Heisman of Troy

It seemed like a foregone conclusion, but then Brady Quinn winning the Maxwell drummed a little drama into the Heisman mix. For a second there, it seemed like the Notre Dame fix was in. But saner minds prevailed, and last night Ohio State's Troy Smith became the sixth Heisman trophy winner in Buckeye history, putting the school just a stiff-arm behind the USC/Notre Dame logjam atop the all-time Heisman-winners list (and tied with those two schools in overall Heismans, in that Archie Griffin won it twice).

Troy Smith joins a distinguished list of Buckeyes to take home college football's most coveted trophy:

1944 - Les Horvath
The Buckeyes first Heisman winner oddly won the award two years after he'd graduated from the university. He was in a graduate program in dentistry when the Buckeyes' head coach asked him to rejoin the squad, which had lost several players to the war effort.

After winning the Heisman and graduating from dentistry school, Horvath went into the Navy for two years and then played three seasons in the NFL with the Rams and the Browns.


1950 - Vic Janowicz
















The original Drew Henson. Janowicz won the Heisman as a junior at Ohio State. He passed, ran, punted and kicked and played a ferocious defensive back. After graduating, he eschewed the NFL to try and make it in the bigs, but, to be blunt about it, he sucked. In two seasons riding the pines with the Pirates he compiled a .214 average. He returned to football in 1954, and was the Redskins' starting tailback in 1955. But he was involved in car accident during training camp in 1956 that left him partially paralyzed. He died of cancer in 1996.


1955 - Howard Cassady
One of the most famous Buckeyes of all time, Hopalong Cassady was a prolific scorer, notching 37 touchdowns in his 36 games with Ohio State. In 1954, he was the star of Ohio State's national championship team, the second in the school's history and the first of the Woody Hayes era. In 1955, Cassady won the Heisman and the Maxwell and was named the A.P. athlete of the year. He went on to play nine seasons in the NFL, seven with the Lions, and one a piece with the Browns and the Eagles. At Ohio State, he was also a baseball star, and these days he's a member of the Yankees organization, as both a scout and a third-base coach of the Columbus Clippers.


1974, 1975 - Archie Griffin
The answer to a standard sports trivia question - who is the only man to win the Heisman trophy twice? Griffin also remains the only running back ever to lead the Big Ten in rushing three consecutive years. Along with his second Heisman in 1975, he also won the Maxwell Award and was named S.I.'s Man of the Year. At the Heisman ceremony that year, Buckeye legend and legendary hardass Woody Hayes (pictured with Griffin on the left) called Griffin "the best football player I have ever seen." He played seven mediocre seasons in the NFL with the Bengals, and then jumped to USFL for a season with the Jacksonville Bulls. On the style front, in his Buckeye days he sported one of the most devastatingly cool sets of lambchops in football history.


1995 - Eddie George












The greatest pro of the Ohio State Heisman winners to date, George also won the award by the narrowest margin in Heisman history, edging Nebraska's Tommie Frazier by just 264 votes. He had a great nine-season NFL career, rushing for 10,441 yards, which should give him a good shot at making it to Canton. He is also from Philly and one of the nicest, most soft-spoken, intelligent athletes I have ever met.