by Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of External Affairs
Five distinguished professionals, all former collegiate scholar-athletes, have been announced as the newest members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame.
Purdue University football star and 2009 Super Bowl MVP-winning quarterback for the New Orleans Saints
Drew Brees joins former Notre Dame baseball star, noted surgeon and international humanitarian
Dr. Angelo Capozzi, TCU men’s basketball standout and former Harvard Business School professor
Dr. James I. Cash, Jr., Iowa State men’s basketball standout, coach and now NBA head coach
Fred Hoiberg, and former University of Connecticut national player of the year, current college coach and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer
Jennifer Rizzotti as this year's 2016 inductees into the Academic All-Ame®rica
® Hall of Fame, as selected by CoSIDA.
Created in 1988, the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame® recognizes Academic All-Americas who received college diploma at least 10 years ago, have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers, and are committed to philanthropic causes.
The five new inductees join 137 members of the elite Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame, which was created in 1988. They will be inducted into the Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame at
CoSIDA's annual convention in Dallas, Texas on Monday, June 13th during the organization’s annual Hall of Fame Ceremony at the Hilton Anatole. The CoSIDA Convention is part of the annual National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and Affiliates Convention for a fourth straight year.
“The impact that the Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame Class of 2016 has had on college athletics was tremendous and makes this class one of the most memorable to date,” said CoSIDA president Judy Willson of the Mountain West Conference. “These five inductees each contributed at the highest levels to their respective college sports while also being committed to excelling academically, before embarking on impressive professional careers. We look forward to honoring each of them during Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame enshrinement in June.”
The June 13th Hall of Fame induction ceremony will feature ESPN's Rece Davis as emcee and legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg, the ambassador of the Academic All-America
® program, as special guest and presenter. At that time, the
2016 Dick Enberg Award recipient, NFL quarterback great Roger Staubach, also will be recognized.
"This year's Academic All-America Hall of Fame
® ceremony will pay a meaningful tribute to the lives of five leaders and achievers who, through their continued commitment to excellence in their career paths - symbolize the values represented in the Academic All-America program," stated CoSIDA Executive Director Doug Vance. "We take great pride in the honoring these outstanding individuals who had had a profound impact in such a positive way on the lives of others."
The biographical information on this year's Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame induction class is listed below.
Drew Brees (Purdue ’01), Football; Two-time Academic All-America; 2000 Academic All-America® of the Year (across all 
university division sports)
"It is a tremendous honor to be inducted into the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame alongside so many distinguished people. I've learned tremendous life lessons from athletics but the opportunities I've had to make an impact in the classroom and in the community is where I take the most pride." – Drew Brees
The 2009 Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, Drew Brees has made a significant impact on the Saints franchise since arriving in 2006 from the San Diego Chargers. He led the Saints to victory in Super Bowl XLIV and was selected as the game’s MVP.
Prior to his NFL career, Brees attended Purdue University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from the prestigious Krannert School of Management while lettering in football from 1997-2000. A little-know quarterback coming out of Westlake High School (Austin, Texas), he quickly established himself on the gridiron as a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist and in the classroom as a two-time Academic All-American as a junior and senior. He was a Heisman finalist his junior and senior seasons, finishing fourth and third, respectively. He holds two NCAA records, 12 Big Ten Conference records and 18 Purdue records.
As a senior in 2000, Brees led the Boilermakers to a Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl appearance. In that same year he won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top collegiate player, was selected the Academic All-America of the Year
® for all university division sports and was a recipient of the National Football Foundation’s post-graduate scholarship. Also in 2000, he received the inaugural Socrates Award, recognizing the nation's finest athlete in terms of academics, athletics and community service.
In Brees’ time with the Chargers and Saints, he has been elected to nine Pro Bowls while being named: 2004
Comeback Player of the Year; to the 2006 All-Pro Team; 2008 and 2011 NFL Offensive Player of the Year; 2010
Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. Brees ranks among the league’s elite quarterbacks, becoming the first player in NFL history to pass for over 4,000 yards in 10-straight campaigns – including an NFL-record four 5,000-yard passing seasons. Brees also became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 30 or more touchdowns in eight consecutive seasons.
A distinguished community service leader and pillar of the community, Brees also has received numerous accolades and awards for taking a leadership role off the field, including the 2006 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year honor. He also participated in five USO trips to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Turkey, Djibouti, Dubai, Okinawa and Guantanamo Bay.
Brees and his wife, Brittany, established the Brees Dream Foundation in 2003, a foundation dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients and providing opportunities for children and families in need. The Foundation has contributed more than $23 million to charity causes globally.
Angelo Capozzi, MD: Notre Dame ’56, Baseball
“When Dick Enberg called me and told me I was selected for the Hall of Fame, it blew me away. I was just getting ready to leave on a mission to Ethiopia and I could not have had a better send off. I am humbled being selected and proud to be representing the University of Notre Dame and dedicate this honor to my classmates of the great class of 1956.” – Dr. Angelo Capozzi
Dr. Capozzi was a standout lefthanded pitcher under legendary Notre Dame baseball coach Jake Kline (Notre Dame ’21) in the mid-1950’s. He
is the Class of 2016’s Honorary inductee. The honorary designation is awarded to a former distinguished scholar-athlete whose collegiate career pre-dated the Academic All-America® program in his/her particular sport.
Until his retirement several years ago, Dr. Capozzi was a leading plastic surgeon who has been conducting international humanitarian services since 1976. In 1992, he co-founded Rotaplast International, Inc., which provided lip cleft and palate cleft surgery to children in foreign countries, and continues to do so today. As Rotplast’s co-founder and medical director, he traveled on 60 international missions to 27 countries, 46 with Rotaplast, and has performed thousands of surgeries, changing countless lives of children across the world.
He received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Notre Dame, his MD from Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine in 1960, and training in plastic surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Following medical school, Dr. Capozzi served as an Air Force captain and chief of plastic surgery at David Grant Air Force Hospital in Fairfield, California. He worked in a private practice for 30 years in San Francisco at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, serving as chief of the Borthin Burn Center, chairman of plastic surgery, and director of the residency training program. He then left private practice to become chief of plastic surgery at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, California.
In 2008, Dr. Capozzi retired and now devotes himself to consulting and serving children in need through Rotaplast.
Capozzi has received multiple awards from his alma mates. He received the Notre Dame Alumni Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award in 2001 (for outstanding service to humankind). In 2014, the Notre Dame Monogram Club awarded him The Moose Krause Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor, for extraordinary commitment and involvement with youth and leadership and service to others. In 2010, Capozzi received the Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine Alumni of the Year award; in 2015, he was honored with a Damen Award, given to an alumnus for highest qualities of leadership in industry, leadership in community and service to others.
Dr. James I. Cash, Jr.: TCU ’69 Basketball; 1969 Academic All-America®
“Receiving a call from Dick Enberg, an icon of professionalism in sports broadcasting, was very special. Being selected for the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame is one of the highest honors that I have received. Given my interest in academics and athletics, I am very appreciative of CoSIDA’s efforts to focus on the real meaning of what it means to be a student athlete. I accept this on behalf of all the people at Texas Christian University during my time there who enabled me to be fully committed to both athletics and academic pursuits.” – Dr. James Cash, Jr.
Dr. James Cash, Jr. was the first African-American to be a full professor at the Harvard Business School, yet his initial impact on racial
integration came on the basketball court as one of the most decorated basketball players in the history of the (former) Southwest Conference.
A graduate of Texas Christian University, Cash was the first African-American to play in the Southwest Conference in 1967. Cash lettered from 1967 through 1969, led TCU to a SWC championship in 1967-68 and finished his career ranked in the top five in TCU career points and rebounds. He still sits fourth on the program's career rebounding chart with 856, an average of 11.6 boards per game. Inducted into the TCU Lettermen’s Association Hall of Fame in 1984, his jersey #54 was retired by TCU on Jan. 29, 2011 during halftime of the TCU-Air Force game. Dr. Cash was enshrined into the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame in 2014.
Cash received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from TCU in 1969, the same year he received Academic All-America
® honors. He went on to receive an MS in computer science from Purdue University in 1974 and two years later, completed his PhD in management information systems at Purdue’s renown Krannert Graduate School of Management.
Arriving at the Harvard Business School in 1976, he helped build the school’s computer-based technology curriculum and focused his work and research on the strategic use of information technology in the service sector. He later served as chairman of the Harvard M.B.A. program from 1992 to 1995 and as senior associate dean for Harvard Business School Publishing from 1998 until his retirement in 2003. He held the title as James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus.
Dr. Cash's non-academic activities include serving as a trustee or overseer for numerous non-profit organizations, including the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation, the Harlem Children’s Zone Project, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences while also serving on the board of directors for several public companies. Cash was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2011. He also has worked with many companies and governments around the world in both consulting and teaching assignments.
He presides over his consulting firm, The Cash Catalyst, headquartered in Sarasota, FL, through which he offers personal development programs for executives in Global 500 organizations. Cash also is known as a great networker. According to the Boston Globe, “Networking comes easily to James Ireland Cash Jr., whose connections are nearly unrivaled on the American business scene.”
Fred Hoiberg, Iowa State ’95: Basketball; 1994 and 1995 Academic All-America®
“Being named a CoSIDA Academic All-American at Iowa State was one of the highlights of my career. To be inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame is even more humbling. This honor is very prestigious when you look at the list of outstanding 
student-athletes who have already been enshrined.” –
Fred Hoiberg
Growing up in Ames, Iowa, Fred Hoiberg lived within walking distance of the Iowa State University campus and basketball arena, and that ISU community would become his home during his illustrious college career, both as a basketball student-athlete and head coach.
Hoiberg earned his finance degree from Iowa State University in 1995. He was a first-team Academic All-America
® honoree as a senior, a second-team pick as a junior and a three-time honoree on the Big Eight All-Academic team.
He was a versatile guard/forward for the Cyclones, helping them earn 78 games and play in three NCAA national tournaments during his career. As a rookie, he earned
Associated Press Big Eight Freshman of the Year honors after scoring 12.1 ppg and helped ISU make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1989. As a junior, he was second-team All-Big Eight Conference, averaging 20.2 points per game while ranking in the conference’s Top 10 in seven categories. As a senior and as a second-year captain, he led the Cyclones to a then-school record 23 wins and the NCAA Tournament’s second round. Hoiberg averaged 19.9 ppg on the way to All-America
® and first-team all-league honors and also was selected co-Big Eight Male Athlete of the Year.
A second-round NBA draft pick (52nd overall) by the Indiana Pacers in 1995, he joined the Pacers (where he played four seasons) to begin a decade long NBA career. He also played for the Chicago Bulls (four years) and Minnesota Timberwolves (two years).
Hoiberg then served as vice president for basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves before beginning his coaching career. He was named head coach of his alma mater in April 2010. Hoiberg became the fastest coach in Iowa State history to notch 100 wins (in 148 games). He went 115-56 in five years at Iowa State, leading ISU to four consecutive NCAA Tournament showings, including a NCAA Sweet 16 berth in 2014. He then left his alma mater on June 2, 2015 for the position as Chicago Bulls head coach.
The contributions that Hoiberg made to both his school and home city have been duly recognized. Such familiarity with Ames, has led Fred Hoiberg to be nicknamed “The Mayor” and he even has had people cast write-in votes for him in local elections.
His jersey #32 was retired by ISU in 1997 and hangs in the rafters at Hilton Coliseum. Hoiberg was inducted into the Iowa State Letterwinners’ Hall of Fame in 2005 and recognized as part of the men’s basketball program’s All-Century team in 2008. In 2012, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) inducted Hoiberg into its national Hall of Fame.
Jennifer Rizzotti: University of Connecticut '96; Basketball; 1995 and 1996 Academic All-America®; 1996 Academic All-America® Women's Basketball Player of the Year (university division)
“When I got the initial call, I might have thought someone was pulling my leg if I hadn’t immediately recognized Dick Enberg’s voice. As an avid sports fan, I grew up listening to him, so it was obviously an honor to have someone so respected in the sports world inform me I was getting inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame. I take great pride in the fact I played basketball for the University of Connecticut in the infancy of this tremendous run of national dominance. It’s often overlooked just how much our academic success was a foundation for the program as much as our success on the court. Most importantly, I credit my experiences as a college student-athlete for helping me to understand the qualities necessary to succeed in life.” - Jen Rizzotti
Jen Rizzotti has been center stage in the game of women's basketball for so long as a player, a NCAA national champion and scholar-athlete at the University of Connecticut, a professional player, and now as the head coach at the University of Hartford and as an assistant and head coach for USA Basketball program.
Rizzotti is one of the most recognizable figures in women’s college basketball, having won championships at the high school (New Fairfield, Conn.), collegiate (UConn) and professional (Houston Comets) levels as a player in addition to her tremendous success coaching the University of Hartford Hawks women's basketball team.
She was inducted to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 8, 2013, becoming the third member of the Connecticut Huskies family to be inducted joining fellow Academic All-America
® Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo and head coach Geno Auriemma.
During her illustrious college career, she was instrumental in helping Connecticut establish itself as the benchmark program in Division I
women's basketball, leading UConn as the starting point guard to its first (of 11) national championships in 1995 with an undefeated 35-0 record. Rizzotti played for UConn from 1992-1996, leading the Huskies to a 117-18 record.
Finishing her career at Connecticut with 1,540 points, 637 assists, and 349 steals, Rizzotti was a Kodak All-American and the NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player twice (1995, 1996) and also named an
Associated Press All-American and a USBWA All-American in 1996. Also as a senior, she claimed honors as Big East Player of the Year, the Big East Scholar Athlete of the Year, the
Associated Press Player of the Year, the Honda-Broderick Cup winner as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, and the Wade Trophy winner.
She graduated in 1996 with a degree in biology and earned Academic All-America
® honors as a junior and senior. As a senior, the first team Academic All-America
® pick also was chosen as the university division's GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year for women's basketball.
Rizzotti played eight seasons of professional basketball following her graduation from Connecticut in 1996. In addition to five seasons in the WNBA - two with the Houston Comets and three with the Cleveland Rockers - she competed for three seasons with the New England Blizzard in the American Basketball League. She won two WNBA titles with the Houston franchise.
At the time of her appointment as Hartford head coach in 1999, she was the youngest Division I women’s basketball coach in the country. In 16 seasons as the University of Hartford head women’s basketball coach, she has guided her teams to six NCAA tournament appearances and four WNIT tournaments. They have won either the America East regular season or tourney championship titles on nine occaisons. A total of 23 different players have been named to All-Conference teams and her program has been ranked among the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Academic Top 25 teams three times.
Heavily involved in the USA Women’s Basketball national program, Rizzotti was the head coach for the gold-medal winning teams at the 2011 U19 World Championships and the 2010 FIBA Americas U-18 Championship for Women, earning 2011 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year honors. She served as assistant coach for the 2014 FIBA World Championships and rejoined the USA Basketball Women's National Team's staff this past fall as a court coach in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games.