Sweating out the Heisman Trophy voting won’t be the hardest part for the newest member of one of sports’ most distinguished and prestigious fraternities. Good luck in overcoming the Heisman curse by winning a bowl game.
In this decade, Heisman Trophy recipients stand an atrocious 2-7 in bowl games following their election. Heisman winners are mired in a current four-game losing streak, with Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford (2008) being the latest.
Bradford came up short in last year’s BCS championship game against Florida. He followed Southern Cal tailback Reggie Bush (2005) and Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith (2006), who also failed to win national championship games, and Florida’s Tim Tebow (2007), who fell to Michigan in the Capital One Bowl that season.
Oklahoma quarterback Jason White received the 2003 Heisman Trophy after setting a Sooners record with 40 touchdown passes. Four weeks later, he failed to throw for even one score in a 21-14 loss to LSU for the national championship.
White is one of six Heisman winners on the losing end of national title games during this decade.
“I wouldn’t say (the Heisman Trophy) was a burden,” White told The Kansas City Star. “But you do feel like you have a target on your back.”
The only Heisman Trophy winners in this decade to celebrate a bowl victory following that season? That would be Southern Cal quarterbacks Carson Palmer (2002, a win over Iowa in the Orange Bowl) and Matt Leinart (2004, a win over Oklahoma in the national championship game).
Heisman trivia
(answers below)
1. Name at least two of the three Heisman winners who did not lead in first-place votes.
2. Which Heisman Trophy winner came close to also playing in NCAA basketball’s Final Four?
3. Auburn’s Bo Jackson isn’t the only Heisman winner to have played major-league baseball. Name the other.
4. Who was the only Heisman winner to come from a team with a losing record?
5. Which Heisman winner competed in the Winter Olympic Games?
Seeing double
The first professional team to have two Heisman-winning quarterbacks on its roster at the same time was the 1997 Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. That season, Doug Flutie (Boston College, 1984 Heisman) and Andre Ware (Houston, 1989) suited up for the Argonauts.
Flutie, who also had a long NFL career, played only two seasons for Toronto (1996 and 1997) and led the Argonauts to Grey Cup championships in both years.
Seeing double, part II
Ohio State tailback Archie Griffin, the only multiple Heisman winner (1974, 1975), is often included on lists of NFL “busts” — perhaps unfairly.
You be the judge. Griffin, the 24th pick of the first round in the 1976 draft by Cincinnati, played in seven NFL seasons, all with the Bengals.
His career NFL stats: 2,808 yards and seven TDs rushing, 192 catches with six TDs receiving. He also threw for two touchdowns.
The 5-foot-8, 188-pounder registered his best year in 1979 with career bests in rushing (688) and receiving (417) yards.
Translating to the next level
Nobody said the Heisman winner had to be the college player with the best NFL potential. They’re different games. The NFL already has its own honor for that. It’s called the overall No. 1 pick of the NFL draft.
But it is interesting to look back and see which Heisman winners succeeded as pros and which did not. Considering Heisman winners from 1960 and later . . .
Ten notables (in no particular order) that were “thumbs up” as pros: O.J. Simpson, Roger Staubach, Earl Campbell, Tony Dorsett, Tim Brown, Marcus Allen, Barry Sanders, Charles Woodson, Eddie George, Carson Palmer.
Ten notables that were thumbs down as pros: Terry Baker, Jason White, Eric Crouch, Danny Wuerffel, Andre Ware, Gino Torretta, Pat Sullivan, Rashaan Salaam, Chris Weinke, Charlie Ward (NBA).
Surefire way to win a bet
Ask the most knowledgeable sports fan to name the first “Heisman Trophy” winner. Almost everybody will answer Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago, in 1935. Technically, that’s incorrect.
Berwanger was voted the “DAC Award,” named for the presenting Downtown Athletic Club of New York. It wasn’t until 1936 (Yale’s Larry Kelley) that the award was renamed in honor of former college coach John Heisman, who died earlier that year.
The world’s most recognizable trophy, designed by sculptor Frank Eliscu, was modeled after Ed Smith, the top member of the 1934 New York University football team. It weighs about 25 pounds and is cast in statuary bronze.
Runaway winners
(Through 2008)
Five largest margins of victory
1968: O.J. Simpson, USC 1,750-point margin over runner-up Leroy Keyes, Purdue
2006: Troy Smith, Ohio State 1,662 over Darren McFadden, Arkansas
1993: Charlie Ward, Florida St. 1,622 over Heath Shuler, Tennessee
1991: Desmond Howard, Michigan 1,574 over Casey Weldon, Florida State
1998: Ricky Williams, Texas 1,563 over Michael Bishop, Kansas State
By a whisker
(Through 2008)
Five smallest margins of victory
1985: Bo Jackson, Auburn 45 points over Chuck Long, Iowa
1961: Ernie Davis, Syracuse 53 over Bob Ferguson, Ohio St.
1953: John Lattner, Notre Dame 56 over Paul Giel, Minnesota
2001: Eric Crouch, Nebraska 62 over Rex Grossman, Florida
1989: Andre Ware, Houston 70 over Anthony Thompson, Indiana
* Inaugural Heisman winner Jay Berwanger (1935) won by 55 points, but the number of voters was much smaller.
Top Heisman-producing schools
Through 2008
7: Notre Dame
7: Ohio State
7: Southern Cal
5: Oklahoma
3: Army
3: Florida
3: Michigan
3: Nebraska
Trivia answers
1. Notre Dame back Paul Hornung (1956), Oklahoma back Billy Sims (1978) and Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford (2008) are the only Heisman winners who did not receiver the most first-place votes. The balloting format gives three points for a first-place vote, two for a second and one for a third.
2. Oregon State’s Terry Baker, the 1962 Heisman winner, played for the Beavers’ men’s basketball team that reached the NCAA Tournament’s round of eight in the previous spring before being eliminated by UCLA.
3. Ohio State halfback Vic Janowicz, winner of the 1950 Heisman, played catcher for two years with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also played in the NFL with the Washington Redskins.
4.Hornung. Notre Dame won only two games in 1956.
5. Georgia’s Herschel Walker (1982 winner) rode the bobsled for the U.S. Olympic Team in the 1992 Winter Games.
