The Touchdown Club of Annapolis has announced it will present the Crab Bowl Trophy to the winner of Monday's Maryland-Navy football game - and for all subsequent meetings.
The Crab Bowl is a large pewter bowl overflowing with replicas of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab. The trophy, designed by members of the club, sits atop a mahogany base that will be engraved with the results of 20 previous Maryland-Navy games.
"The Touchdown Club of Annapolis has enjoyed a long and successful relationship with the Navy and Maryland football programs, so it is only fitting that this organization commission and present the trophy that is given to the victor whenever these two great institutions meet on the gridiron," said Dean D'Camera, a two-time past president of the club and former chairman of the Maryland Gridiron Network.
D'Camera shared the cost of creating the perpetual trophy with the touchdown club.
When Navy and Maryland renew their rivalry at 4 p.m. Monday at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium, they finally will join the list of football teams that battle annually for a trophy against one of their rivals. Virginia and Virginia Tech play for the Commonwealth Cup, the Little Brown Jug goes to the victor of the Michigan-Minnesota clash, and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State battle for the Bedlam Bell.
The Touchdown Club of Annapolis, founded in 1954, has an extensive history with the Navy and Maryland football programs. The club's annual football awards banquet, held for 56 years, brings the head coaches of the two programs together.
"It reflects a wonderful sense of community interest and community commitment to this matchup. We are grateful that the Touchdown Club of Annapolis has embraced this rivalry and enhanced it by providing a perpetual trophy to recognize and reward the winner," Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk said.
D'Camera had the idea for a trophy back in 2005, when the teams last met.
After the annual awards banquet last February, D'Camera and the current administration of the touchdown club figured it was time to begin discussions.
"With our history and our connections, we had to be the driver of this," he said. "We figured we had to make it happen, and the athletic directors and the coaches liked the idea."
D'Camera, who is a die-hard Maryland fan, will be at the game Monday and will present the trophy to the winning team along with a member of the club. His late brother, Louis, was an avid Navy fan and his parents were Navy season ticket holders.
"Personally, that will be very, very special," D'Camera said.
Tilghman's touch
The Crab Bowl was crafted by The Tilghman Co., an Annapolis jewelry store that has been in business since the early 1900s.
The touchdown club approached Rick Tilghman, vice president of Tilghman's, about the trophy about a month ago.
"We've spent a little less time doing other things," Tilghman said of creating the trophy. "It's been a little bit of a trial-and-error type of thing trying to come up with the best combination."
Tilghman had help putting the trophy together from Larry Taylor, a jeweler since the late 1960s, and engraver Joan Whiteley.
"It's nice to have something that is local and associated with the two teams since they have been in the area for however many hundreds of years," Tilghman said.
The winner of Monday's game will take possession of the trophy and retain it until just before the teams meet again. If that same team wins again, it gets to keep the trophy with the updated score. If the other team wins, the trophy will change hands until their next meeting.
There are currently no official plans for another game after Monday.
"Most people in this area can appreciate that community rivalry. Maybe if the teams have something to play for, it would help," D'Camera said.
Gladchuk has said Navy has an interest in facing Maryland more regularly, but Maryland is waiting to fill its athletic director vacancy before the future of Maryland-Navy football can be discussed.
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