Congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks
and the South Carolina Gamecocks

The NYAC Winged Foot Award offers congratulations to Coaches Bill Self and Dawn Staley for guiding their teams to victory in the 2022 NCAA men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournaments.

The women’s tournament was expanded to 68 teams in 2022, with the championship game taking place on April 3rd in the Target Center in Minneapolis. The clash was intense from the outset, but at the final buzzer South Carolina had effected an outstanding victory over the UConn Huskies by a score of 64 to 49. It was only the second time in South Carolina’s history that the team had taken this title, the first having come in 2017. Coach Staley’s record is stellar, having claimed four Olympic medals (three as a player, one as a coach), two Naismith Awards (one as a player and one as a coach), inductions into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and designation as one of the top 15 players in WNBA history.

In the men’s tournament, the competition was similarly hard fought, but with Coach Self’s team prevailing over the North Carolina Tarheels, 72-69, in a thrilling April 4th match-up at the Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans. This was Coach Self’s second victory in this tournament, the first having come in 2008. During his 19 seasons at Kansas, Coach Self has led his teams to a record 14 consecutive Big 12 championships, to four Final Four appearances and, with this win, to two NCAA Division I titles. In addition to sharing two national titles with Coach Staley, Coach Self shares a place in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

In earning the 2022 Division I titles and the NYAC Winged Foot Award, Coaches Self and Staley personify all for which the Award stands: dedication, passion, commitment and the unfailing belief that those attributes developed on the field of play will serve young athletes well throughout their lives.

About the Winged Foot Award

Established in 1996 by the celebrated New York Athletic Club, in the years since the Winged Foot Award has become synonymous with the spirit of collegiate basketball. Having been presented to some of the most accomplished coaches in NCAA history, the Award recognizes and acknowledges those men and women who guide, motivate and enable scholar athletes to reach the peak of their endeavors, both on and off the field of play.

With the incomparable Billy Packer as perennial host, the annual presentation of the Award takes place in the NYAC’s elegant City House overlooking Central Park South in mid-town Manhattan. Within those confines, a glittering array of coaching and athletic talent gathers each year once the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournaments are concluded. To say that the event is celebratory hardly does it justice. As coaches such as Kim Mulkey, Geno Auriemma, Mike Krzyzewski, Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim and Carolyn Peck, to name just a few, will certainly attest, it is an evening that lives in memory.

While the spotlight of the Winged Foot Award shines brightly on the winning coaches, significantly the award also serves an altruistic purpose, with a donation being made in the name of each winning school to the Jimmy V Foundation. In that, the Award seeks not only to celebrate an invariably rousing tournament but also to lend support where it is decidedly needed. It need hardly be said that lending support is the very essence of good coaching.

Each year, the NCAA Division I basketball tournament captures the imagination of sports fans across the USA. It is now a tradition that, having captured the titles, cut down the nets and been doused with champagne, the tournament is not truly over until the Winged Foot Award has been presented to the coaches who have guided their athletes to the pinnacle of their dreams.

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