Dec. 19, 2013
BALTIMORE, MD - Johns Hopkins senior Ben Cranston (Parkton, MD/Loyola) has been named the 2013 NCAA Division III Rimington Award winner as the nation's top center. Cranston is the first Johns Hopkins player to win the award and joins Bryan Stork (Florida State - FBS), Jared Singleton (Wofford - FCS), Matt Armstrong (Grant Valley State - NCAA Division II) and Marc Osborn (Grand View - NAIA) as the 2013 Rimington Award winners at each level of college football.
The latest in a long line of outstanding centers at Johns Hopkins, Cranston previously earned First Team All-Centennial Conference and First Team D3football.com All-South honors. He was also named to the 2013 Capital One Academic All-District Team. Cranston also earned First Team All-Centennial and Third Team D3football.com All-South honors last season.
Cranston started all 11 games this season and led an offense that set school records for points (40.5) and yards (500.6) per game in rolling to a fifth consecutive Centennial Conference title and third straight appearance in the NCAA Playoffs. Johns Hopkins averaged 260.9 yards rushing and 239.7 yards passing and is one of just three Division III teams in the nation that averaged more than 260 yards rushing and 230 yards passing this season (Mount Union, Heidelberg). Johns Hopkins finished the 2013 season with a 10-1 record under the guidance of head coach Jim Margraff.
The 2013 Rimington Trophy presentation banquet will be held January 11, 2014, at the Rococo Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Rimington Trophy is presented annually to the Most Outstanding Center in all divisions of College Football. Since its inception, the Rimington Trophy has raised over 3 million dollars. The fourteen-year old award is overseen by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and has raised over $100 million for CF Research.
Dave Rimington, the award's namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy's only double winner as the nation's finest college interior lineman.
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