Historic Heisman Trophy Winners—Before They Were Football Stars!

Jay Berwanger was the first ever football player to win the Heisman (originally the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy). The halfback from Dubuque, Iowa became a star known as “the one man football team” while playing for the University of Chicago, clearly a force to be reckoned with. In 1936, he became the first college player to be drafted by the NFL but instead chose to train for the 1936 Summer Olympics in the decathlon. He missed the cut and held jobs as a part-time coach for the University of Chicago football team, sports writer and as a car parts manufacturer. He died in 2002 when he was 88 years old.

Howard “Hopalong” Cassady was a football running back who hailed from Columbus, Ohio. He scored 37 touchdowns out of 36 games in his college career with the Ohio State Buckeyes, also earning himself a “Hopalong Cassidy” nickname for the way he just hopped his way to a touchdown. Cassady (not Cassidy) went on to play nine seasons professionally, spread between the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Desmond Howard lettered in three different varsity sports while attending St. Joseph High School in Cleveland, Ohio... one of them as a football tailback of course! Howard then played for University of Michigan and won the Heisman Trophy in 1991, having scored 138 points that season. Howard played professionally for the Green Bay Packers, the Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions. He is now a college football analyst for ESPN.

Tom Harmon, considered the greatest or one of the greatest Michigan Wolverines football players, started playing ball in humble Gary, Indiana. After graduating from Horace Mann High School, he won the 1940 Heisman Trophy in his senior year at University of Michigan. He took a break from football during WWII and enlisted as a pilot. Then from 1946 to 1947 tried playing professionally for the Los Angeles Rams, but injuries sustained during the war forced him to instead pursue a career as a sports broadcaster. His son, Mark Harmon, also found success on TV, having starred in the TV shows St. Elsewhere, Chicago Hope, and the number one rated show NCIS. Unfortunately, Tom passed away in 1990.

Far-throwing Jim Plunkett transferred to James Lick High School in East San Jose, California for his junior and senior year. Outside of playing football, he was a competitive athlete in basketball, track and field, wrestling, and baseball. Plunkett’s athletic prowess helped send him to Stanford University where he played quarterback. In 1970, 2,715 passing yards seemed just enough to score him a Heisman Trophy. He went on to play professionally for the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers, and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (with whom he won two Super Bowls!).

Clinton Frank, who went by “Clint,” was a renowned halfback for Yale University. In 1937, his senior year, the economics major was the third ever winner of the Heisman Trophy and second from Yale (his teammate Larry Kelly won in 1936). He pursued a career in advertising which he took a hiatus from during WWII. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Air Corps but returned to advertising after serving for five years and started his own agency. He died in 1992.

Millard North High School QB, Eric Crouch, had a promising career ahead of him. He went to play for the University of Nebraska but an ankle injury kept him off the field for the 1997 championship-winning season. Injuries plagued him the next two years but as starting quarterback in 2001, Crouch was breaking records like they were nothing. That year he was awarded the Heisman Trophy and continued to play professionally and internationally until as recently as 2011, when he made the Omaha Nighthawks official roster.

Steve Spurrier is another all-star athlete who excelled in more than one sport. After graduating from Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee, Spurrier won an athletic scholarship to the University of Florida where he played quarterback. In 1966, his senior year with the Gators, he snapped up the Heisman Trophy. Spurrier went on to play an astounding nine seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Spurrier continued a career in football as a coach; in fact, he’s currently the head football coach of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.

Ernie Davis gained notoriety as a talented running back while attending college at Syracuse University. When he was just a sophomore, Davis led Syracuse to the NCAA Division I-A national football championship, where they defeated University of Texas in the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic. Davis proved a formidable player worthy of the 1961 Heisman Trophy, making him the first African-American athlete to receive it. Despite being the No. 1 pick in the 1962 NFL Draft, he was diagnosed with leukemia that same year and died in 1963, just 23 years old.

Tim Tebow, the 2007 (and first ever college sophomore!) Heisman Trophy winner started off as a star quarterback at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach. Tebow graduated from the University of Florida as a first round pick and was chosen by the Denver Broncos in 2010. In 2012 he was traded to the New York Jets.