1World honors NU football coach

Northwestern head football coach Pat Fitzgerald has been named the inaugural 1WORLD Sports Coach of the Year, the organization announced at its first-annual Fitness Festival and banquet on Sunday.

Founded by Ted Devine, 1WORLD mission is to educate, motivate and inspire underprivileged youth through sports to become better athletes but more important to become better people.

“Coaches are the lynchpin for our foundation,” Devine said. “We run our programs through a group of coaches who have been trained to develop and communicate the life lessons we hold so important. We wanted to create an award for a Coach of the Year who best represents what 1WORLD Sports is all about, and after talking to a lot of people and doing our own research, Coach Fitzgerald kept rising to the top.”

In honoring Fitzgerald, 1WORLD Sports cited his status as a “responsible athlete” in the following criteria: Academics, community service, and teamwork with other organizations.

Northwestern football recently earned its sixth AFCA Academic Achievement Award for having the highest graduation rate in the nation (100 percent).

The team regularly performs nearly 100 hours of community service each month on average, such as St. Baldrick’s efforts to eliminate Pediatric Cancer, and support for Misericordia, Special Olympics, hunger campaigns and Children’s Memorial Hospital.