The national chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. hosted the first annual Emmitt Smith Scholarship Gala recently at the Renaissance Hotel in Dallas.

Smith is a lifetime member of the Phi Beta Sigma, a historically black fraternity founded in 1914. The fraternity strives toward its founders’ ideals of brotherhood, scholarship, and service to the community. From its inception, the original Founders, A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, conceived Phi Beta Sigma as a mechanism to deliver services to the general community. Rather than gaining skills to be utilized exclusively for themselves or their families, the founders held a deep conviction they should return their newly acquired skills to the communities from which they had come. This is a principle Smith has exhibited throughout his life. This deep conviction is mirrored in the Fraternity's motto, "Culture For Service and Service For Humanity".

The first annual gala kicked off the endowed scholarship in Smith’s name, designed to benefit college athletes, who are members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. The first ever Emmitt Smith Scholarship will be awarded at the 2009 International Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana.   more »