Jenkins receives prestigious honor
8/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 23, 2005
MORRISTOWN, N.J. -- The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) has announced that 1953 TCU graduate and former Frog golfer Dan Jenkins has been appointed to serve a three-year term as the NFF Historian.
Jenkins, one of the most revered writers in all of sports and a member of the legendary team that made Sports Illustrated a success, will provide counsel to the NFF's Honors Court during the College Football Hall of Fame selection process. Also a best-selling novelist, Jenkins will also write occasional articles for distribution and publication by the NFF while providing interviews and making special appearances in the national media.
"I married a homecoming queen, which means I know as much about college football as the next person, as long as the next person is not Darrell Royal or Bear Bryant," said Jenkins. "As the NFF Historian, I'll have a new platform to indulge my passion for the most emotional, colorful and hysterical game ever developed by mankind and Walter Camp."
Jenkins, 75, began his career at the age of 11 by reproducing stories from the Fort Worth Press and Fort Worth Star-Telegram on an old typewriter from his grandmother's attic. His zest for the profession has led him on a remarkable career that has spanned more than 60 years, a record 500-plus Sports Illustrated feature stories and deadline articles, 18 books and 20 screenplays.
"Dan Jenkins is a national treasure," said NFF President Steven J. Hatchell. "His wit, wisdom and counsel will help the National Football Foundation connect with fans on a new level. Nobody can capture the drama of the game like Dan while entertaining fans time and time again. We are honored that he has accepted this position."
A native of Fort Worth, Jenkins entered college with a byline, courtesy of the renowned sports editor Blackie Sherrod, who recognized his talent and hired him directly out of high school to be a sports writer at the Fort Worth Press. Jenkins worked full-time at the Press while earning his degree from TCU. After college, he continued with the paper, replacing Sherrod as its sports editor in 1957. In 1960, Sherrod recruited Jenkins for a second time to a new home at the Dallas Times Herald. After two years with the Herald, New York City summoned Jenkins, and he began his illustrious career at Sports Illustrated.
After 23 years with Sports Illustrated, he retired in 1985, but he continues today with his prolific ways as a novelist and a monthly column in Golf Digest magazine. Known for his bawdy and authentic portrayal of the sports world, his novels have produced nine bestsellers with three of them, Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, and Baja Oklahoma, being turned into major motion pictures. Jenkins wrote the screenplay for the last two. In addition to Semi-Tough, football fans best know Jenkins for Saturday's America, Life Its Ownself and Rude Behavior. This past May, Doubleday published his most recent novel, Slim and None, which is already in its second printing. Jenkins has been inducted into several halls of fame as a writer, and this October he will be among the first four sportswriters inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame with Sherrod, Dave Campbell and Mickey Herskowitz.
He and his wife, June, live full-time in Fort Worth. His sons, Marty and Dan Jr., are sports photographers in California, and his daughter, Sally, is a prize-winning sports columnist for The Washington Post and a best-selling author in her own right.
With 119 chapters and over 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 America's young people. NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart, The NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College (Mass.), the NFL-NFF Coaching Academy, and annual scholarships of nearly $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes.
