Athletes for a Better World (ABW) and The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) have formed a partnership to annually recognize one male and one female national NIAAA scholarship winner as automatic recipients of the prestigious Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup.  These two high school athletes will join one collegiate winner and a professional recipient each year as exemplary role models of the ABW Code for Living.  The recipients of the high school class of 2017 are Hope Baldwin and Ethan Shuster who will receive the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup on April 25, 2018 at the Atlanta banquet.  ABW Executive Director Brad Catherman and NIAAA Executive Director Mike Blackburn celebrated this achievement with the two recipients at the Opening General Session of the National Athletic Directors Conference conducted December 8, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona
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The 14th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, an award given to the most outstanding role models among athletes, has announced the professional, collegiate, and high school honorees for its 2018 award ceremony, to be held April 25 at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria. Bob Ryan, the famed sportswriter for the Boston Globe and analyst for ESPN, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies.

Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization committed to changing the culture of American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to athletes in all high school, collegiate and Olympic or professional sports. Nominations are open to every division and conference in college sports and to athletes in public and private high schools across the country in a partnership with the National Association of High School Athletic Administrators.
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ATLANTA (April 12, 2017) – Hall of Fame sportscaster Dick Vitale and Joe Spencer of the University of Illinois each received the 13th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria Centre on Wednesday night. Special recognition was also given to Chris Singleton of Charleston Southern, plus Erin Houchins and Ian Saum each received the first high school division awards. The Cup, in the words of Athletes for a Better World’s founder, Fred Northup, is “not for the best athlete, or the best student, but for the best person in the world of sports.” Previous recipients, including Jack Nicklaus, Mia Hamm, Cal Ripken, Peyton Manning, Pat Summitt and others, have made the Cup one of the most prestigious awards in sports, given its emphasis on character and its openness to athletes in all sports.
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Dick Vitale is well known as college basketball’s top analyst and ambassador. Vitale joined ESPN during the 1979-80 season following a successful college and pro coaching career. Vitale called ESPN’s first-ever NCAA basketball game and over 1,000 games since.His thorough knowledge of the game is brought forth in an enthusiastic, passionate, and never boring style. Vitale’s numerous honors reflect the respect he has earned for his contributions to sport and to the larger community and are highlighted by his inclusion in nine Halls of Fame, including the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Most importantly, Vitale is a tireless philanthropist. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors of The V Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer, and founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano who died of the disease that year. Since its beginning, the V Foundation has awarded over $170 million in grants for research.Vitale’s primary interest is in children’s cancer and he has been tireless in his efforts. He co-chairs the annual V Foundation Golf Classic and is preparing to host the 12^th Annual Dick Vitale – V Foundation Gala in Sarasota, which raised nearly $3 million last year alone.

Born in East Rutherford, N.J., Vitale graduated from Seton Hall University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and earned a master’s degree in education from William Paterson College. He and his wife, Lorraine, have two daughters.

Athletes for a Better World (ABW) and The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) have formed a partnership to annually recognize one male and one female national NIAAA scholarship winner as automatic recipients of the prestigious Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup.  These two high school athletes will join one collegiate winner and a professional recipient each year as exemplary role models of the ABW Code for Living.  The inaugural recipients of the high school class of 2016 are Erin Houchins and Ian Saum who will receive the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup on April 11, 2017 at the Atlanta banquet.  ABW Executive Director Brad Catherman and NIAAA Executive Director Mike Blackburn celebrated this achievement with the two recipients at the Opening General Session of the National Athletic Directors Conference, conducted from December 10 through 13 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
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ATLANTA (January 8, 2017) – The 13th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, an award given to the most outstanding role models among athletes, has announced the professional, collegiate, and high school honorees for its 2017 award ceremony, to be held April 11 at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria. Bob Ryan, the famed sportswriter for the Boston Globe and analyst for ESPN, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies.

Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization committed to changing the culture of American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to athletes in all collegiate and Olympic or professional sports and, for the first time this year, to high school athletes. Nominations are open to every division and conference in college sports and to athletes in public and private high schools across the country in a new partnership with the National Association of High School Athletic Administrators.
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VIDEO: 2016 Wooden Cup Ceremony

Vince Dooley was born in Mobile, Alabama. He accepted a football scholarship to Auburn where he was an all-star in football and basketball and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and a Master’s in History. After service in the Marine Corps and as an assistant coach at Auburn, at the age of 31 he was named the head coach of Georgia. For over 50 years, he has had an enduring impact on the University of Georgia, the Southeastern Conference, and collegiate athletics across the country. He served as head football coach from 1963 to 1989, and as the Director of Athletics from 1979-2004. His 25 years as head football coach earned him the distinction as the most successful coach in Georgia history: a record of 201-77-10, one national championship (1980), six SEC Championships, and he took his teams to 20 Bowl games.

Dooley is the only person ever to hold the presidency of both the American Football Coaches Association and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and the only person inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in two states, Georgia and Alabama. He has been the recipient of countless awards, including the highest national awards in coaching and in athletic administration including the Bear Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, the Duffy Daugherty Memorial Award, the James J. Corbett Memorial Award, the John L. Toner Award, and the Homer Rice Award. He was twice named NCAA National Coach of the Year, SEC Coach of the Year seven times, and NCAA District Coach of the Year six times. His football legacy was completed with his election to the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1994.

As athletic director, his Georgia teams won 23 national championships, 78 SEC team championships and numerous individual national titles in both men’s and women’s sports. His contributions to UGA were recognized in 2008 with the dedication of the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex with a special statue and garden.

As part of the University’s Third Century Campaign, he initiated the Vincent J. Dooley Library Endowment Fund with a personal gift of $100,000. His community service and charity work are extensive and include work with the Heart Fund, Multiple Sclerosis, Juvenile Diabetes, Boy Scouts, the homeless, and he is currently serving on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army. He chaired a successful million dollar fund raising campaign for new Salvation Army facilities in Athens. He served 28 years as the long-standing chairman of the Georgia Easter Seals Society, was named National Volunteer of the Year, and a new Easter Seals facility in Atlanta was built and named for him. He and his wife, Barbara, co-chaired a fund-raising campaign to establish a Catholic high school in the Athens area. Dooley, who was instrumental in the University’s campus being designated as an arboretum, was presented with the Georgia Urban Forest Council’s 2001 Individual Achievement Award, and in the Horticulture Department an endowed professorship was established in his name.

For many years, he has also done hundreds of speaking engagements and appearances for numerous, worthwhile charitable causes. In the spring of 2016 he became Chair of The Georgia Historical Society (Savannah) and serves on the board of the National Civil War Preservation Trust and is chair of its Education Committee.

For the last seven years Dooley has spent a week each year in a foreign country doing service work. As a member of the Order of Malta, he went to Lourdes, France, accompanying the sick for healing, and for the past four years has worked in an impoverished village in Honduras.

Dooley is married to the former Barbara Meshad of Birmingham. They have four children: Deanna Dooley, Daniel (married to Suzanne Maher), Denise (Mrs. Jay Douglas Mitchell), and Derek (married to Allison Jeffers). They also have eleven grandchildren.

Professional Recipient Vince Dooley, and five collegiate finalists for the Wooden Cup were introduced at the 12th annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup awards banquet at the Cobb Energy Centre on April 27, 2016. Watch their videos and meet each of these outstanding individuals and learn the incredible ways in which they made a difference in the lives of others.

VIDEO: 2016 Wooden Cup Ceremony

Professional Recipient
Vince Dooley
Football Coach

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Collegiate Finalist
Bonnie Brandon
Swimming

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Collegiate Finalist
Malcolm Brogdon
Basketball

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Collegiate Finalist
Ty Darlingtom
Football

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Collegiate Finalist
Alexa Hone
Soccer

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Collegiate Finalist
Luke Romick
Football/Track

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VIDEO: 2016 Wooden Cup Ceremony

ATLANTA (April 28, 2016) – Vince Dooley, the University of Georgia’s former football coach and athletic director, and Luke Romick of Denison University each received the 12th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup at Atlanta’s Cobb Energy Center Wednesday night. The Cup, in the words of Athletes for a Better World’s founder, Fred Northup, is “not for the best athlete, or the best student, but for the best person in the world of sports.” Previous recipients, including Jack Nicklaus, Mia Hamm, Cal Ripken, Peyton Manning, Pat Summitt and others, have made the Cup one of the most prestigious awards in sports, given its emphasis on character and its openness to athletes in all sports.

John Wooden, who won ten national championships during the years 1964-1975 as basketball coach at UCLA, is commonly regarded as the greatest college coach of any sport who ever lived. Universally regarded as one of the finest human beings to ever grace the world of sports, his character, conduct and selfless gifts stand at the highest level by any standard. When Coach Wooden learned about Athletes for a Better World, he gave authorization to attach his name to this annual award, and he attended and addressed the inaugural event in Los Angeles in 2005. In his honor, the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup is presented to two distinguished athletes, one collegiate and one professional or Olympic, for their character and leadership both on and off the field and for their contributions to sport and society.

Luke Romick is a two-sport athlete at Denison University, playing on both football and track teams.  Off the field he serves as the president of both the Denison Student Athletic Advisory Committee and the president of the North Coast Conference’s Student Athletic Advisory Committee, where he has shown great leadership in facing a variety of campus and community issues.  Participating in numerous community service projects, Romick spent the summer after his freshman year as an intern in the Los Angeles-based Thirst Project, a nonprofit organization that educates and activates students to address the global water crisis.  Fueled by that experience, Romick went on to begin a Thirst Project organization at Denison and spent the next two summers at Thirst Project headquarters in Los Angeles, playing a major role in raising over one million dollars during that period.

Vincent J. Dooley became the head football coach at the University of Georgia in 1964 at the age of 31. During Dooley’s twenty-five year tenure as head football coach, the Bulldogs won the 1980 national championship title, won six SEC championships, won 201 games, and played in 20 bowl games. He led the Bulldogs until 1988 and is among the “winningest” coaches in the history of college football. In addition to excellence on the field, Dooley encouraged academic excellence in his players. Under his leadership more than 100 student-athletes received academic awards and post-graduate scholarships. Dooley served as the University of Georgia’s athletic director from 1979 to 2003.

Not surprisingly, Dooley has received multiple accolades for his accomplishments in collegiate athletics.  He has been a member of the College Football Hall of Fame since 1994, received the NCAA National Coach of the Year award twice, and was named the “Georgian of the Year” by Georgia Association of Broadcasters. He received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, presented by the American Football Coaches Association, in 2001. He was an analyst on ESPN college football telecasts and served as president of the American Football Coaches Association.

Dooley’s accomplishments are not limited to the world of sports.  Among Dooley’s many philanthropic interests, he served over 25 years as chairman of the Georgia Easter Seals, earning the title of National Volunteer of the Year, and has been involved with the Salvation Army, Boy Scouts of America, and numerous other charitable organizations. In 2011 Dooley was named a Georgia Trustee by the Georgia Historical Society, which recognizes those whose accomplishments and community service reflect the ideals of the founding body of Trustees.  With a master’s degree in history, he is a Civil War expert and a member of the Civil War Round Table.  Additionally, he is a renowned horticulturist and has published several books on plants and gardens.

Bob Ryan, the famed sportswriter for the Boston Globe and analyst for ESPN, served as the Master of Ceremonies. 

The other finalists for the Collegiate Wooden Cup recipient were:

• Bonnie Brandon, Swimming, University of Arizona
• Malcolm Brogdon, Basketball, The University of Virginia
• Ty Darlington, Football, University of Oklahoma
• Alexa Hone, Soccer, University of South Carolina, Upstate

About Athletes for a Better World:

Founded in 1998, Athletes for a Better World (ABW) exists to change the culture of sport by developing individual character, teamwork, and civic responsibility through commitment to the Code for Living.  ABW’s vision is to have the Code become a part of every sport at every level, so that it becomes the common language and standard expectation of behavior for everyone. ABW provides free support and resources to coaches and athletes across the country who want to teach and live out these values. “The Code for Living” can be found on playing fields, locker rooms and athletic facilities across the country. Currently, ABW players and coaches are represented in every state and several foreign countries.