BETHLEHEM, PA – On October 20th, 2025, a more than fifty year old Eastern Football tradition was revived for FCS college football.
Historically, for Eastern college football of all levels and all divisions, the Lambert Awards held a special place for the players and coaches of football programs in the Eastern region.
Both the Lambert Cup and Lambert Trophy have a very rich and interesting history from the 1930s to today.
In the early 1930s, the two sons running their family jewelry business in 1933 chose to sponsor a college football trophy for the best team in the East, and the Lambert Trophy was born.
The two sons, named Victor A. Lambert and Henry L. Lambert, named it the Lambert Trophy after their late father, August V. Lambert, in his memory.
“Behind the award lies the story of a young man, an immigrant, who all his life regretted his inability to attend a college and play football,” The Times-Union reported on December 1st, 1936. “and who, when he had achieved prominence and means, became one of the city’s outstanding sports enthusiasts. It is in his memory that his two sons have donated the perpetual trophy for Eastern college football supremacy.”
August V. Lambert was indeed an immigrant from Germany, who came to America at 18 years old with $7 in his pocket and a German-made clock for capital. He talked his way into running a watch and clock repair stand in the corner of a book shop, and eventually made enough money to buy a brick and mortar store, along with his brothers, who joined him.
August was very athletic and indeed a big sports and athletic enthusiast, even in his later years, as evidenced by his involvement in the Early Risers Riding Club, a group of businessmen who rode mornings in Central Park. But his love of sports, and especially of college football as a fan, was the reason why the trophy for Eastern football supremacy was named the Lambert Trophy.
In 1957, the Lambert Cup was originally established by his sons Victor and Henry Lambert to recognize and celebrate the most outstanding “small college” football program in the Eastern United States. They determined that they wanted to give “smaller colleges” their own trophy of recognition, separate from the “major college” Lambert Trophy.
“For the past 21 years,” The Allentown Morning Call reported, “the top Eastern eleven has received the Lambert Trophy. During that span, a small college team has never been voted the best in the East, although numerous squads had the potential to upset the trophy – winners if given the opportunity. Therefore, to give the smaller school the recognition it justly deserves, Victor and Henry Lambert have placed in contention the Lambert Cup.”
The Lambert Trophy was awarded every year since 1933, and the Lambert Cup since 1957. In the late 2020s, the awards were nearly discontinued.
However, a dedicated media member named AJ Mayowski was able to revive the Lambert Trophy, organizing a voting committee, constitution and recovering the actual Lambert trophy.
We are excited to announce that a similar effort has been undertaken to revive the FCS Lambert Cup at the FCS level. The same award accepted by Tubby Raymond, Andy Talley, Curt Cignetti, Buddy Teevens and Tim Murphy is going to be awarded once again in 2025.