List of Heisman Trophy winners

The Heisman Trophy, one of the highest individual awards in American college football, has been awarded 86 times since its creation in 1935, including 85 unique winners and one two-time winner. The trophy is given annually to the most outstanding college football player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and is awarded by the Heisman Trust, successors of the awards from the Downtown Athletic Club at an annual ceremony.

In 1935, the award, then known as the DAC Trophy, was created by New York City's Downtown Athletic Club to recognize the best college football player "east of the Mississippi River".^[1] In that inaugural year, the award went to Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago. Berwanger was later drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League but declined to sign for them. He never played professional football for any team, instead choosing to pursue a career in business.^[2] In 1936, the club's athletic director, football pioneer John Heisman, died and the trophy was renamed in his honor. Larry Kelley, the second winner of the award, was the first to win it as the "Heisman Trophy".^[3] In addition to the name change, the award also became a nationwide achievement. With the new name, players west of the Mississippi became eligible; the first player from the western United States was selected in 1938.^[1]

On June 10, 2010, following several years of investigation, the NCAA announced that USC running back Reggie Bush, the 2005 Heisman trophy winner, received gifts from agents while still in college. The university received major sanctions,^[4][5] and there were reports that the Heisman Trophy Trust would strip his award.^[6] In September of that year, Bush voluntarily forfeited his title as the 2005 winner. The Heisman Trust decided to leave the award vacated with no new winner to be announced.^[7]

A school has had a Heisman winner in back-to-back years five times, though one of those awards is Bush's forfeited trophy (Yale 1936-37, Army 1945-46, Ohio State 1974-75, USC 2004-05 and Oklahoma 2017-18). Only one player, Ohio State's Archie Griffin, has won the award twice.^[8] Oklahoma is the only school to have two players win the award in back-to-back years playing the same position (quarterbacks Baker Mayfield followed by Kyler Murray).

Between 1936 and 2001, the award was given at an annual gala ceremony at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City. The Downtown Athletic Club's facilities were damaged during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Due to financial difficulties stemming from the damage, the DAC declared bankruptcy in 2002, turning over its building to creditors. Following the club's bankruptcy and the loss of the original Downtown Athletic Club building,^[9] the Yale Club of New York City assumed presenting honors in 2002 and 2003.^[10][11] The ceremony was moved to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square for the 2002, 2003, and 2004 presentations. Between 2005 and 2019, the event was held at PlayStation Theater in Times Square.^[12] The move to the PlayStation Theater allowed the Downtown Athletic Club (and ultimately, the award's successor, The Heisman Trust) to resume full control of the event (the most prominent example of which was the return of the official portraits of past winners), despite the loss of the original presentation hall.^[13] Shortly after the 2019 ceremony was held, the PlayStation Theater was permanently closed; as a result, the Heisman Trust began searching for a new location to conduct the trophy presentation. The 2020 ceremony would ultimately be held at the studios of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the ceremony being held on January 5, 2021.^[14]

In terms of balloting, the fifty states of the U.S. are split into six regions (Far West, Mid Atlantic, Mid West, North East, South, South West), and six regional representatives are selected to appoint voters in their states.^[15] Each region has 145 media votes, for a total of 870 votes. In addition, all previous Heisman winners may vote, and one final vote is counted through public balloting. The Heisman ballots contain a 3-2-1 point system, in which each ballot ranks the voter's top three players and awards them three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote, and one point for a third-place vote. The points are tabulated, and the player with the highest total of points across all ballots wins the Heisman Trophy.^[16]

Key[]

List of Heisman Trophy winners[]

Heisman Winners

Year	Image	Name	School	Position	Points	% of points possible[17]	Class	Draft position[18][note 1]
1935	—	Jay Berwanger*	Chicago	HB	84	43.08%	Senior	1st
1936	—	Larry Kelley	Yale	End	219	36.41%	Senior	87th
1937	—	Clint Frank	Yale	HB	524	32.89%	Senior	106th
1938		Davey O'Brien	TCU	QB	519	29.62%	Senior	4th
1939		Nile Kinnick	Iowa	HB/QB	651	31.00%	Senior	14th
1940		Tom Harmon*	Michigan	HB	1,303	54.29%	Senior	1st
1941	—	Bruce Smith	Minnesota	HB	554	49.99%	Senior	119th
1942		Frank Sinkwich*	Georgia	HB	1,059	56.15%	Senior	1st
1943	—	Angelo Bertelli*	Notre Dame	QB	648	64.80%	Senior	1st
1944	—	Les Horvath	Ohio State	HB/QB	412	18.31%	Senior	45th (1943)
1945		Doc Blanchard	Army	FB	860	33.81%	Junior	3rd
1946		Glenn Davis	Army	HB	792	79.20%	Senior	2nd
1947		Johnny Lujack	Notre Dame	QB	742	74.20%	Senior	4th (1946)
1948		Doak Walker†	SMU	HB	778	28.56%	Junior	3rd
1949	—	Leon Hart*	Notre Dame	End	995	36.53%	Senior	1st
1950	—	Vic Janowicz	Ohio State	HB/P	633	22.03%	Junior	79th
1951	—	Dick Kazmaier	Princeton	HB	1,777	60.01%	Senior	176th
1952		Billy Vessels	Oklahoma	HB	525	14.32%	Senior	2nd
1953		Johnny Lattner	Notre Dame	HB	1,850	49.14%	Senior	7th
1954		Alan Ameche	Wisconsin	FB	1,068	27.01%	Senior	3rd
1955		Howard Cassady	Ohio State	HB	2,219	55.87%	Senior	3rd
1956		Paul Hornung‡	Notre Dame	QB	1,066	26.96%	Senior	1st
1957		John David Crow	Texas A&M	HB	1,183	31.12%	Senior	2nd
1958		Pete Dawkins	Army	HB	1,394	39.01%	Senior	Undrafted[note 2]
1959		Billy Cannon*	LSU	HB	1,929	53.72%	Senior	1st
1960		Joe Bellino	Navy	HB	1,793	52.89%	Senior	146th (AFL)
1961		Ernie Davis*	Syracuse	HB/LB/FB	824	25.18%	Senior	1st
1962	—	Terry Baker*	Oregon State	QB	707	21.25%	Senior	1st
1963		Roger Staubach†	Navy	QB	1,860	55.21%	Junior	129th
1964	—	John Huarte	Notre Dame	QB	1,026	30.98%	Senior	12th (AFL)
1965		Mike Garrett	USC	HB	926	26.61%	Senior	18th
1966		Steve Spurrier	Florida	QB	1,679	48.25%	Senior	3rd
1967	—	Gary Beban	UCLA	QB	1,968	63.50%	Senior	30th
1968		O. J. Simpson‡	USC	HB	2,853	80.64%	Senior	1st
1969	—	Steve Owens	Oklahoma	FB	1,488	40.92%	Senior	19th
1970		Jim Plunkett*	Stanford	QB	2,229	58.78%	Senior	1st
1971	—	Pat Sullivan	Auburn	QB	1,597	42.25%	Senior	40th
1972	—	Johnny Rodgers	Nebraska	WR/RB	1,310	38.75%	Senior	25th
1973		John Cappelletti	Penn State	RB	1,057	32.78%	Senior	11th
1974		Archie Griffin	Ohio State	RB	1,920	59.53%	Junior	24th
1975					1,800	57.64%	Senior
1976		Tony Dorsett†	Pittsburgh	RB	2,357	74.97%	Senior	2nd
1977		Earl Campbell‡	Texas	RB	1,547	49.11%	Senior	1st
1978		Billy Sims*	Oklahoma	RB	827	26.25%	Junior	1st (1980)
1979	—	Charles White	USC	RB	1,695	53.81%	Senior	27th
1980		George Rogers*	South Carolina	RB	1,128	35.81%	Senior	1st
1981		Marcus Allen†	USC	RB	1,797	57.05%	Senior	10th
1982		Herschel Walker	Georgia	RB	1,926	61.14%	Junior	114th (1985)
1983		Mike Rozier	Nebraska	RB	1,801	57.17%	Senior	2nd (USFL)
1984		Doug Flutie	Boston College	QB	2,240	71.11%	Senior	286th
1985		Bo Jackson*	Auburn	RB	1,509	47.90%	Senior	1st
1986		Vinny Testaverde*	Miami (FL)	QB	2,213	70.25%	Senior	1st
1987		Tim Brown†	Notre Dame	WR	1,442	45.78%	Senior	6th
1988		Barry Sanders†	Oklahoma State	RB	1,878	68.27%	Junior	3rd
1989		Andre Ware	Houston	QB	1,073	38.96%	Junior	7th
1990		Ty Detmer	BYU	QB	1,482	53.87%	Junior	230th (1992)
1991		Desmond Howard	Michigan	WR/PR	2,077	75.50%	Junior	4th
1992		Gino Torretta	Miami (FL)	QB	1,400	50.84%	Senior	192nd
1993		Charlie Ward	Florida State	QB	2,310	83.79%	Senior	Undrafted[note 3]
1994		Rashaan Salaam	Colorado	RB	1,743	63.15%	Junior	21st
1995		Eddie George	Ohio State	RB	1,460	52.84%	Senior	14th
1996		Danny Wuerffel	Florida	QB	1,363	49.38%	Senior	136th
1997		Charles Woodson†	Michigan	CB/PR	1,815	65.69%	Junior	4th
1998		Ricky Williams	Texas	RB	2,355	85.23%	Senior	5th
1999		Ron Dayne	Wisconsin	RB	2,042	73.83%	Senior	11th
2000		Chris Weinke	Florida State	QB	1,628	58.86%	Senior	106th
2001	—	Eric Crouch	Nebraska	QB	770	27.75%	Senior	95th
2002		Carson Palmer*	USC	QB	1,328	48.01%	Senior	1st
2003		Jason White	Oklahoma	QB	1,481	53.54%	Senior	Undrafted (2005)
2004		Matt Leinart	USC	QB	1,325	47.85%	Junior	10th (2006)
2005 (vacated)	—	Reggie Bush	USC	RB	2,541	91.77%	Junior	2nd
2006		Troy Smith	Ohio State	QB	2,540	91.63%	Senior	174th
2007		Tim Tebow	Florida	QB	1,957	70.52%	Sophomore	25th (2010)
2008		Sam Bradford*	Oklahoma	QB	1,726	62.13%	Sophomore	1st (2010)
2009		Mark Ingram Jr.	Alabama	RB	1,304	46.99%	Sophomore	28th (2011)
2010		Cam Newton*	Auburn	QB	2,263	81.55%	Junior	1st
2011		Robert Griffin III	Baylor	QB	1,687	60.66%	Junior	2nd
2012		Johnny Manziel	Texas A&M	QB	2,029	72.88%	Freshman	22nd (2014)
2013		Jameis Winston*	Florida State	QB	2,205	79.12%	Freshman	1st (2015)
2014		Marcus Mariota	Oregon	QB	2,534	90.92%	Junior	2nd
2015		Derrick Henry	Alabama	RB	1,832	65.73%	Junior	45th
2016		Lamar Jackson	Louisville	QB	2,144	79.50%	Sophomore	32nd (2018)
2017		Baker Mayfield*	Oklahoma	QB	2,398	86.00%	Senior	1st
2018		Kyler Murray*	Oklahoma	QB	2,167	77.75%	Junior	1st
2019		Joe Burrow*	LSU	QB	2,608	93.80%	Senior	1st
2020		DeVonta Smith	Alabama	WR	1,856	66.81%	Senior	10th

Trophies won by school[]

This is a list of the colleges and universities who have had a player win a Heisman trophy. Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame are tied for the most trophies at 7 each. USC previously had 7 winners but the 2005 award was forfeited, leaving their official total at 6. Ohio State has the distinction of the only two-time winner, Archie Griffin, leaving their total players to have won the trophy at six. In total, players from 40 different schools have won a Heisman Trophy, while 19 schools have more than one trophy.

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heisman Trophy winners.

• Heisman Trophy official website