John Heisman facts for kids
Heisman at Georgia Tech c. 1918
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| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 23, 1869 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | October 3, 1936 (aged 66) New York, New York |
| Alma mater | |
| Playing career | |
| Football | |
| 1887–1888 | Brown |
| 1889–1891 | Penn |
| Position(s) | Center, tackle, end |
John William Heisman (October 23, 1869 – October 3, 1936) was a player and coach of American football, baseball, and basketball, as well as a sportswriter and actor. He served as the head football coach at Oberlin College, Buchtel College (now known as the University of Akron), Auburn University, Clemson University, Georgia Tech, the University of Pennsylvania, Washington & Jefferson College, and Rice University, compiling a career college football record of 186–70–18. In 1917, Heisman's Georgia Tech Golden Tornado were recognized as the national champion.
Heisman was also the head basketball coach at Georgia Tech, tallying a mark of 9–14, and the head baseball coach at Buchtel, Clemson, and Georgia Tech, amassing a career college baseball record of 199–108–7. He served as the athletic director at Georgia Tech and Rice. While at Georgia Tech, he was also the president of the Atlanta Crackers baseball team.
Sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff dubbed Heisman the "pioneer of Southern football". He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954. His entry there notes that Heisman "stands only behind Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, and Walter Camp as a master innovator of the brand of football of his day". He was instrumental in several changes to the game, including legalizing the forward pass. The Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the season's most outstanding college football player, is named after him.
Early life and playing career
John Heisman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Bavarian German immigrant Johann Michael Heissmann and Sara Lehr Heissman. He grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania near Titusville and was salutatorian of his graduating class at Titusville High School.
Although he was a drama student, he confessed he was "football mad." He played varsity football for Titusville High School from 1884 to 1886. Heisman went on to play football as a lineman at Brown University and at the University of Pennsylvania. He also played baseball at Penn.
On Brown's football team, he was a substitute guard in 1887, and a starting tackle in 1888.
At Penn, he was a substitute center in 1889, a substitute center and tackle in 1890, and a starting end in 1891.
Sportswriter Edwin Pope tells us Heisman was "a 158-pound center in constant dread that his immediate teammates guards weighing 212 and 243 would fall on him." He had a flat nose due to being struck in the face by a football, when he tried to block a kick against Penn State by leap-frogging the center.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1892. Due to poor eyesight, he took his exams orally.
Personal life
Heisman met his first wife, an actress, while he was participating in theater during his time at Clemson. They married during the 1903 season, on October 24, 1903, a day after Heisman's thirty-fourth birthday. In 1918, Heisman and his wife divorced, and, to prevent any social embarrassment to his former wife, who chose to remain in the city, he left Atlanta after the 1919 football season.
Heisman met a student at Buchtel College, where he was coaching football during the 1893 and 1894 seasons. The two were close but decided not to marry. When they met again in 1924, Heisman was living in Washington, Pennsylvania and coaching at Washington and Jefferson College. This time they did decide to marry, doing it that same year, right before Heisman left Pennsylvania to take his last head coaching job at Rice University in Texas.
Death and legacy
Heisman died of pneumonia on October 3, 1936, in New York City. Three days later he was taken by train to his wife's hometown of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where he was buried in Grave D, Lot 11, Block 3 of the city-owned Forest Home Cemetery. When Heisman died, he was preparing to write a history of football.
Heisman was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954, a member of the second class of inductees. Heisman was an innovator and "master strategist". He developed one of the first shifts. He was a proponent of the legalization of the forward pass. He invented the hidden ball play, and originated the "hike" or "hep" shouted by the quarterback to start each play. He led the effort to cut the game from halves to quarters. He is credited with the idea of listing downs and yardage on the scoreboard, and of putting his quarterback at safety on defense.
On December 10, 1936, just two months after Heisman's death on October 3, the Downtown Athletic Club trophy was renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy, and is now given to the player voted as the season's most outstanding collegiate football player. Voters for this award consist primarily of media representatives, who are allocated by regions across the country in order to filter out possible regional bias, and former recipients. The award is now given out by the Heisman Trust.
Heisman Street on Clemson's campus is named in his honor. Heisman Drive, located directly south of Jordan–Hare Stadium on the Auburn University campus, is named in his honor as well. A bust of him is also in Jordan–Hare Stadium. A wooden statue of Heisman was placed at the Rhinelander–Oneida County Airport. A bronze statue of him was placed on Akron's campus. Heisman has also been the subject of a musical.
Images for kids
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The 1892 Oberlin football team: Heisman on the left in the middle row.
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Heisman at Auburn
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Auburn vs. Georgia in 1895
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1896 Auburn team, Heisman standing on the right
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Walter Riggs (pictured) helped get Heisman hired at Auburn and Clemson.
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Heisman at Clemson
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1903 Clemson football team: Heisman in back, second from left with glasses
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1907 Georgia Tech baseball team: Heisman in center, holding megaphone
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Diagram illustrating Heisman's shift formation
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Grant Field circa 1913
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The pennant at the annual banquet for the 1915 team
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The 1916 scoreboard, showing football's worst blowout
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Heisman, circa 1917, in front of Clemson's Bowman Field
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The 1917 Georgia Tech backfield
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Pitt's Tom Davies ran against Georgia Tech in 1918.
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Portrait of Heisman in his mid-fifties at Rice University
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Poster for the play David Garrick, produced and acted in by Heisman, Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn) 1897
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Heisman statue at Georgia Tech.
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Plaque recognizing Heisman's football accomplishments at Tech
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