Lehigh Football Nation

Quick hit: I stumbled upon the following article about the story of Jim Mahlbacher and the memorial scholarship fund his family still sponsors: Reilly, who lives in Lewes, said that, after her son died, she got together with former Lehigh football coach John Whitehead to set up a memorial scholarship fund in her son's name. Whitehead, who is deceased, helped her set up the fund so a student athlete would receive proceeds from it in addition to any other scholarship money they would be awarded. The first award was given in 1986. ... "The fund is now up to a market value of $276,649," Reilly said. "The interest is providing help ... to two football players every year." Reilly said the fund continues to grow because of tremendous support and fundraising efforts, headed by Phil McGinniss, of Dover. "I receive a note of thanks each year from the fund's recipients, and I must say I am so proud of the quality young men receiving the award," Reilly

(Photo Credit: Doug Benc/Getty Images) There have been some pretty interesting things happening in Lehigh sports this week - a pretty good showing for the men's and women's basketball teams, most notably - but I wanted to open this new year with a though on the state of college football. Maybe it's because I was frighteningly sick, but I happened to do something I don't often do this New Year's season - watch some of the bowl games. My opinion on them really hasn't changed much since when I was a Lehigh student - they're essentially meaningless exhibition games that are only there to provide boatloads of money for conferences and schools. But this year, I watched some. Most of the reason was for a chuckle - I wanted to see exactly how bad Michigan was after losing to Appalachian State, how bad Navy was who lost to Delaware, and how back Central Michigan was after getting throttled by North Dakota State. The games themselves, judged on their competitiveness,