Special thanks to
Heidi Kravchuk, Assistant Commissioner for Communications ECAC for the following History of the Lambert Trophy.
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The Lambert Trophy was established by brothers Victor and Henry Lambert in memory of their father, August. The Lambert’s were the principals in a distinguished Madison Avenue jewelry house and were prominent college football boosters.
The University of Pittsburgh, under the direction of coach Jock Sutherland, was the first recipient of the trophy. After World War II, college football proliferated but with increasing disparity in goals and policies. In response, the Lambert Cup was created in 1957 to recognize non-Division I-A programs. The Division III award was added in 1966. The NCAA’s reclassification of a number of Eastern teams into Division I-AA allowed for the creation of the Division II award. In 1983, the Lambert family decided the Meadowlands Sports Complex would be the best organization with a sincere and involved interest in college athletics to sponsor and manage the award. Since that time, the awards have been known as the Lambert Meadowlands Award.
To be eligible for the Lambert Award, a school must be located in the East or play half of its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The territory includes New York, New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania while teams in the bordering states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia qualify if half of their schedule features eligible teams. With the creation of the Big East Conference, Miami and Virginia Tech were added as eligible teams, although in 2004, these teams were not eligible as they changed their conference allegiance to the Atlantic Coast Conference. There were 156 schools eligible in the four divisions including 11 in Division I-A, 44 in Division I-AA, 27 in Division II and 74 in Division III. Four separate panels of media, one in each division, participate in a weekly poll and final poll to determine the winners. Playoffs and bowl games are included in the polling. The Lambert Trophy and Lambert Cup are rotating awards that remain in the winning school’s possession for the subsequent year. "
