Football Wins Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy
Jan 05 | Football
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (Jan. 5, 2015) - In a season filled with several significant firsts for Rutgers football, add one more: The program was named today as the winner of the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, emblematic of the top team in the East in the Bowl Subdivision, for the first time in the 79-year history of the award.
"To bring the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy home to the state of New Jersey is very exciting for the program," said Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood. "It is an honor to be named the top team in the East."
The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) made the historic announcement today less than two weeks after the Scarlet Knights put the finishing touches on an 8-5 inaugural Big Ten season with a 40-21 victory over North Carolina in the Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit.
Rutgers, which made its ninth bowl appearance in the past 10 years this season, earned its first-ever Big Ten victory by beating Michigan at home and sold out three of its four Big Ten home games in posting the highest average home attendance (50,632 for its six home games) in school history.
That included a stadium-record crowd of 53,774 for the school's first Big Ten game against Penn State.
The Scarlet Knights' regular season was punctuated by the biggest comeback in program history, when Rutgers rallied from a 35-10 deficit for a 41-38 road victory over Maryland.
Established in 1936 as the Lambert Trophy to recognize supremacy in Eastern college football, the award has since grown to recognize the best team in the East in the Bowl Subdivision. 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.
It marks the third Lambert Award for Flood, as he was on the coaching staff at both Hofstra and Delaware in 1999 and 2003, respectively, when the programs captured Football Championship Subdivision honors.
To be eligible for the Lambert Meadowlands Award, a school must be located in the East or play at least 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 at least half of their schedule features eligible teams or are Eastern College Athletic Conference member institutions. Teams in Eastern-based football conferences, regardless of location, qualify if at least half their schedule is against Lambert eligible teams.
The Rutgers football team will be honored, along with the other division winners, on February 19, at the Eastern College Football Awards Banquet, hosted by the ECAC at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. The Eastern College Football Awards Banquet will feature the ECAC Football Awards and the Lambert Meadowlands Awards.
