Three Former WSU Football Standouts Attend NFF Campbell Trophy Summit - Wayne State University Athletics (2024)

Nick Thomas (left), Drake Reid (center) and Trent Brodbeck at the 2024 Campbell Trophy Summit.

Football 7/31/2024 1:29:00 PM Jeff Weiss, Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Media Relations

DETROIT -- Three former Wayne State football standouts -- Nick Thomas (2008-2012), Tren Brodbeck(2012-2016), and Drake Reid (2019-2023)-- attended last week's National Football Foundation Campbell Trophy Summit in Palo Alto, California.NFF Release (July 22, 2024):
The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame today announced the names of the attendees and speakers at the Seventh Annual Campbell Trophy® Summit July 25-27 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The event is proudly sponsored by Intuit, the global financial technology platform that makesIntuit TurboTax,Credit Karma,QuickBooks, andMailchimp.

"The Campbell Trophy® Summit has become a powerful platform for the NFF to showcase the impact of college football in forging great leaders," said NFF ChairmanArchie Manning. " We are very grateful to Intuit, for their support since the Summit's inception in 2017, and to Mark Flynn, for making this incredible event happen each year."

Headline speakers at the 2024 event includeSam Acho(ESPN Analyst, NFL player and 2010 Campbell Trophy® recipient from Texas);Nikesh Arora(Palo Alto Networks CEO),Greg Johnson(Intuit executive vice president and former Air Force two-time all-conference halfback);Joe Moglia(former TD Ameritrade chairman & CEO and Coastal Carolina head coach);Brad D. Smith (Marshall University president and former Intuit Chairman & CEO); andJeremy Utley(Stanford University Graduate School of Business professor, venture investor and author).

Organized as a tribute to the lateBill Campbell, the award's namesake and the former CEO and Chairman of Intuit, the event serves as a vehicle for the many leaders impacted by Campbell to pass on his insights about success, leadership and personal growth. The 2024 event will again provide all past Campbell Trophy®nominees a unique chance to interact and learn from many of the nation's top entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley CEOs.

"Bill was absolutely passionate about football, and he believed deeply in what one learned from playing the game," said NFF President & CEOSteve Hatchell. "He never, never took his foot off the accelerator in talking about the benefits of the game. So, we are really thankful for Intuit's leadership and support of the Summit as a crucible for perpetuating Bill's legacy of mentoring."

Campbell, who played and coached football at Columbia before a switch to the business world, became one of the most influential individuals in Silicon Valley as the leader of Intuit and as a board member of Apple and Google. He developed a unique reputation, earning the moniker as the "Coach of Silicon Valley" for using the lessons of the gridiron as he mentoredSteve Jobsof Apple,Sergey Brin,Larry Page, Sundar PichaiandEric Schmidtof Google,Jeff Bezosof Amazon,Sheryl Sandbergof Facebook, John Doerrof Kleiner-Perkins,Dick Costoloof Twitter,Diane Greeneof VMWare,Scott CookandBrad D. Smithof Intuit, and countless others. His contributions have been captured in the book "The Trillion Dollar Coach."

MWF Advisors CEOMark Flynn, a former linebacker at Saint John's (MN) who was a volunteer coach for an eighth-grade boys-and-girls' flag-football team with Campbell, has played the lead role in organizing the event since its inception in 2017.

"Bill inspired a number of us, and all he ever asked was that we passed on, from one generation to the next, his values," said Flynn. "He had us commit to mentoring this next generation. We decided to gather really bright, talented people who have been part of this Campbell Trophy®, saying let's gather for three or four days to develop tomorrow's leaders. It was unbelievable how people would make time and change their schedule to be part of Bill's legacy… We are here to create a living legacy to Bill Campbell, and all these scholar-athletes who are in the Campbell Trophy® fraternity for life."

The Summit is open to all former nominees for the Campbell Trophy®, which has been presented since 1990, and the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards, which have been bestowed since 1959. The approach of inviting all the past nominees has created a unique community of recent college graduates as well as professionals in the middle of their careers and retirees who can serve as mentors.

This year's 176 attendees will represent 133 colleges and universities from all divisions, and their current careers range from doctors, engineers, lawyers, physicists and business and civic leaders. They carried an average GPA in college of 3.68 and 59 percent have subsequently earned advanced degrees. They currently hail from 40 different states and Dubai, and more than half played Division I football while another 28 percent played professionally. More than 59 percent have attended a previous Summit, and their ages run from the early 20s to 69 at an average age of 35.

A three-day event, the 2024 Summit includes leadership workshops, team building activities, and several other social networking activities designed to build relationships, including a flag football game and a trivia challenge. The panels will cover a wide range of topics designed to foster leadership, personal growth and the career development of the attendees, including a workshop withShawn Vanderhoven, who is a collaborator on the second edition ofThe New York Timesbestseller "Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter."

Three Campbell Trophy®winners:Sam Acho(Texas),Thomas Burns(Virginia),Jim Hansen(Colorado) are attending, and one College Football Hall of Fame inductee is slated to attend:Johnnie Johnson(Texas).