The Pursuit for the Heisman

This archived article was written by: Ryan Nelson

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award, perhaps one of the greatest trophies in college sports is definitely the most coveted trophy of all the college football players. It is up there with national championship title. The thing with the Heisman is that this trophy is given to the most outstanding player, not a whole team. This award is given to the player in college football, who has been voted the best overall player in all of collegiate football and has shown the best integrity and hard work.
This award dates back to 1935 where it was first called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy. Then it was later renamed after John Heisman, who at the time, was the athletic director of that club. Now Heisman wasn’t just any athletic director. He was an outstanding individual which makes sense, since the award is given to the most outstanding player. He had played football, and not only played, but coached at multiple universities. Not only did he coach football, but he was the head coach for basketball and baseball at Georgia Tech. He set a pretty high standard for this award.
Now this is not the only award that is given to outstanding players of that year, there is also the AP Player of the Year, but without a doubt, the Heisman is the most well sought after award. Throughout the years there have been some pretty outstanding players receive this award. Since its first time awarded, there have been 77 athletes awarded. Players from many colleges have received it, and there has been one time in history where a player has won the award twice and that was Archie Griffin from Ohio State. He was a running back and received the Heisman back to back years in 1974 and 1975. Now the youngest player to ever receive the award was Tim Tebow, who was a sophomore when he won it and until he did no sophomore had ever achieved the Heisman. It usually is given to seniors who have shown their capability throughout their years of playing football.
Let’s talk about the qualifications for the Heisman, what determines the winner of this prestige award as well as how the selection is made. Interestingly enough, all division of college football are eligible for this award, although the winner is usually in division-one college football. There are a lot of outstanding players in college football in every position that is played. Most of the time, however, the award is usually given to either a quarterback or a running back. There have been times where there has been other players win this award, but not many.
Now there is not just one single person or group that determines the winner of this award. For one, there are the sports journalists, then there are also the fans and previous Heisman winner also have the opportunity to vote. The votes are tallied up in regions and counted, and just like any other election, the person with the highest amount of votes wins.
The season has been underway for a while now, and there have been some pretty outstanding players show us what they have got. We still have at least two more months of solid college football before the bowl games to see more players compete for the coveted Heisman. The Heisman Trophy award presentation will be on Dec. 8. Tune in to ESPN to watch the live presentation, or if you really want to have an experience you can buy a ticket to the presentation for $600 a pop, or you can just watch it from the comfort of your home.
Taking it to our home turf in Utah, there has only been one player from all the football teams that have ever received this outstanding award. That player was Ty Detmer, in 1990, who was a quarterback for Brigham Young University. Since then, not one player has been awarded The Heisman Trophy.
For those committed fans out there who follow college football, who do you think is going to be the 2012 College football Heisman Trophy winner? Your guess is as good as mine.