One hundred years from now, the only two names people will remember from 2001 will be George W. Bush and the winner of this year's Heisman. No one will remember who the major league baseball MVP was, nor who won the Cy Young Award. But everyone will remeber who won the Heisman. It's the biggest award in sports.
When it first started, in 1935, it wasn't a big deal. In fact, Jay Berwanger, the winner of the first Heisman trophy, was happier to win the Chicago Tribune's Outstanding Big Ten Player award than he was to win the Heisman.
From 1935 to 1951, the Heisman was dominated by teams from the East, the Big Ten, and Notre Dame. The first player to win it from the Pac-10 was Terry Baker in 1962. That's about the same time the hype began.
Navy sports information director Bud Thalman is often credited with starting the hype for the Heisman with his campaign for Roger Staubach in 1963. In some ways Thalman deserves the credit, but the hype didn't begin in earnest until the mid-60's with Norm Carlson, the SID at Florida, when Steve Spurrier was the quarterback.
Florida was not on national television that year, but Carlson though he had the best player in America in Spurrier. Carlson began campaigning early, and Spurrier won it in '66. From then, it just got bigger and bigger. It's four times bigger now than it was in '66.
My favorite story concerning the Heisman took place in 1956. The late Charlie Callaghan was the SID at Notre Dame when he told student assistant Joe Bride to go get Paul Hornung out of class -- Callaghan told Bride not to tell Hornung why the SID wanted to see him.
Bride goes to Hornung's class, gets him out, and as they walked over to Callaghan's office, Hornung kept asking Bride what was up. Bride made up some excuse about the postseason game. Hornung walked into the office, where Callaghan was on the phone. While covering the mouthpiece, Callaghan handed the phone to Hornung and said, "Paul, it's your mother. Tell her you just won the Heisman Trophy."
That's how low key it was. The Downtown Athletic Club had simply called Callaghan to "announce" that Hornung had won. No one was around. There was no media, no special banquet. Now, everyone on earth speculates about who the winner is going to be months in advance. People make all kinds of idiotic statements, like saying someone is going to win it two years in a row. Imagine that.
This Heisman Trophy is still the No. 1 award in sports, but the hype has gotten to be a bit much.
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