“The lunacy of the Heisman Trophy” by Allen Barra, first published in 2003 and still right on. Key excerpt:
The Mackey, the Lombardi, the Outland, the Biletnikoff—there are more than a dozen college football awards, and all of them taken together don’t generate one-tenth of the ink given to the Heisman Trophy. Why, exactly? What is particularly puzzling is that the Walter Camp Award, presented to the “nation’s top player” by the Walter Camp Foundation, has never caught on, considering that it is named for the father of football, the man without whom none of the other awards would exist. But then, the Walter Camp Foundation is in New Haven, Conn., and the Heisman Trophy is presented by the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. Which, come to think of it, probably answers the question right there….
And, by the way, why not present the Heisman sometime in mid-January, after the bowl games have been played? Why continue the pretense that the bowls aren’t part of the “season”? Since the bowl games determine the national championship and final rankings, why do the various groups and foundations that give out trophies pretend that the biggest games these kids will play don’t matter?
Every year, sportswriters wail and wail for a Heisman overhaul, and still nothing changes. So here’s a more feasible remedy. College football would gain some credibility by simply acknowledging that modern football is a division of labor among specialists. Gather up all the various year-end awards, including the Heisman, rent a ballroom, and present them all on the same night. If we can’t get the best players checked off on the Heisman ballot, maybe we can at least get them all in the same room.
A detail of background that may interest you:
The first Downtown Athletic Club trophy (next year renamed the Heisman) was awarded to running back Jay Berwanger of, of all places, the University of Chicago, when that school was still in the Big 10 (1935).
Berwanger was the first player selected in the initial NFL college draft, but he chose against going pro, and he never played again.
Berwanger is also remembered as the person who injured Michigan center Gerald Ford, leaving a visible scar under the future President’s left eye. I imagine it was a very different game, back then, when you had star running backs playing defense and lining up opposite the center!