The Melberger Award was given annually to an outstanding U.S. college football player in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The award was named after Clifford Melberger, a captain of the 1960 Bucknell University football team, and is presented by Diversified Information Technologies, which Mr. Melberger leads as president.
College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a non-profit organization which regulates athletes of 1,268 North American institutions and conferences. It also organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and helps more than 480,000 college student-athletes who compete annually in college sports. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Bucknell Bison football team represents Bucknell University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level. Bucknell is a member of the Patriot League. Bucknell won the first Orange Bowl, 26–0, over the Miami Hurricanes on January 1, 1935.
The Melberger had been one of two awards given to Division III football players, the other being the better-known Gagliardi Trophy. The focus of the two awards has historically been slightly different. The Gagliardi factors in community service, academics, and athletics; the Melberger is, at least theoretically, presented to the best athlete. In recent years the Melberger has fallen into disfavor due to poor publicity and coordination by the firm which now sponsors the award. From the period 2002–2004, the award was given not to the nation's most outstanding Division III football players, but to the player in the local region who could attend (at their own cost) the awards ceremony in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. This resulted in the award being given to players who would often struggle to make an all-region team, let alone be named the best player in the country. Prior to 2002, the Melberger Award was funded and supported by the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Touchdown Club. The award was last given in 2011.
The Gagliardi Trophy was first presented in 1993 to the Outstanding Division III college football player of the year by the Jostens Company and the J-Club of Saint John's University in Minnesota. Since that time, the award has become one of the leading collegiate football awards in Division III football, honoring excellence in athletics, academics and community service. The award is named for John Gagliardi, head football coach of Carroll College 1949 to 1952 and Saint John's University in Minnesota from 1953 to 2012. The trophy was presented by the Salem Rotary Club each year in Salem, Virginia until 2018.
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. It is one of the principal cities in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley, it is second in size to the nearby city of Scranton. The Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census, making it the fourth-largest metro/statistical area in the state of Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding Wyoming Valley are framed by the Pocono Mountains to the east, the Endless Mountains to the west, and the Lehigh Valley to the south. The Susquehanna River flows through the center of the valley and defines the northwestern border of the city.
Wilkes University is a private, non-denominational American university located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with branch centers in Mesa, Arizona, and Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students. Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and became an independent institution in 1947, naming itself Wilkes College, after English radical politician John Wilkes after whom Wilkes-Barre is named. The school was granted university status in January 1990. A doctoral university classification was granted by Carnegie Classification Institutions of Higher Education in 2019 - one of only 14 private institutions in Pa. to have this distinction. Wilkes University is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
An ESPY Award is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus previous months. As the similarly styled Grammy, Emmy, Academy Award, and Tony, the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are a professional Minor League Baseball team based in Moosic, Pennsylvania, in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. The team plays in Northern Division of the International League (IL) and is the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. The team plays at PNC Field, their home since 1989.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are the American Hockey League affiliate of the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. They play at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township, just outside the city of Wilkes-Barre. They were the 2011 winners of the East Division and the Eastern Conference, winning their first Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy.
John Gagliardi was an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, from 1953 until 2012. From 1949 to 1952, he was the head football coach at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. With a career record of 489–138–11, Gagliardi has the most wins of any coach in college football history. His Saint John's Johnnies teams won four national titles: the NAIA Football National Championship in 1963 and 1965, and the NCAA Division III Football Championship in 1976 and 2003. Gagliardi was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
James Ballard is a former American football quarterback.
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are a professional Minor League Baseball team that plays in the International League. The IronPigs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The team plays their home games at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Coca-Cola Park, which opened for the start of the IronPigs' first season in 2008, seats up to 8,100, with a capacity of 10,000, and cost $50.25 million to complete. In 2016, Forbes listed the IronPigs as the fourth-most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $43 million.
The Anthracite League, also referred to as the Anthracite Association, was a 1924 football league comprising teams based in eastern Pennsylvania. These teams were based in coal mining towns, hence the league name's reference to anthracite coal. The league lasted for just one season, before folding. The teams in the league were the Coaldale Big Green, Wilkes-Barre Barons, Shenandoah Yellow Jackets, the Gilberton Cadamounts, and the Pottsville Maroons.
Brett Elliott is an American football coach and former player. He is the quarterbacks coach at Texas State University
Ben McLaughlin is a former quarterback and Hall of Fame inductee for the Louisiana College Wildcats football team, the Louisiana Swashbucklers of the Southern Indoor Football League, and the 2011 Gold Medal winning United States national American football team.
The 1994 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 1994, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 1994 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Albion Britons won their first Division III championship by defeating the Washington & Jefferson Presidents, 38−15. The Gagliardi Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in Division III football, was awarded to Carey Bender, running back from Coe.
The 1995 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 1995, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 1995 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Wisconsin–La Crosse Eagles won their second Division III championship by defeating the Rowan Profs, 36−7. The Gagliardi Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in Division III football, was awarded to Chris Palmer, wide receiver from St. John's (MN).
The 1996 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 1996, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 1996 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Mount Union Purple Raiders won their second Division III championship by defeating the Rowan Profs, 56−24. The Gagliardi Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in Division III football, was awarded to Lon Erickson, quarterback from Illinois Wesleyan.
The 1997 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 1997, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 1997 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Mount Union Purple Raiders won their third, and second consecutive, Division III championship by defeating the Lycoming Warriors, 61−12.
The 1998 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 1998, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 1998 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Mount Union Purple Raiders won their fourth, and third consecutive, Division III championship by defeating the Rowan Profs, 44−24.
The 1999 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 1999, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 1999 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Pacific Lutheran Lutes won their first Division III championship by defeating the Rowan Profs, 42−13.
The 2002 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 2002, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 2002 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Mount Union Purple Raiders won their seventh, and third consecutive, Division III championship by defeating the Trinity (TX) Tigers, 48−7.
The 2005 NCAA Division III football season, part of the college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States, began in August 2005, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 2005 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. The Mount Union Purple Raiders won their eighth Division III championship by defeating the Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks, 35−28. This was the first of eight subsequent championship games between Mount Union and Wisconsin–Whitewater ; only the 2012 Stagg Bowl featured a different team.