Written By CFRA Member Dustin Hollinger

“Dartmouth, football champion of the east, is also champion of the world”.  — Damon Runyon, journalist after The Big Green undefeated 1925 season.

Division 1 football is the only one that does not have a NCAA-Operated Tournament. Furthermore, Division 1 football is the only one that “exiles” half of their members. This first became noticeable in 1978 when major programs pushed The NCAA to split Division1 into Division 1-A for major programs and Division1-AA for “mid and low” majors. It didn’t stop there, during the BCS era  D1-A was  bifurcated into “BCS and non-BCS” Conferences. Then came the CFP and the rebranding of the haves and have nots into “Power 5” and “Group 5”. Soon as The Pacific-12 liquidated ten of them ended up in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.  Out of this was the birth of far flung  “Super Conferences”. These four conferences not only became more sizable (16-18 members) but they stretched coast to coast. Atlantic Coast Conference territory is now in Texas and California. Big Ten originally exclusively Midwest \Rust Belt , now stretches from New Jersey to the West Coast. As for the South East Conference they’re now in Texas and Missouri.

Last season these revised conferences brought first  bi- coastal first time match ups. It also brought the concern of regional based leagues that would end up in forgotten archives of history, like pagers, dial up internet, MTV playing music videos (not Boy Meets World reruns), drive up photo processing huts or malt shops.

Reboots done right are often exciting. For example, Hawaii 5-0 tv show (1968-1980) and (2010-2020) has proven that.  Out of the swift changes that have many feeling its at the point of no return, comes The Lambert Trophy back for a reboot. Maybe some may have a faint remembrance , like a anachronistic relic,  but most probably have no idea what this is. The Lambert Trophy (1936-2021) was awarded to the Eastern Champion. Thanks to The Lambert Trophy Association (made of national media,bowl executive,bloggers,local sports writers and former players)is  back for a reboot! The reason for this award was to recognize “eastern college football excellence.” This award was created by Victor and Henry Lambert to honor their father August Lambert’s memory. At the time there wasn’t a major eastern conference and good east teams declined bowl invites due to the cross country travel and segregation that required to leave teammates behind. Colgate, Dartmouth and Yale declined the 1925 Rose Bowl invite over “academics and competition  inequality”. In addition to that Dartmouth felt the trip to a California was too far.

 Dartmouth declined The Rose Bowl again in 1937. Dartmouth President Ernest Hopkins said “It’s a efficiently runned publicity stunt By Southern California ,its the postseason factor that precludes us”.

This lead Yale & Dartmouth and Colgate helping to from the Ivy and Patriot Leagues and their once long-standing postseason ban. Then there was Buffalo who choose to decline The 1958 Tangerine(Citrus) Bowl over the city of Orlando segregation law. Accepting the bid  meant two players would’ve been left out. Afterwards, The Bulls received publicity of the Tangerine Bowl issue by appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 14 to receive The Lambert Cup- given to the top small school eastern team.**In 2009 City of Orlando invited a weeklong trip to Orlando for the 34 living members of the 1958 Buffalo Bulls to celebrate their successfull year (8-1) and to make an atonement.**  As all other regions formed leagues, PCC(Pac-12) for western, Big 10(Mid West) , Big 8/12 (Hartland), SWC(southwest) SEC(deep/mid south) and ACC(Lower Atlantic). For some reason the North East wasn’t interested in forming one. They preferred being independents that regularly played each other. That created a need for this prestigious trophy symbolizing an Eastern Championship.

Up until 2016 the Lambert Trophy had a weekly ranking poll, just like the AP,Coaches and College Football Researchers Association.

For example, this is this 1965 Lambert Poll result:#1 Dartmouth 9-0 (11first place vote) #2 Princeton 8-1 (1 first place vote) #3 Colgate(6-3-1), #4 Boston College (6-4), #5 Army(4-5-1), #6 Pennsylvania St(5-5), #7- Navy(4-4-2) #8- Syracuse(7-3), #9- Harvard(5-2-2). The original Lambert voters were made of Lambert Committee, sports writers and sportscasters mainly in major cosmopolitan north east cities.

 The 1945 Ivy Group Agreement was a pact between Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale was to be an agreement to place academics over athletes and play each other at lest once every five years. That shows the East’s desire for semi- autonomous .Like cohabiting compared to marriage. The official Ivy League didn’t start until 1956. This singular trophy changes hands between recipients. Staring in 1950 a Lambert Eastern Champion plaque was given to each winner as a permanent gift.

What makes this champion trophy unique is it’s restoring regional based college football, something that’s been on recent decline.

Another good reason to follow the Lambert Champion Trophy race is the teams are evenly disbursed though out “super conferences” and “Group 5”.

 Current Lambert- eligible teams are AAC members: Navy, Army and Temple. ACC: Boston, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, Big Ten members: Pennsylvania St and Rutgers, Big 12 members: West Virginia, CUSA member: Delaware, MAC members: Buffalo and UMass, and Independent: UConn.

This trophy returns the significance to historical regional rivals and the teams are on even ground no matter their conference hierarchy . For the next two years Delaware as a transition team is not eligible for conference championship or Bowl game. Yet,  there still eligible for The Lambert Eastern Championship Trophy!

Highlighting the historical significance of regional football,  Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler said in 1989 “Our goal have always been to win the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl. If we can do that, then we consider it a successful season.” Up until the 70’s due to the locations, segregation, scarcity of Bowl games for eastern teams were never guaranteed. That made winning  the Lambert  everything to them. Its believed Dartmouth the 1970 winner made a replica trophy for themselves and each of the team. When Dartmouth (9-0) won the 1970 trophy. Pennsylvania State Coach Joe Pa to suggested a match up with his Nittany Lion (7-3) vs. The Big Green (9-0) for the trophy.

Dartmouth Coach Bob Blackburn sensing Joe Pa, a Ivy League alumni knowing the Ivy League’s ban on the postseason responded: “Its like challenging a man to fight with his hands tied behind his back. If I could, I’d prefer to play a team with a better record.” The 90’s brought more Bowl games, segregation was a generation behind us and seven north eastern teams joining the  the Big East Conference, leaving the Service Academies as independents. As a result, the Lambert became less of a priority and of a nice extra prize.

Why should anyone care about this out dated award? For one New England is the birthplace of football. Further more, in the current climate has caused the universities and players to exchange the heritage, pageantry and its charm for money and self-serving alliances. Except  for UConn, all the other Lambert Members have joined six conferences. So they’ve continued their semi-autonomy especially with key out of conference games like the West Virginia- Pittsburgh “Backyard Brawl” rivalry, The West Virginia-Syracuse “Ben Schwarzwalder Trophy” Game, The “Keystone Classic” between Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania St, UMass-UConn “Southwick Jug” Trophy Game. Not to mention Army – Navy (or if you prefer Navy Army) “America’s Game for The Commander In Chief Trophy. Now that The Lambert” Eastern Championship” Trophy has been restored, its refreshing to see college football’s pageantry, heritage and isn’t entirely gone.