Ken Antee and Rick Holland, who have greatly impacted football at all levels locally and in north Louisiana, are among those being spotlighted tonight at the 45th Annual National Football Foundation, S.M. McNaughton Chapter Awards Dinner in Shreveport.

 

Nine high school senior scholar-athletes and two outstanding prep football coaches are also receiving individual honors from the McNaughton Chapter. The players will each receive $1,000 college scholarships.

 

Coaches David Franklin of Haynesville and Scott Surratt from Carthage (Texas) will receive the chapter’s Coach of the Year accolades after leading their undefeated teams to the latest in a series of state championships.

 

The scholar-athlete winners exceeded standards for the annual scholarship grants including a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or better, earning at least all-district honors on the football field, and extracurricular involvement. Six of the nine were all-state picks and another carried a perfect 4.0 GPA.

 

The scholarship recipients include four standouts from Caddo and Bossier parishes: Jeremiah Epps of Airline, Loyola’s Hayden Horton, Luke Miller of Calvary Baptist, and Northwood’s Justin Thomas.

 

The other NFF scholarship winners are Ty Curtis of Buckeye, Luke Delafield of North DeSoto, West Monroe’s Hunter Fox, Micah Moser of Ouachita Christian School and North Webster’s Hudson Smith.

 

Culminating tonight’s festivities, one will be named the McNaughton Chapter’s National Scholar-Athlete of the Year nominee. He will be featured in the NFF’s College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta this year, and will be a candidate for a national scholarship grant.

 

Epps will be presented the KTBS Channel 3 Griffin’s Scholar-Athlete Award honoring the memory and legacy of the late Bob Griffin, a former NFF Board member who was the iconic sportscaster at KSLA and then KTBS for over 50 years. The scholarship is presented by KTBS and Southern Classic Chicken.

 

Griffin, a 2009 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee as a sports journalist, covered Ark-La-Tex high school football in an incredible six decades before he passed away early in 2020.

 

Antee and Holland collaborated to twice bring the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints to compete in preseason (1998, 2006) at Independence Stadium and are past chairs and executive committee members of the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.

 

Antee will receive the chapter’s Contribution to Amateur Football award. A Buckeye native and ULM graduate who earned a law degree from Mississippi College, he has practiced law locally for 38 years and now works in the financial sector. He spent eight years as the City of Shreveport’s Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor Keith Hightower, leading extensive 2001 renovations to Independence Stadium.

 

Antee was a football official for the Shreveport High School association for 30 years and in 2000 was selected to officiate in Division 1 college football for Conference USA, working 225 college games including 15 bowl games and the six CUSA championship games as a line judge and head referee.

 

Past recipients include great coaches and players such as Eddie Robinson, John David Crow, Bert Jones, Dub Jones, Joe Ferguson, Doug Williams, Lee Hedges, Don Shows, Red Franklin, Rodney Guin and others including C.O. Brocato, Jerry Byrd Sr., Tommy Henry, Tim Fletcher and Griffin.

 

Holland is the recipient of the McNaughton Chapter’s Distinguished American Award. A Byrd High School and Louisiana Tech alumnus, he has served an array of roles in local and area civic organizations, recently providing significant leadership to the creation of a local Ronald McDonald’s House. He has been on executive boards for both the Shreveport and Bossier Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Rotary Club, and the local banker spent 18 years on the City of Shreveport Zoning Commission.

 

Along with his long association with the Independence Bowl, Hollard previously served on the McNaughton Chapter board and received the 2002 Executive Award from the All-American Football Foundation.

 

Among the 44 previous Distinguished American Award winners are Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, Bo Campbell, Orvis Sigler, Carl Mikovich, Mike McCarthy, Dr. Billy Bundrick, Tim Brando, John McConathy, Dr. George Bakowski, John Manno Jr., Ivan Smith Jr., Leonard Barnes, Denny Duron and Milton McNaughton.

 

The McNaughton Chapter has awarded scholarships to senior scholar-athletes since 1981. Coach of the Year awards have been presented occasionally in the past two decades.

 

McNaughton Chapter president Toni Goodin said they will be recognized at the 45th Annual NFF Scholar-Athlete Banquet at East Ridge Country Club in Shreveport. Doors open at 6 with dinner served about a half-hour later.