PHILADELPHIA – The Ivy League Football Association (IFA) announced its honorees for the organization's annual dinner on January 30, 2025. As tradition, each Ancient Eight school is represented, and the University of Pennsylvania football team's honoree is Kevin Stefanski C'04.
 
"I'm very humbled by this honor," said Stefanski. "It's a great reminder of the time I had at Penn. I was so blessed to be on some amazing teams there. I think back to all the teams I was a part of, surrounded by incredible teammates and coaches with a tremendous amount of success.
 
"Now being a part of the football industry, I constantly take myself back to my playing days as a Quaker. It's just a reminder of why I love this game and that it's the greatest team sport there is. I was on some great, great teams with some unbelievable battles in the Ivy League."  
 
Most notably, Stefanski has been named AP NFL Coach of the Year twice since his tenure with the Cleveland Browns began in 2020. Prior to that, he spent 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings as an assistant coach in various roles. Stefanski started his coaching career as the assistant director of football operations at Penn in 2005 under his head coach Al Bagnoli.
 
A defensive back for the Quakers from 2000 to 2004, Stefanski was a team captain in his final season, earning honorable mention All-Ivy honors twice in 2002 and 2004. During the five seasons that he was a player at Penn, the program won three Ivy titles—going 32-3 in conference play—and went 42-7 overall, which includes the 2003 season where the Quakers went undefeated (10-0).
 
Stefanski was the recipient of the program's Defensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2000, and in 2004 he was the recipient of the program's George A. Weiss Award, presented annually to the player whose spirit and play personifies the "Penn kind of football." He graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in communications.
 
"I'm so excited that Kevin is the IFA's honoree for Penn this year," said George A. Munger Head Coach Ray Priore. "As the award goes to, Kevin was a terrific player for us, but has gone on to do excellent things in his chosen career path. Kevin was an unbelievable football player and team leader here, so it's easy to see why he's had so much success as an NFL head coach.
 
"To accomplish what Kevin has accomplished in such a short period of time, many people don't get a chance to be Coach of the Year once, but to get that honor twice is incredibly impressive. I'm very happy for Kevin and his family and hopefully he [and the Browns] can go out there and win the Super Bowl this season."
 
Other honorees for this winter's dinner include Mark Donovan '88 (Brown), Nick Leone '88 (Columbia), Jimmy Pitaro '91 (Cornell), Buddy Teevens '79 (Dartmouth), Brian Hehir '75 (Harvard), Frank Vuono '78 (Princeton), and Richard Jauron '73 (Yale).
 
The IFA Dinner is a black-tie event and will take place on Broadway at the New York Marriott Marquis on Thursday, January 30, 2025. Tickets and table registrations are on sale HERE. For more information, contact ivyfootball@cmevents.net.
 
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