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October 28, 2010

Lambert earns Sports Center’s Fetterman Award

ERIC AHLQVIST THE COOPERSTOWN CRIER

— Cooperstown’s Paul Lambert is already a member of three Halls of Fame for achievements he had in sports first as a player and later a coach.

Now he will be honored for passing his athletic knowledge and philosophies on to younger generations of athletes.

Lambert is the 2010 recipient of the Clark Sports Center’s annual Patrick C. Fetterman Award, given annually to a person in the community who is dedicated to serving local youth, especially in the area of athletics.

“Paul exemplifies what it means to be a Fetterman Award recipient,’’ Clark Sports Center Director Dion Wade said. “His accomplishments combined with his character make him a great role model.’’

Lambert, a former coach, principal and superintendent at Cooperstown who retired in 1987, said he was surprised when informed of his selection.

“It’s nothing I ever thought of receiving, and I am truly humbled and flattered,’’ Lambert said. “I had a lot of admiration for Pat Fetterman.’’

Fetterman was a longtime associate director of the Sports Center who died in 1992.

His legacy includes the youth sports teams he helped create at the gym.

“They are terrific feeder programs for the high school teams,’’ Lambert said.

In 2008, Lambert was a member of the first class of inductees into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.

He is also a member of the Hartwick College Hall of Fame and his high school Hall of Fame in Athens, Pa.

Lambert came to Cooperstown in 1957 as a social studies teacher, and for seven years was the volunteer director of the Cooperstown Youth Center, which was located above the old fire house in the village.

He gave that up when he became the Cooperstown Elementary principal, he said.

Lambert coached the boys basketball team at CCS for seven years, and two of the teams he coached are in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

He said his coaching philosophy was “Play fair, play hard, play within the rules, win graciously and lose graciously.’’

Discipline and sportsmanship, he said, were as important as winning and losing.

“I always told them you’re the same person on the court or on the football field as you are off it,’’ Lambert added. “When I was the basketball coach we wore shirts and ties to away games and always acted like gentlemen.’’

Lambert also served as president of the Cooperstown Little League and coached and umpired during the time his three sons, John, Mike and Jim, were growing up.

After retiring from Cooperstown, he worked for the Clark Foundation in the scholarship office for 17 years, and retired as director in 2004. The track at Cooperstown was renamed Lambert Field after his retirement. Lambert will be honored at an invitation-only luncheon at the Otesaga on Monday.

Past Fetterman Award winners include: 1994: Lavern “Beanie’’ Ainslie; 1995: Jack Vineyard; 1996: Ted Kantorowski; 1997: Malcolm Brooks; 1997-98: Jerry Townsend; 1998-99: Don Howard; 2000: Dick White; 2001: Pat and Ed Hazzard; 2002: Stephen “Sharky’’ Nagelschmidt; 2003: Frank Miosek; 2004: Ted Spencer; 2005: Terry Bliss; 2006: Dave Adsit; 2007: Bob Snyder; 2008: Connie Herzig, and Brenda Wedderspoon-Gray in 2009.

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