On December 5, 1961, at the National Football Foundation's reception in the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, with President John F. Kennedy attending, Coach Bryant and Pat Trammell together proudly accepted the MacArthur Trophy in recognition of Alabama's perfect season and National Championship. The black tie event was hosted by Bob Hope and was also attended by General Douglas MacArthur, Vince Lombardi, head coach of the Green Bay Packers (under whom, ironically, at the time was NFL quarterback great and Alabama alumnus Bart Starr who subsequently led the Packers to five NFL titles), Sidney L. James, the founding editor and publisher of "Sports Illustrated" and dozens of other College Football Hall of Fame Inductees. (Of interest, a similar semi-fictional scene was digitally remastered in Winston Groom's film, "Forrest Gump", in 1994, with President John F. Kennedy digitally morphed into the set with Tom Hanks, who played Forrest Gump, a celebrated fictional Alabama football player, who had accepted a handshake from the President and was asked "how does it feel to be an All-American?". Winston Groom had been a freshman at the University of Alabama in 1961 during this era.)