Grambling State University Coach, Eddie Robinson for the past 20 seasons. The announcement of the winner is made in mid-December each year.

Coach Spurrier, a former Heisman Trophy winner at Florida, won 228 games as a collegiate head coach including 6 SEC titles and a national championship for the Gators in 1996. Bob Stoops is the winningest coach in Oklahoma history with 190 victories.

Frank Broyles, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, passed away from complications due to Alzheimer’s Disease on August 14 of this year. Coach Broyles, had a remarkable track record of recruiting, training and mentoring outstanding assistant coaches who would later become successful head coaches. His 27 assistants that became head coaches collectively won 6 Super Bowl titles in 14 years, 5 College National Football Championships, 40 conference titles and over 2000 victories. Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, Joe Gibbs, Johnny Majors, Hayden Fry, Raymond Berry and Jackie Sherrill represent a handful of successful head coaches who were assistants under Frank Broyles.

The winner of the 2017 Broyles Award will be announced at ceremony in Little Rock, Ark. on December 5. Proceeds from the Broyles Award support the Frank & Barbara Broyles Foundation and its mission of serving Alzheimer’s caregivers in crisis by providing resources, training and education, and counseling. Over 1 million copies of “Coach Broyles’ Playbook for Alzheimer’s Caregivers” have been distributed in 11 languages.

Shareable Facts

Broyles Award finalists and winners, who have become head coaches, have claimed the FWAA’s Coach of the Year Award 5 times and been finalists 18 times.

Members of the Broyles Award selection committee have won the FWAA’s Coach of the Year award 9 times and been finalists 12 times.

Dwayne Dixon, a wide receiver coach for Spurrier at Florida, was a Broyles Award finalist in 2001.

Coach Stoops served as a defensive coordinator on Spurrier’s staff from 1996-1998.

Bob Stoops was named head coach at Oklahoma in 1999 when he left Spurrier’s staff at the University of Florida and one year later captured the national championship.

Coach Stoops is the only head coach since the creation of the Broyles Award to have three of his assistants win the Broyles Award: Mark Mangino (2000), Kevin Wilson (2008) and Lincoln Riley (2015).

The Broyles Award selection committee is made of up of numerous College Football Hall of Fame coaches who have collectively won 15 national championships and 3654 games, made 294 bowl appearances and won 96 conference championships.

The Broyles Award selection committee members include Barry Switzer, Bobby Bowden, Lou Holtz, Johnny Majors, Vince Dooley, Hayden Fry, John Robinson, Lavell Edwards, Mack Brown, Grant Teaff, Pat Dye, Frank Beamer, Gary Pinkel, Mike Bellotti, Jim Donnan, Phillip Fulmer and R.C. Slocum, Steve Spurrier and Bob Stoops.