Gridiron Club to Honor 2006 New England College Football Award Recipients at Annual Dinner on January 11 in Burlington.

BOSTON -- University of New Hampshire wide receiver David Ball and Boston College defensive back DeJuan Tribble, recipients of the 68th annual George "Bulger" Lowe Award for offense and defense respectively, head an all-star roster of players, coaches and officials to be honored by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston at its annual Bob Whelan College Football Awards Night on Thursday, January 11, 2007 at the Marriott Hotel in Burlington, MA.

The Bulger Lowe Award, "New England's Heisman Trophy" and America's oldest college football honor except for the Heisman, recognizes the six-state region's best Division I-A/IAA players. The Joe Zabilski Award, which recognizes the top collegiate players in Divisions II and III, will go to quarterback Chris Sharpe of Springfield College and linebacker Sean Crowley of Curry College.

The club's John Baronian Award for Lifetime Contribution to Football will be given to Boston College's Barry Gallup, currently the school's director of football operations and formerly head coach and athletic director at Northeastern.

The winners of the 61st annual Swede Nelson Award for exceptional achievement in academics athletics, and sportsmanship, are wide receivers Ed McCarthy of Yale for Division IA- IAA and Brendan Fulmer of Williams for Divisions II - III.

The club's head coaches of the year for 2006 are Don Brown of Massachusetts in Division IA - IAA and Jim Murphy of Merrimack College in Division II - III. Assistant coach of the year accolades will go to Wally Dembowski, defensive coordinator at Northeastern, and posthumously to Phil Soule, who coached linemen at Bowdoin College from 1967 until his untimely passing in January of 2006.

The club is also presenting the Joseph V. McKenney Award for top collegiate football official to ECAC head linesman David Carter of Duxbury, Mass.

Event information: Dinner tickets are $50 each or $500 for a table of ten. They may be ordered through members of the Gridiron Club, by emailing [e-mail], or by calling club secretary Dick Lawrence at [phone]. Social hour begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:00. For further information, visit www.gridclubofgreaterboston.com.

About the Gridiron Club, "Keepers of the Flame": Founded in 1932, the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston promotes the game of football at all levels and nurtures the ideals of citizenship, sportsmanship, leadership, and athletic and academic achievement. Through its annual dinners and golf tournament, the club carries on its tradition of honoring exemplary players, coaches and officials at all levels of the sport, and supporting worthy charitable causes, especially those that assist children.

The Gridiron Club is steward of some of the most storied awards in American sport. The George H. "Bulger" Lowe Award, established in 1939 and awarded to New England's best college football players, is the country's oldest accolade of its kind after the Heisman Trophy. The Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award, inaugurated in 1946, recognizes football players who also distinguish themselves in the classroom. In 1977, the club assumed stewardship of the Walter Brown Award, the nation's oldest college hockey honor, which is given to the best American-born college player in New England.