The award is named in honor of Brenda Reilly, a teacher, sports administrator and three-sport coach in a career of almost three decades at Central Connecticut State University.
[1] The award was first given following the 1986–87 season, the first in which the NEC sponsored women's basketball.
[2] The program with the most awards is Robert Morris, whose father-son duo of Sal and Charlie Buscaglia have garnered all of the Colonials' seven awards, but Robert Morris left the NEC for the Horizon League after the 2019–20 season.
Among current NEC members, Saint Francis has the most awards with five.
Sacred Heart, also with five awards, left after the 2023–24 season for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.