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The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award (also known simply as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman), named after former college football player and coach John Heisman, is considered the most prestigious award in American college football. It is awarded annually before the postseason bowl games.

Overview

The prestige in the award stems from a number of factors. Though balloting is open for all football players in all divisions of college, the winners usually represent Division I-A schools. In addition to incredible personal statistics, team achievements play a heavy role in the voting - a typical Heisman winner represents a team that had an outstanding season and is most likely in contention for a Division I-A national championship. Further prestige is granted by experience - no freshmen or sophomores have ever won the award, and only a few juniors have held the bronze trophy; the rest have been seniors. Finally, the Heisman is frequently awarded to a running back or a quarterback; very few players have won the trophy playing at a different position.

Balloting for the Heisman is selective. The fifty states of the USA are split into six regions, and six regional Representatives are selected to appoint voters in their states (the regions include the Far West, the Mid Atlantic, Mid West, North East, South, and South West). Each region has 145 media votes, for a total of 870 votes. In addition, all previous Heisman winners still alive may vote, and one final vote is counted through public balloting. The Heisman ballots contain a 3-2-1 point system, in which each ballot ranks the voter's top three players and awards them three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote, and one point for a third-place vote. The points are tabulated, and the player with the highest total of points across all ballots wins the Heisman Trophy.

The trophy serves in part as a representation of a collegiate player's chances in professional leagues, such as the NFL (to which many Heisman winners go after their collegiate careers). Most Heisman winners have amazingly high stock, and are considered among the absolute best players available on draft day in any given year. However, winning the Heisman Trophy does not guarantee future success at the NFL level.

The award was first presented in 1935 by the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan, New York, a privately owned recreation facility near the site of the former World Trade Center. The Club was forced to close its doors in 2002 due, in part, to financial troubles resulting from the 9/11 attacks. The award ceremony is now hosted by the Yale Club in Manhattan, and as of 2005 was being held at the Nokia Theatre. The award is presented independently from the annual College Football Awards ceremony (where most other related awards are presented).

Heisman Trophy winners

Yellow highlighting indicates players who were also the first overall selection in the National Football League Draft.
An asterisk (*) indicates players who have earned induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Winners by position

Winners by school

Trivia

• The first winner, Jay Berwanger, was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but declined to sign for them. He never played professional football for any team.
• The trophy itself is modeled after Ed Smith a leading player in 1934 for the now defunct New York University football team. The trophy is made out of cast bronze.
• Only one player, Archie Griffin, a running back for Ohio State, has won two Heisman Trophies; he did so in 1974 and 1975.
• The first junior to win the award was Doc Blanchard ("Mr. Inside") for Army in 1945; though he played the next year, he missed two games with injury and his teammate Glenn Davis ("Mr. Outside") won.
• Only two high schools have graduated multiple alumni who would eventually win the Heisman Trophy. Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California produced John Huarte (Notre Dame) and Matt Leinart (USC), most recently, but Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas produced the first combo with Davey O'Brien (TCU) and Tim Brown (Notre Dame).
• 1993 winner Charlie Ward of Florida State never played in the NFL, opting instead to play pro basketball in the NBA, where he played for 11 seasons.
• Charles Woodson is the only primarily defensive player to win the award, doing so as a defensive back for the University of Michigan in 1997. He returned kickoffs and punts during that season as well, and occasionally took plays on offense.
• In 2004, Helix High School became the first school to have two alumni (Alex Smith and Reggie Bush) as simultaneous top five finalists.
• Of the schools where John Heisman coached, the only one to produce Heisman Trophy winners is Auburn.
• Both USC and Notre Dame are tied for 7 Heisman winners. However, in the last 40 years, Notre Dame has only had one winner, Tim Brown in 1987. All of the Trojan Heisman winners have been in the last 40 years, including three in four years between 2002 and 2005 (considered an unprecedented feat in college football).
• In 2005, winning the Heisman, Reggie Bush collected 2,541 out of a possible 2,769 points for a record percentage of 91.7%. That percentage bested the previous record of 85.2% by Ricky Williams in 1998. However, of the 784 first-place vote total, Bush is second to the first-place vote total of 855 in 1968 by USC running back, O.J. Simpson, and Bush's margin of victory of 933 points was 17th among Heisman winners. Also a Heisman record in 2005, Reggie Bush was first in all 6 regions and appeared on 99% of the ballots.
• During the 2004 season, for the first time in college football history, two Heisman Trophy winners played against each other when the 2003 Heisman winner Jason White (Oklahoma) and the 2004 winner Matt Leinart (USC) competed in the Orange Bowl for the BCS National Title. Also for the first time, four Heisman finalists played on the same field (including Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma and Reggie Bush of USC).
• During the 2005 season, for the first time in college football history, two Heisman Trophy winners played on the same team when Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, both of USC, played in the same backfield during the Rose Bowl against Texas. It was also the first time that all Heisman finalists played on the same field (including Vince Young of Texas).
• There have been three occasions when teammates from the same school claimed the Heisman Trophy in back-to-back years: Yale (1936 & 1937), Army (1945 & 1946) and USC (2004 & 2005).
• The closest that a player outside of the modern Division I-A came to winning the Heisman was Steve McNair, who played for Division I-AA Alcorn State. He finished third in the voting in 1994.
• The first black player to win the Heisman was Ernie Davis of Syracuse. Tragically, he never played a snap in the NFL, as he was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after winning the award, and died in 1963.

Notes and references

1. Although Chicago is now a Division III school and Yale and Princeton are now Division I-AA, all three schools were considered major programs at the time their players won the award.

External links

• The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award website
• The Heisman Projection: Predicting the winner through "exit polls" of Heisman voters
• The Heisman Pundit

• American football trophies and awards
• College football awards