John Heisman
John William Heisman was an American sportsman, writer, and actor. He was a player and coach of American football, baseball, and basketball, and served as the head football coach at Oberlin College, Buchtel College, 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.
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 Johann Wilhelm Heisman on October 23, 1869, 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. His oration at his graduation entitled "The Dramatist as Sermonizer" was described as "full of dramatic emphasis and fire, and showed how the masterpieces of Shakespeare depicted the ends of unchecked passion."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's father refused to watch him play at Titusville, calling football "bestial". 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 teammatesguards weighing 212 and 243would 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.
Heisman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1892. Due to poor eyesight, he took his exams orally.
Coaching career
In his book Principles of Football, Heisman described his coaching strategy: "The coach should be masterful and commanding, even dictatorial. He has no time to say 'please' or 'mister'. At times he must be severe, arbitrary, and little short of a czar." Heisman always used a megaphone at practice. "Heisman's voice was deep, his diction perfect, his tone biting." He was also known for his use of polysyllabic language, and would repeat this annually, at the start of each football season:Early coaching career: Oberlin and Buchtel
Heisman first coached at Oberlin College. In 1892, The Oberlin Review wrote: "Mr. Heisman has entirely remade our football. He has taught us scientific football." He used the double pass, from tackle to halfback, and moved his quarterback to the safety position on defense. Influenced by Yale and Pudge Heffelfinger, Heisman implemented the now illegal "flying wedge" formation. It involved seven players arranged as a "V" to protect the ball carrier. Heisman was also likely influenced by Heffelfinger to pull guards on end runs.On his 1892 team, Heisman's trainer was Clarence Hemingway, the father of author Ernest Hemingway and one of his linemen was the first Hawaiian to play college football, the future politician John Henry Wise. The team beat Ohio State twice, and considered itself undefeated at the end of the season. However, the outcome of its game against Michigan is still in dispute. Michigan declared it had won the game, 26–24, but Oberlin said it won 24–22. The referee, an Oberlin substitute player, had ruled that time had expired. The umpire, a Michigan supporter, ruled otherwise. Michigan's George Jewett, who had scored all of his team's points and was the school's first black player, then ran for a touchdown with no Oberlin players on the field. The Michigan Daily and Detroit Tribune reported that Michigan had won the game, while The Oberlin News and The Oberlin Review reported that Oberlin had won.
In 1893, Heisman became the football and baseball coach at Buchtel College. A disappointing baseball season was made up for by a 5–2 football season. It was then customary for the center to begin a play by rolling or kicking the ball backwards, but this proved difficult for Buchtel's unusually tall quarterback Harry Clark. Under Heisman, the center began tossing the ball to Clark, a practice that eventually evolved into the snap.
The first school to officially defeat Heisman was Case School of Applied Science, known today as Case Western Reserve. Buchtel won a single game against Ohio State at the Ohio State Fair before Heisman returned to Oberlin in 1894, posting a 4–3–1 record, including losses to Michigan and undefeated Penn State. The Penn State game ended with a fair catch and free kick, which resulted in a field goal for Penn State. Referees were confused whether teams could kick a field goal or had to punt on a free kick, and the game ended 6–4 in favor of Oberlin, but Walter Camp over-ruled the game officials, allowing Penn State its extra free kick and the victory 9–6.
Auburn
After his two years at Oberlin and possibly due to the economic Panic of 1893, Heisman invested his savings and began working at a tomato farm in Marshall, Texas. It was hard work in the heat and Heisman was losing money. He was contacted by Walter Riggs, then the manager of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute football team. Auburn was looking for a football coach, and Heisman was suggested to Riggs by his former player at Oberlin, Penn's then-captain Carl S. Williams. For a salary of $500, he accepted a part-time job as a "trainer".Heisman coached football at Auburn from 1895 to 1899. Auburn's yearbook, the Glomerata, in 1897 stated "Heisman came to us in the fall of '95, and the day on which he arrived at Auburn can well be marked as the luckiest in the history of athletics at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute." At Auburn, Heisman had the idea for his quarterback to call out "hike" or "hep" to start a play and receive the ball from the center, or to draw the opposing team into an offside penalty. He also used a fake snap to draw the other team offsides. He began his use of a type of delayed buck play where an end took a hand-off, then handed the ball to the halfback on the opposite side, who rushed up the middle. As a coach, Heisman "railed and snorted in practice, imploring players to do their all for God, country, Auburn, and Heisman. Before each game he made squadmen take a nonshirk, nonflinch oath." Due to his fondness for Shakespeare, he would sometimes use a British accent at practice. While it was then illegal to coach from the sidelines during a game, Heisman would sometimes use secret signals with a bottle or a handkerchief to communicate with his team.
Heisman's first game as an Auburn coach came against Vanderbilt. Heisman had his quarterback Reynolds Tichenor use the "hidden ball trick" to tie the game at 6 points. However, Vanderbilt answered by kicking a field goal and won 9–6, making it the first game of Southern football decided by a field goal. In the rivalry game with Georgia, Auburn won 16–6. Georgia coach Pop Warner copied the hidden ball trick, and in 1903, his Carlisle team famously used it to defeat Harvard.
Earlier in the 1895 season, Heisman witnessed one of the first illegal forward passes when Georgia faced North Carolina in Atlanta. Georgia was about to block a punt when UNC's Joel Whitaker tossed the ball out of desperation, and George Stephens caught the pass and ran 70 yards for a touchdown. Georgia coach Pop Warner complained to the referee that the play was illegal, but the referee let the play stand because he did not see the pass. Later, Heisman became one of the main proponents of making the forward pass legal.
Lineman Marvin "Babe" Pearce had transferred to Auburn from Alabama, and Reynolds Tichenor was captain of the 1896 Auburn team, which beat Georgia Tech 45–0. Auburn players greased the train tracks the night before the game. Georgia Tech's train did not stop until Loachapoka, and the Georgia Tech players had to walk the 5 miles back to Auburn. This began a tradition of students parading through the streets in their pajamas, known as the "Wreck Tech Pajama Parade". Auburn finished the season by losing 12–6 to Pop Warner's Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion Georgia team, which was led by quarterback Richard Von Albade Gammon. Auburn received its first national publicity when Heisman was able to convince Harper's Weekly to publish the 1896 team's photo.
The 1897 Auburn team featured linemen Pearce and John Penton, a transfer from Virginia. Of its three games, one was a scoreless tie against Sewanee, "The University of the South" in Tennessee. Another was a 14-4 defeat of Nashville, which featured Bradley Walker. Tichenor had transferred to Georgia. Gammon moved to fullback and died in the game against Virginia. Auburn finished the 1897 football season $700 in debt, and in response, Heisman took on the role of a theater producer and staged the comedic play David Garrick. Having made enough money for another football season, the 1898 team won two out of three games, with its loss coming against undefeated North Carolina. After falling behind 13–4 to Georgia, Heisman started using fullback George Mitcham, and won the game 18–17.
The 1899 team, which Heisman considered his best while at Auburn, was led by fullback Arthur Feagin. As Heisman recalled, "I do not think I have ever seen so fast a team as that was." Auburn was leading Georgia by a score of 11–6 when the game was called due to darkness, lighting not being available at that time, resulting in an official scoreless tie. Heisman fitted his linemen with straps and handles under their belts so that the other linemen could hold onto them and prevent the opposing team from breaking through the line. The umpire W. L. Taylor had to cut them.
Auburn lost just one game, 11–10 to the "Iron Men" of Sewanee, who shutout all their other opponents. A report of the game says "Feagin is a player of exceptional ability, and runs with such force that some ground belongs to him on every attempt." Heisman left Auburn after the 1899 season, and wrote a farewell letter with "tears in my eyes, and tears in my voice; tears even in the trembling of my hand". "You will not feel hard toward me; you will forgive me, you will not forget me? Let me ask to retain your friendship. Can a man be associated for five successive seasons with Grand Old Auburn, toiling for her, befriended by her, striving with her, and yet not love her?"