Recently retired Slippery Rock University head football coach George Mihalik was honored Thursday night at the annual Eastern College Football Awards Banquet at MetLife Stadium as the recipient of the Division II Coach of the Year honor, presented by the New York Metropolitan Football Writers.
Anyone watching the live airing of the “Today Show” Thursday morning got a glimpse of Mihalik and his wife Laura 
sharing the screen with famed weatherman Al Roker, while of course toting a Slippery Rock pennant.
The New York Football Writers and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) host the Eastern College Football Awards each year at the home of the New York Giants and New York Jets to honor the top achievements in East Coast football.
All schools that reside in a state that touches the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to Vermont and West Virginia, are included in the consideration for the New York Football Writers awards. The association also hands out the annual Lambert Meadowlands Trophies at the banquet each year. Schools must be ECAC dues-paying members to be considered for the ECAC awards presented at the banquet (SRU is not included).
Mihalik was chosen by the Football Writers to win the Division II Coach of the Year award after leading Slippery Rock to a No. 7 final national ranking in 2015.
In January Mihalik announced that he would retire from The Rock after devoting 44 years of his life to the Green and White, including 28 as head football coach and a full-time professor in the safety management department.
