Buzzards Bay, Mass. --  Massachusetts Maritime offensive right tackle John Moriarty added another impressive accolade to his stellar senior resume on Sunday evening, as was the 2014 recipient of the Jack Daly Award for Academics, Citizenship and Football as presented by the Jack Grinold Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of the National Football Foundation. 

The award is named in honor of the late Jack Daly, a charter member of the Grinold Eastern Massachusetts Chapter and an all-New England center at Williams College in the early 1940’s.  Daly was a long-time and well-respected college official whose assignments included the Sugar Bowl, the Army-Navy game and the legendary 29-29 tie between Harvard and Yale in the 1968 edition of “The Game”.  First presented two years ago, the previous Daly Award recipients were Bentley University’s Bryant Johnson in 2012 and MIT’s Ethan Peterson last year.  Moriarty received the honor at the Grinold Chapter’s annual Scholar-Athlete Banquet that took place at the Boston/Newton Marriott.

A native of Wilmington, Mass. and a graduate of Wilmington High School, Moriarty has been the recipient of a number of honors for his efforts both on the field and in the classroom during the academic year.  A Facilities Engineering major at the Academy, he has achieved a 3.858 cumulative grade point average and became the third Massachusetts Maritime student-athlete in school history to earn Capital One Academic All-America® honors after being named to the Division III football national second team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America last December.  He was one of 170 semifinalists for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy (considered as the Academic Heisman) presented by the National Football Foundation to the absolute best scholar-athlete across all divisions and was one of 39 Division III student-athletes to also be a semifinalist for one of the National Football Foundation’s 16 Scholar-Athlete Awards.

Moriarty was Massachusetts Maritime’s starting right tackle for the past two seasons and has been part of an offensive line unit that has set 22 school records over that time span.  Head Coach Jeremy Cameron’s Buccaneers ranked as high as second nationally in total offense during the year and finished the year ranked 13th with an average of 494.2 yards per game, including a school-record 752 total yards in a 52-18 Admiral’s Cup victory at Maine Maritime on September 21st.  Moriarty, who allowed just one sack in 509 quarterback passing and rushing attempts on the year, played in 876 of a possible 886 total offensive snaps, including 121 at Worcester State on September 28th in a contest that saw Massachusetts Maritime set NCAA Division III single-game records for most plays and first downs (44), and he was part of an offensive line unit that amassed a record 4,942 yards of total offense last fall.  Over the course of his career, Moriarty helped the Buccaneers collect 9,628 yards and average 34.1 points per game.

"John Moriarty is the perfect embodiment of the type of student, athlete and citizen we had in mind when we created the Jack Daly Award three years ago,” Grindold Chapter Executive Director Roger Crosley says of this year’s Daly Award recipient. “He joins a short, but distinguished list of exceptional young men that the Jack Grinold Eastern Massachusetts Chapter has been proud to honor.

"John has combined remarkable football ability with outstanding academic performance,” Crosley continues. “What truly sets him apart is that even with the demands of being a cadet at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, John has found the time to give back to his institution and community with his ongoing work with the Maritime Student Athlete Advisory Committee, the Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod Special Olympics and the Rotary Interact Club.  John is a tremendous role model for our scholar-athletes to emulate, and we are thrilled to present him with the Jack Daly Award for Academics, Citizenship and Football."

A first-team all-Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference honoree, Moriarty became the fifth Buccaneer in school history to earn a spot on the prestigious New England Football Writers’ Division II-III All-New England team last fall, and he additionally was named to both the D3football.com All-East Region and ECAC Division III North all-star squads.  A member of Massachusetts Maritime’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and its mission of on-going support of Southeastern Massachusetts & Cape Cod Special Olympics, Moriarty has also been active in his local Rotary Interact Club in the Merrimack Valley while also serving as an active leadership participant in the Academy’s Regiment of Cadets.

“The achievements and recognition that John has so richly earned and deserves speak volumes about his character and hard work,” Cameron says of Moriarty’s latest honor.  “It has been a great privilege for me to coach him, and an even greater privilege to see him represent our program and the Academy with great distinction.”

Massachusetts Maritime posted its fourth straight five-win season last fall and once again re-wrote the school record books while ranking among the Division III national leaders in several categories.  Cameron has guided the Buccaneers to their best four-year record since 1988, and over the last three seasons his student-athletes have earned a total of 23 all-conference honors.