SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to a very special bonus episode of the official Heisman Trophy podcast. Heisman 101, recorded last year, worthy of playing again, tells you everything you need to know about the Heisman Trophy ceremony and its history. Enjoy. Sometimes it's merely a celebration of the winner, a coronation, if you will. But it's always great to see all the finalists there, uh, dressed in their best, representing their schools along with their coaches in most cases. In general, this culmination of Heisman Week has become interwoven into the fabric of college football. It's something we do every year, and it's just a great tradition. And you know, like most traditions, it's something that has evolved over time. So let's look at that. Let's look at the history of the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, you're eagerly anticipating the crowning of the 2024 Heisman Trophy this weekend. I'm right there with you. We all have our theories of who will win. We're not here to speculate, and we will wait as patiently as we can for ESPN's live Heisman Trophy broadcast, which originates from Jazz at Lincoln Center starting at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday night. But what, you may ask, was the genesis for this huge national broadcast, naming the winner of arguably sports's greatest individual award? Well, it all started as a luncheon. As most of you probably know by now, in 1935, the University of Chicago's J. Burwanger became the first winner of the Heisman. Back then it was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy. A year later, the 13.5 inch statue became known as it is today as the Heisman Memorial Trophy. Burwanger found out he was the winner of this brand new award on November 29th, but he wasn't in New York until December 10th for the midday affair that was to honor him. He later said the biggest thrill of winning the award was getting to fly in an airplane for the first time en route to Manhattan. As thrills go in the 1930s, that was pretty swell. For the next four decades, Heisman winners were pretty much honored in the same way. Their winner was announced in late November or early December, following the annual Army Navy game, with the Heisman Trophy presentation typically seven to ten days later. Not until 1977 was the announcement made on the same date as the trophy given, when Texas's Earl Campbell was named the winner at the end of an hour-long CBS special. And it wasn't just your run-of-the-mill special, it was a variety show. And I don't know whose idea it was, but I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_06 3:01

That's the way to do the Vossity Drag.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yes, that is Farah Fawcett doing a song and dance at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in 1977. The show featured a weird mix of celebrities and sports figures. And in addition to announcing the Heisman Trophy winner, they also announced the winners of the other major awards in college football. Here's 1956 Heisman Trophy winner Paul Horning with Mr. October, Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees.

SPEAKER_09 3:27

They're getting bigger every year. I don't think we're going to argue with that, are you? That's why I'm an ex-football player. Yeah, you can still hit that. The low fast one. Who could, you know, 36 home runs in a World Series? Forget it. Go on, Reggie.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

He's a good baseball player, but he quit. He was a highball drinker and a low ball hitter.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Jay Burrwanger was on hand to give the Heisman to Earl Campbell.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

And now to announce the winner of this year's Heisman, we have someone very special here with us tonight. A man who was the first recipient of the Heisman Trophy 43 years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Jay Burwanger.

SPEAKER_08 4:09

Thank you. Thank you, OJ. It is indeed a pleasure and an honor for me to be able to announce the 43rd recipient of the uh Heisman Trophy, and it goes to Earl Campbell of the University of Texas.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

I just had to share that ceremony as there's never been another Heisman Trophy ceremony quite like that one. Of course, it wasn't a live announcement. It was taped, and Earl Campbell knew he was the winner going in. And of course, there were no other Heisman Trophy finalists present at the show. But they knew how to have fun in the late 70s, didn't they? It wasn't until 1981 that a Heisman Trophy winner was announced live on national television. USC's Marcus Allen was in New York City for the announcement, which took place at the Downtown Athletic Club. And this really set the stage for what was to come the next year, 1982, which was the beginning of the Heisman Trophy ceremony as we know it today. For the first time there were Heisman Trophy finalists who were invited to New York and they took part in the ceremony that was shown live on national television. That was the year Herschel Walker won the trophy, and Eric Dickerson and John Elway were also finalists, but only Eric Dickerson showed up to join Walker for the show. It was really a far cry from the way players used to be notified that they had won the Heisman. It used to be telegrams and phone calls. 1940 winner Tom Harmon of Michigan found out about the award during a radio appearance with Eddie Cantor in New York, but he had to come back two weeks later to receive the actual trophy. When Terry Baker of Oregon State learned of winning the award in 1962, he reportedly said, No kidding? That's great. I'm a very lucky boy. Then he added, I've got to get back to class. So the new era of the Heisman Trophy ceremony that started in 1982 just brought a whole different element to it. That doesn't mean there weren't also some interesting ceremonies before that.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

It's probably the biggest sports uh dinner in New York. You know, a couple thousand people had it every year. And all the Heisman winners were invited back every year. So it's a great brotherhood. These guys, uh it's amazing. Guys that played, you know, years and years ago are still famous because of the Heisman Trophy.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

That's Hall of Fame sports caster Don Cricky, who's been close with the Heisman for decades and served as MC of the awards receptions for about a quarter of a century, starting with the 1973 ceremony that featured John Capoletti's famous speech, as well as an introduction from Vice President Gerald Ford.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Well, the first one I was at was in 1973 when John Capaletti won. It was a very, very emotional dinner because uh John's younger brother Joey, who was sitting at a table right in front of the Dais, was critically ill with cancer. And John gave a speech uh that was very heart-moving. He dedicated a season to his brother Joey and won the Heisman, and he did the room was just floored by the emotion of the whole Campoletto Campoletti family and what uh John was going through in his course what his brother Joey was. And I often thought to myself, I was MC in the dinner, who could follow up on this? And uh and we had somebody that could, Bishop Fulton Sheehan, who had a uh nationally syndicated television show, top ten show, and he got up and I don't know what all he said, but he he had some healing remarks, and it was nobody was ever at the Heisman that night will ever forget it.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Listening to Creeky recall it, the Heisman gallas were an almost who's who of mid-century American sports pop culture, with sports celebrities like Yogi Berra, Jim Brown, Barrett Bryant, and celebrities like John Wayne in attendance. Since then, and not counting that 1977 interlude, the Heisman Trophy Ceremony has never really recaptured that glitz and glamour of your. Instead, in the post-1982 era of the live ceremony with finalists, the focus has been where it should be, on the players and their accomplishments. So there have only been a handful of changes to the ceremony since 1982. Probably the biggest change came in 2001, following the attacks on 9-11.

SPEAKER_05 8:00

Well, you know, uh downtown Athletic Club is right right there. It was gone. I mean, there was not much that you know, there's a lot of uh soot, I guess, or smoke and a lot of damage uh to the building.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

That's 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch out of Nebraska recalling what it was like to be in Lower Manhattan just a few months after the terror attacks.

SPEAKER_05 8:19

It was you know, I didn't get to experience it like everyone else did that won the Heisman Trophy and got to, you know, have their family there and the event and the TV show and everything kind of centered around the DAC. Um they they brought it up to the uh the Marriott Marquee. And so um that you know, that was different. You know, they re but they did one heck of a job. I mean, you know, seeing pictures of the downtown athletic club and and they they recreated it. I mean, they did a tremendous like I I take my hat off to the people that uh worked effortlessly on that. Um they they did a tremendous job on recreating what what the DAC looked like and you know what the shuts a short time uh to be able to put that together uh was was pretty spectacular.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Since the demise of the Downtown Athletic Club, the Heisman Trophy Ceremony has mostly been held at a theater near Times Square. In 1994, ESPN gained exclusive rights to broadcast the ceremony, and over the years their on-air talent has done a fantastic job of presenting the show. The last couple seasons it's been no different, with the one exception that the ceremony has moved up to Lincoln Center. And that's your history of the Heisman Trophy ceremony. We hope you tune in on Saturday to ESPN to watch this year's episode. Who will win the Heisman? Who will walk up to that stage and give their speech? Speaking of speeches, there's been some great Heisman acceptance speeches over the years. Uh which if you think about it is kind of amazing because these are football players, very young men, who haven't really been trained in the arts of writing speeches, much less giving them. Giving a speech in front of millions of people on live television is a very tough thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

An effective speech in general projects uh the whole spirit, not just the message, but the spirit of the speech maker from a podium to an audience, from one side of a camera lens to another side of a camera lens. You put more into it than just the words. It's it's a whole personality. And this is maybe the hardest thing uh to teach because people think of speeches as text. And uh that's just not true anymore. That hasn't been true since the invention of the microphone and the camera.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

That's David Frum, a former presidential speechwriter who was now a writer for The Atlantic magazine. David is a Canadian and doesn't really have much exposure to college football, but I sent him the text and audio of a few standout Heisman speeches so he can tell us why they were so effective. One of those standout speeches was that of 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nial Kinnock, who, in a time of growing isolationism in America, made a political statement about the war in Europe that had begun just a few months earlier. Here's the speech in its entirety.

SPEAKER_10 10:58

Thank you very, very kindly, Mr. Hope. It seems to me that everyone is letting their superlatives run away with them this evening. But nonetheless, I want you to know that I'm mighty, mighty happy to accept this trophy this evening. Every football player in these United States dreams about winning that trophy and of this fine trip to New York. Every player considers that trophy the acne in recognition of this kind. The fact that I'm actually receiving this trophy tonight almost overwhelms me. And I know that all those boys who have gone before me must have felt somewhat the same way. From my own personal viewpoint, I consider my winning this award. I wish that they might all be with your meeting with me tonight to receive this trophy. I want to take this grand opportunity to thank collectively all the sports writers and all the sportscasters and all those who have seen fit and seen their way clear to cast a ballot in my favor for this trophy. And I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Prince and his committee, the Mexican Award Committee, and all those connected with the Downtown Athletic Club for this trophy and for the fine time that they're showing me. And not only for that, but for making this fine and worthy troop trophy available to the football players of this country. Finally, if you will permit me, I'd like to make a comment which in my mind is indicting perhaps the greatest significance of football and sports in general in this country. I was on the Midwest.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Well, there's there's always a question of appropriateness, because you you need to remember when when you when you're there, and this would be whether it's an Academy Award or a football event, why are people there to listen to you? In what capacity have you taxed their time and patience? And maybe there's something you need to say, but maybe you also need to think um if they're here um to honor me in one capacity, and I tax their time and patience with something different, uh I I'd better consider that. Because I I may be alienating half of the room at over at a time and place when it's not appropriate to alienate them. There's a there's a saying um that a gentleman is someone who never gives offense unintentionally. Uh so sometimes you need to shock people, sometimes you need you say this is something they need to hear whether they want to hear it or not. All right, so December of 1939, so Poland has been bombed to pieces, you know, Warsaw has been ruined and shattered, and and the Germans are poised to attack. At that time in December 39, no one knows that France is going to fall, but you're expecting a nightmarish World War I-like conf conflagration on the battlefields of Western Europe. Like, is that is that really the point you want to make? And are you quite confident that the offense you're giving to some portion of the audience i is worth it? So I guess when when you have this extraneous message, you have to really think hard about it. People aren't gonna like it. Am I gonna run that risk? Is this a big enough reason for me to do something that maybe isn't fitting with the spirit of the event?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Kinnock, without a doubt, pulls off this speech in eloquent fashion, even with its potentially uh controversial subject matter at the very end. But just two years later, it was quite the different story when Bruce Smith of Minnesota gave his acceptance speech, just a few days after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, and members of the Downtown Athletic Club, ladies and gentlemen, so much of emotional significance has happened in such a brief space of time. It's a task of responding on such a case.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Well, so so many people of that generation um ch changed their minds. Well, he's also speaking to something that was very much in the air at that time, because you know, you look back on it, and Pearl Harbor was about the stupidest thing the Japanese could have done. Uh the way the Japanese talked themselves into this crazy um and self-destructive attack was by propagandizing to their people that the Americans were soft and decadent and flabby and and you could bomb their fleet and nothing bad too bad would happen afterwards. And and so I think he was speaking against a kind of um uh message that Americans had heard from their now enemies in the time leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Arguably the most famous speech in Heisman history came thirty-two years later, in 1973, when Penn State's John Capaletti won the Heisman Trophy. After being introduced by Vice President Gerald R. Ford, Capaletti gave a somewhat normal speech that finished off with emotional, gut-wrenching words about his younger brother Joey, who had leukemia. Here's the tail end of Ford's introduction of Capaletti, who, by the way, is being celebrated at this year's Heisman Dinner Gala for the 50th anniversary of his Heisman Trophy victory. Following Ford is Capaletti's speech in its entirety.

SPEAKER_09 18:08

The Heisman Trophy symbolizes individual athletic accomplishments in football. And we shouldn't apologize for it, we should be very proud of it. A player wins it, as John Cappelletti won it, and all of these others, through the intense competition with other players, the length and the breadth of our country. And he wins it because he puts a little extra effort into the accomplishments for himself but primarily for his team. And I think John Cappelletti said it very well in a recent interview. He told how he had been ready to quit the Penn State team in 1972 because he wasn't picking up enough yardage. But he kept trying through the season of 1972, and he finally gained 124 yards against Illinois. And let me quote what John said. I learned a lesson that if you stick with something longer than you think you can, things will work out for you. End quote. And I think that's right.

SPEAKER_07 19:58

A week ago, or ten days ago, when the Heisman Trophy was announced, uh, since then I haven't had too much time to think about what it has meant. Um I think listening to the former Heisman Trophy winners tonight, and seeing everyone here to share in it and congratulate me on it, I think that's that's one of the first steps that uh I've taken in in the meaning of this trophy. Uh, I'm sure that the people behind me know much more about it than I do, and uh I'm happy for any advice that that they've given tonight and on what to expect from the future with this trophy. I have had time to think about uh some things that have put me up here tonight, uh things that have happened in my life, and um I'd like to reflect a little bit on them now. I think the first thing that uh happened to me was God blessed me with uh a great deal of talent and um a lot of uh people to compliment that talent. Um my family uh everyone's met, mostly I be, I guess. Um they're just great people, and uh I'm very happy to have shared in my lifetime with them. Um my brothers and sisters, it's uh have been wonderful. Uh just being with you the past few years, they've they've always been behind me, and um I can't express that enough. Um, my mother and father, there isn't a greater couple around, I don't think. And uh, I know my mother knows you. Um, she's a very, very strong woman and very dedicated not only to her children and husband, but also to uh God, and I think this helps her out uh with putting up with us and going through all that she's gone through. Um one example I think one small example of this is uh a personal thing with with me that I think uh a lot of people may have noticed that my my legs are as straight as arrows and that uh I have no trouble walking now or running now. But at one time in my life I I couldn't walk without tripping. And uh my mother uh not only brought me through this, but uh she brought just about every member of our family through something like this. Uh my father is a very quiet man. Uh he's been a great father to all of us. Um he asked me the other day uh when I was home one a few times uh how he thought I felt of him as a father. And uh I wouldn't say much to him then, because it's it's hard to express things like that. But um there is no greater person and no person I have more respect for than this man. But uh very much so off the field. Um he was a great lover of football, but he'd sacrificed anything for a teammate or a player when he was playing and when he was coaching. Uh he passed away this summer, uh Jack Godshawk. But I think in the in the 43 years that he was here on Earth, he did more for uh young people and people he was associated with, and I think most of us get a chance to do in a lifetime. The next next step, I think, was I was going to Penn State. Uh it was a hard decision making a choice of colleges at the time. I didn't know that much about it. But I think one thing that swayed me uh was the man sitting to my right, and uh that's Coach Paterno. When I was being recruited, he he uh came down to my house. I think he was not only on a recruiting trip, but he was looking for a good meal, an Italian meal.

SPEAKER_06 25:06

Um when he came in the door, um he he looked over and on the couch.

SPEAKER_07 25:20

My brother, Joseph, was sitting, was lying there. He was very ill at the time, and more so than usual. And uh instead of that that's not a joke, but um Coach Baterno was more concerned and did more talk more about what he could do for my brother than what he could do to get me at Penn State. And uh for this I'm very thankful and I I'm glad I had to show had the chance to show some appreciation of this man in the last four years. I think everybody uh here knows uh mostly about his coaching accomplishments at Penn State. Uh his record is is a great one, probably the greatest in the country. But uh he's carried on a great tradition at Penn State, I think, which started with uh Rip Angle. And uh he's more concerned with young people after they get out of school and while they're in school, what he can do for them to make better lives for them, not only uh on the football field, but uh in life itself. I think uh Vice President Ford said uh you can't compare uh life to a football game, but I think you can compare a football game to life. And uh this is what he's tried to show us in my four years there, and in the years he's been there coaching and teaching. And uh I don't think there's a more dedicated man anywhere uh concerned with young people and a better teacher of life on and off the field. The next group of people I'm going to talk about I've been with for uh four years, and I've played with them. They're my teammates this year, the seniors, and the co-captains who you've met down here. I don't think I've been closer to a group of people who I've worked with, sweated with, and have done more with in four years than I've done with anybody in my lifetime. I don't think I could have gotten any closer to the group that I've been with. And I think that um it takes a lot of hard work to do what we've done this year, and I'm just glad that I did my part for my teammates and that we've had the season we've had, and we've had the closeness that we've had, and for them I'm thankful for that. Also, there's a coach here tonight who I'm very proud of. He's our backfield coach at Penn State. His name is Bob Phillips, and I think uh he's mainly responsible for a lot of the attitude that goes on at Penn State among the players. He's uh a very dedicated man uh to his work, but he goes about it with a a healthy and just a bright attitude, and uh he uh can relate this to the players to the point where you want to do things for them, and you take the attitude that you're not out there just to get something finished and go in and take a shower, but you're out there to to accomplish something, and uh people like him are the reason that I think that a lot of the players and I know myself we're out there this year doing the things we did, and I'd like to thank him for that. The next part, um I'm very happy to to do something like this. I thought about it since the Heisman was announced ten days ago, and this is dedicated trophy that a lot of people have earned, I've earned, my parents, the people I've mentioned, and numerous other people that are here tonight and been with me for a long time. The youngest member of my family, Joseph, is uh very ill. He has leukemia. And if I could dedicate this trophy to him tonight and give him a couple days of happiness, this is worth everything, I think a lot of people think that I go through a lot on Saturdays and during the week, as most of the athletes do, and you get your bumps and bruises, and it's a terrific battle out there in the field. And it but only for me, it's on Saturdays, and it's only in the fall. For Joseph, it's all year round, and it's a battle that's uh unending with him, and he puts up with much more than I'll ever put up, and I think it just trophy is more of his than his mind, because he's been a great inspiration to me. I'd just like to to thank everybody here tonight for putting up with me. Penn Athletic Club for having this affair and the way they treated myself and my parents and the guests of Penn State these last two days. And I don't I don't think I'll ever ever forget this night. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

Well, I I I learned from you uh just beforehand that this was a quite a new thing in um sports speeches. Uh and it makes a kind of sense to me. I I wrote a history of the 1970s um that was published about 20 years ago, and one of the themes of that book was that it was a period the people who'd been through the Depression and the Second World War um bit back a lot of the emotion. They had so much emotion to discuss. Um and there's a famous quote from uh Ernest Hemingway um, I guess after the First World War, where he said that the uh that when you confronted what they had confronted, that words like glory and honor and sacrifice seemed cheap and hollow. And so there was a style, and everyone has seen the series Mad Men and the seen of people performing in um in this style of bite it back, don't be uh don't be too religious in public, don't be too emotional in public, don't show grief or joy too much in public, just everything everything is kind of wry and restrained and sardonic. And generations shift and then generational styles change, and and then suddenly in the 1970s, we have this opening. It would have been very familiar to people of the 1870s, by the way, uh, but very estrange to people of the 1930s and 40s. Um we have this opening where uh emotion begins to flow again. And the power, I think, of of that uh speech is when you read it, uh he doesn't say that much. Uh but when you hear it, you can hear how much feeling there is behind what is it. And and that's a that's an example of how um the whole person can add so much to a text that may be on its own face, and you wonder why did this have the effect of it.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

I asked Rom, what makes these kinds of speeches so powerful? Why do they stick with us? Why are they ingrained in our memory?

SPEAKER_03 33:32

Well I I confessed to you earlier my my general ignorance of this board, but my uh impression is that from a very early time Americans formed cults of personality around baseball players. And more recently they formed cults of personality around basketball players. Um and both of those boards are ones where you see the face while the person um is on the field or uh in uh uh in action. And also at their great, great moments, especially the hitter, uh and especially the basketball um scorer, uh, they are acting seemingly alone. Um and in fact the hitter is uh the that most powerful of all scenarios, the man against the the one against the many. There he is facing a whole field of opponents um and he has his solo act. So that's a very that that's very sorry. A football player, of course, is all in case not an um face-hidden, head-hidden, body distorted, and he's part of a line against another line. Um and that that's what gives us what I suppose is is tactical complexity. Um but it also d robs the player of the individuality and and um makes him a little bit less of a focus of personality than a baseball or basketball player would be. And so these moments where they come out from behind the mask would be uh correspondingly powerful.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

In all my years of following the Heisman Trophy, one thing I've noticed is that in the days leading up to the Heisman Trophy, many of the winners are shy in front of media or they don't speak well. But when they get up on that stage, uh they transform, they transform into this new person. And it's really an amazing thing to observe. And I've always wondered how this happens so often at the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Here's Frum's explanation for why this happens.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

But of all people in the world, of all people in the world, pro athletes or athletes should be the best prepared to deal with that situation because uh their job every day is going onto a field with no idea whether they're going to come off a winner or a loser. So um you know, it it it's it's one thing to be a politician who is preparing for two or four years for a competition and maybe the one and only time in their life where they either win or lose. And it's another thing to be uh an athlete. I mean, literally every time you do this, this is what happens, you win or lose. So you you should be uh ready for that. And um so I would think an athlete would be uh well positioned to have uh uh one uh the confession speech and the acceptance speech both prepared, both ready, and be psychologically prepared to meet both contingencies.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Well, coming up this Saturday night, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner will deliver his speech in front of millions, and maybe, just maybe, uh it will be something we remember for a long, long time. The official Heisman Trophy podcast streams every Wednesday during the college football season and is hosted, co-produced, edited, and engineered by Chris Houston. Paul Goldberg is the executive producer and editor. That's a shout out to Isaac Boencron, and big thanks to the Heisman Trophy Trust and its executive director, Rob Whalen, and associate director Tim Henning. The official Heisman Trophy podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and anywhere you listen to your favorite podcast. You can also find clips of our show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Just go to at Heisman Trophy.