Dat Nguyen Selected as Featured Speaker for Gridiron Club of Dallas Chapter’s Inaugural Charity Golf Tournament
(Pictured Above): Dat Nguyen (Texas A&M) being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame at the 60th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown on December 5, 2017.
2017 College Football Hall of Fame Member to speak in support of fundraising efforts to benefit aspiring scholar-athletes in the Dallas-Fort Worth community
DALLAS, Texas (Feb. 17, 2023) – The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Gridiron Club of Dallas Chapter, has selected former Texas A&M linebacker and seven-year National Football League veteran Dat Nguyen as featured speaker for its inaugural charity golf tournament. The tournament will be held on Monday, April 24, at the Gleneagles Country Club in Plano, Texas.
Nguyen’s time at Texas A&M exemplifies why he is a fitting choice to be this year’s featured speaker, achieving athletic success while prioritizing his education. The winner of both the Bednarik and Lombardi awards in 1998, Nguyen started all 51 games of his illustrious career as a member of “The Wrecking Crew” and still holds Texas A&M records with 517 career tackles and 30 double-digit tackle games. The 1998 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year led the Aggies to three bowl berths, including a win in the 1995 Alamo Bowl. Nguyen earned Defensive MVP honors in the 1998 Cotton Bowl despite losing to UCLA after he recorded a Cotton Bowl-record 15 solo tackles. A three-time First Team All-Big 12 selection, he topped the conference with 149 tackles as a senior and led the Aggies with an interception and 17 tackles to upset No. 1 Kansas State to claim the 1998 Big 12 title.
Dat Nguyen is the featured speaker at Gridiron Club of Dallas charity golf tournament
Held at the Gleneagles Country Club in Plano, Texas
Click here to register to play, donate, volunteer or for sponsorship opportunities
The New York Times once described him as a “tornado in cleats, a player who would wipe out blockers twice his size and sniff out a play before it developed.” A member of the Big 12 10th Anniversary Team, Nguyen is enshrined in the Texas A&M, Cotton Bowl, State of Texas Sports and Texas High School Football halls of fame. Nguyen was selected to the 2017 College Football Hall of Fame Class alongside other notables such as Marshall Faulk, Peyton Manning, Adrian Peterson, and Brian Urlacher.
“As we launch our inaugural Gridiron Club of Dallas Charity Golf Tournament, I couldn’t think of a better person than Dat Nguyen to speak at our event,” said NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas Chapter president Gerald Brence, a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor and current assistant football coach at McKinney Christian Academy. “He embodies the mission of the National Football Foundation through his competitive spirit, pursuit of academic excellence, and his focus as a servant leader in the community.”
Drafted in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys, Nguyen spent his entire seven-year pro career with the franchise. He led the Cowboys in tackles in three seasons and was named Second Team All-Pro in 2003. Nguyen holds the distinction of being the first Vietnamese American to be drafted, play, and be recognized as an All-Pro in the NFL.
After retiring from the NFL, Nguyen served as an assistant coach for the Cowboys and Texas A&M. In 2016, Nguyen became an owner/operator of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Montgomery Plaza in Fort Worth, Texas.
About NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas
Founded in 2008, the NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas (www.nffdallas.org) is one of 120 nationwide chapters of the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame (www.footballfoundation.org). The NFF is a non-profit educational organization that runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. NFF programs include Future For Football, the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, The William V. Campbell Trophy®, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class presented by Fidelity Investments and a series of initiatives to honor the legends of the past and inspire the leaders of the future.
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Media Contact
Gary Peek
gpeek@nffdallas.org