Touchdown Club of Richmond Honors Marty Favret with Ray Tate Award

By:  Mike O'Toole, Touchdown Club of RVA

(For more information, please contact Mike O'Toole, 804.908.3721, or e-mail: [email protected])

RICHMOND, Va. -- Retiring Hampden-Sydney head football coach, Marty Favret, is being honored by the Touchdown Club of Richmond as the 2023 recipient of the Ray Tate Memorial Award.  The "Tater" is presented, annually, to a person who exemplifies the commitment and dedication to the sport of football as exemplified by the late Ray Tate.

Favret announced at the start of this football season that the 2023 season, his 24th on the sidelines as the Hampen-Sydney College head coach, would be his last.  He departs as the all-time winningest head football coach with a career record at HSC of 150-89 including five wins this season.  Favret will be coaching his final regular season home game this Saturday at Farmville when the Tigers host Shenandoah, 1pm.

Hired following the completion of the 1999 football season, Favret inherited a one-win team and flipped it to a one loss team, 9-1, by 2003!  This was just the start of the winning ways he created at HSC as his teams won five ODAC titles and made six trips to the NCAA Division III playoffs.  For this coaching success, he was honored as the ODAC Coach of the Year five times (2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) and twice honored by the TD Club of Richmond with the Willard Bailey Coach of the Year Award (2009, 2013).

Prior to arriving at Hampden-Sydney, the Favret resume included Offensive Coordinator at Catholic University for six seasons as well as head junior varsity coach at Gonzaga College High School in the Nation's Capital.  Ironically, Favret is a graduate of both Catholic U (1984) and Gonzaga College HS (1980).

Coach Favret and the Ray Tate Memorial Award will be featured during the broadcast of the Dudley and Lanier Awards presentation, scheduled for Saturday, December 9.  This awards broadcast will air on WTVR-TV6, the local CBS affiliate in Richmond, hosted by Lane Casadonte.  The awards show will follow the national broadcast of the Army vs. Navy football game on CBS.  The game kicks-off at 3:00pm. 

The Touchdown Club of Richmond is a 501(c)(3), sports-social organization, based in Richmond, Virginia.  The club promotes the best interests of the American game of football and sports in general, under the guidance of elected officers, with the predominate purpose being to recognize worthy athletes for their accomplishments.   

The Ray Tate Memorial Award was established in 2013 to honor Tate who spent over 50 years associated with the sport of football, many of them at the collegiate level.  A graduate of Patrick Henry High School, he played college football at the University of Richmond, serving as the team co-captain his senior year, 1965, and earned All-Southern Conference honors as an offensive guard.  He then continued with the Spiders as a coach from 1966 to 1973 and then returned, as an analyst, on the radio broadcasts for 20 additional years, 1985 to 2004.  Sadly, he passed away on October 19, 2011, at 68 years of age.

Annually, at the end of every college football season, the Touchdown Club accepts nominations from its membership for a person to be considered for this prestigious award.  From these nominations, the Ray Tate Award committee formulates a ballot for the club's membership to then vote, selecting the annual recipient of the "Tater", one of the club's highest annual awards.  Past winners include:

2022 – John Shuman;  2021 – Jeff Hanson;  2019 – Joe Taylor;  2018 – Donny White;  2017 – Hank Norton;  2016 – Matt Kelchner;  2015 – Charlie Cloe;  2014 – Tommy Throckmorton;  2013 – Jim Cavanaugh