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Gene Hooks Award

This award is given each year to the 1A CHAMPS administrator who has made a significant contribution to the 1A CHAMPS program over a five-year period of time. The winner may be an athletic director, CHAMPS program administrator or an associate director who oversees a CHAMPS program, so long as the individual has made a valuable contribution to the welfare of the Division 1A student-athletes.

The award is named for Dr. Gene Hooks, who was the first Division 1A Athletic Directors’ Association Executive Director. Dr. Hooks recognized the need to honor the Association mission statement’s commitment to the “well-being of the student-athletes.”

In 1992, working through the Association’s Mission and Values Committee, Hooks spearheaded the movement to bring “CHallenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success” to reality through a series of actions which propelled the program forward:

Creation and defining of the five components that provide the foundation for the CHAMPS program;

The Great Eight Basketball Festival gave the program visibility and early funding;

The creation of the CHAMPS Board of Advisors; a group of CHAMPS administrators from across the country;

The Program of Excellence gave the 1A athletic directors a working blueprint and a goal to aspire to.

Past Recipients of the Gene Hooks Award

2008
Fred Mims
University of Iowa
2007
Ginty Porter
Clemson University
2006
Keith Zimmer
University of Nebraska
2005
Suspended
(Hurricane Katrina)
2004
Steve McDonnell
Texas A&M University
2003
Tom Perry
Syracuse University
2002
Cedric Dempsey
University of Arizona NCAA
2001
Dr. Kate Riffee
Ohio State University
2000
Bob Bradley
University of Kentucky
1999
Pam Overton
Florida State University