Hurricanes Receive Lambert Trophy
Feb. 27, 2001
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) –The University of Miami Hurricanes were officially awarded the 2000 Lambert/Meadowlands Trophy in honor of UM’s being named the top college football team in the East at an awards banquet held Tuesday at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. UM Athletics Director Paul Dee and Miami head football coach Larry Coker accepted the award on behalf of the University.
“It is truly an honor to accept this trophy on behalf of our student-athletes and our coaches, in addition to the entire athletic department at the University of Miami,” Dee said. “The Lambert Trophy has a long and outstanding history of recognizing excellence in Eastern college football and the University of Miami is honored to be added to the outstanding list of champions from the past.”
“Winning our first Lambert/Meadowlands Trophy is the icing on the cake, so to speak, for our football program for all it achieved during the 2000 season,” Coker said. “When you look at some of the truly outstanding teams who have won this award in the past, it really signifies what a special team the 2000 Miami Hurricanes were. It assures their place in history as one of college football’s finest teams.”
Miami was one of four football teams honored Tuesday night. The Hurricanes won the Division I-A award while the University of Delaware won the honor for Division I-AA, Bloomsburg University was named the Division II winner and Widener University was named the winner of Division III. This is the first time in Miami’s storied football history that the Hurricanes have received the Lambert/Meadowlands Trophy. The Hurricanes, who swept through the BIG EAST Conference schedule unbeaten, finished the 2000 season with an 11-1 record and ranked second in both national polls. Miami capped its season with an impressive 37-20 defeat of Florida in the Nokia Sugar Bowl.
The Lambert/Meadowlands Football Awards are among the oldest prizes in college athletics. Established in 1936 as the “Lambert Trophy”, the award has since grown to recognize supremacy in eastern football in Divisions I-A, I-AA, II, and III. One hundred and sixty (160) schools are eligible for the Lambert/Meadowlands Awards this year. First place votes are in parenthesis ( ). Total based on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 point scale. The following are the results for games played through January 3, 2001:
DIVISION I-A
| 1. | Miami (9) | (11-1) | 90 |
| 2. | Virginia Tech | (11-1) | 81 |
| t3 | Boston College | (7-5) | 63 |
| t3 | West Virginia | (7-5) | 63 |
| 5. | Pittsburgh | (7-5) | 57 |
| 6. | Syracuse | (6-5) | 48 |
| 7. | Penn State | (5-7) | 35 |
| 8. | Temple | (4-7) | 28 |
| 9. | Rutgers | (3-8) | 19 |
| 10. | Navy | (1-10) | 10 |
Others Receiving Votes: Army 2.
To qualify as an eligible Lambert/Meadowlands team, a school must be located in the East or play half its schedule against eligible Lambert/Meadowlands opponents.
The awards territory includes New York, New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania. Teams in adjacent states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) and the District of Columbia qualify if half their schedules are played against Lambert/Meadowlands contenders. With the creation of the Big East Conference, Miami and Virginia Tech were added as eligible teams in 1993.
One hundred sixty (160) schools are eligible for the Lambert/Meadowlands Awards this year: 13 in Division I-A, 44 in Division I-AA, 28 in Division II, and 75 in Division III.
The awards are voted on by four separate panels of media members, one for each division. During the season, a weekly poll is taken and the final poll presents the winner. Playoffs and bowl games are included in the polling. A dinner is held each February at Giants Stadium to honor the recipients.
The Lambert Trophy and Lambert Cup are rotating awards remaining in the winning schools’ possession for the subsequent year. Plaques for permanent possession are presented to the four division winners.
Since 1936, 13 different teams have had their names engraved on the Trophy for Division I-A teams, but none more than Penn State which has won 25 times. Delaware has won or shared the cup 12 times as a member of Division II and four times in Division I-AA, including an unprecedented seven in a row between 1968 and 1974. Since 1987, Indiana of Pennsylvania has won the Division II award seven times. Over the last seven years, Rowan University has dominated Division III winning the award five times.
The 1999 winners were Virginia Tech (I-A), Hofstra University (I-AA), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (II), and Rowan University (III).
