The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award (often known simply as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman), named after former college football player and coach John Heisman, is awarded annually to the most outstanding collegiate football player in the U.S. Although not the only award honoring the best player in college football, it is considered the most prestigious individual player honor in American college football. It is awarded in December before the postseason bowl games.
2007 - 2008 Heisman Trophy Race:
Heisman Trophy News 10/09/07
Heisman Trophy News 10/04/07
Heisman Trophy News 09/25/07
Heisman Trophy Race as of 09/14/07
Heisman Trophy Race as of 09/08/07
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. Only eight members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame have won the Heisman,[1] but four winners have also been named Most Valuable Player in a Super Bowl.
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.
The prestige in the award stems from a number of factors. Though balloting is open for all football players in all divisions of college football, the winners usually represent Division IA schools. The closest that a player outside of the modern Division I-A came to winning the Heisman is third place. Steve McNair, from Division I-AA Alcorn State, finished third in the voting in 1994. Gordie Lockbaum, from Division I-AA Holy Cross, finished third in the voting in 1987. (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.) 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 was most likely in contention for the national championship at some point in that season
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. While no freshmen or sophomores have ever won the Heisman, several have come close. Angelo Bertelli, Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, Doak Walker, and Herschel Walker all finished in the top three of the Heisman voting as underclassmen before eventually winning the award. Clint Castleberry, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Rex Grossman, Larry Fitzgerald, and Adrian Peterson also received top-three placement as underclassmen, but never won the Heisman. In 2006, Darren McFadden came in second to Troy Smith as a sophomore, and in 2007 he will be the only active college player with top-three Heisman placement as an underclassmen. The first junior to win the award was Doc Blanchard ("Mr. Inside") for Army in 1945.
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. 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.
Balloting for the Heisman is selective. The fifty states of the U.S. 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 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 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 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 Club was forced to close its doors in 2002 due, in part, to financial troubles resulting from the 9/11 attacks.
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.
