John William Heisman ( ; October 23, 1869 – October 3, 1936) 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 (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.
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". His mother's grandfather had been an aide-de-campe to Napoleon. on October 23, 1869, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Bavarian German immigrant Johann Michael Heissmann and Sara Lehr Heissmann. 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 went on to play football as a lineman at Brown University
On Brown's football team, he was a substitute guard in 1887, and a starting tackle in 1888. 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. 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."
Early coaching career: Oberlin and Buchtel
Heisman first coached at Oberlin College. 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.
thumb|The 1892 Oberlin football team: Heisman on the left in the middle row.
On his 1892 team, Heisman's trainer was Clarence Hemingway, the father of author Ernest Hemingway The team beat Ohio State twice, and considered itself undefeated at the end of the season.
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
thumb|left|upright=0.6|Heisman at Auburn|alt=Portrait of Heisman in his mid- to late twenties at Auburn University
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 (Auburn University) 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. 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. 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. Later, Heisman became one of the main proponents of making the forward pass legal.
thumb|1896 Auburn team, Heisman standing on the right
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. 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.
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. 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?" He still has the highest winning percentage in school history in both football and baseball. Again Walter Riggs, who moved on from Auburn to coach and manage at Clemson, was instrumental in the hiring. Riggs started an association to help pay Heisman's salary, which was $1,800 per year, and raised $415.11.
Heisman coached baseball from 1901 to 1903, posting a 28–6–1 record. Under Heisman, pitcher Vedder Sitton was considered "one of the best twirlers in the country" and one of "the best pitchers that Clemson ever had". By the time of his hiring in 1900, Heisman was "the undisputed master of Southern football". Heisman later said that his approach at Clemson was "radically different from anything on earth".
The 1900 season had "the rise of Clemson from a little school whose football teams had never been heard of before, to become a football machine of the very first power." Clemson finished the season undefeated at 6–0, and beat Davidson on opening day by a 64–0 score, then the largest ever made in the South.
Clemson then beat Wofford 21–0, agreeing that every point scored after the first four touchdowns did not count, and South Carolina 51–0. The team also beat Georgia, VPI, and Alabama. Clemson beat Georgia 39–5, and Clemson players were pelted with coal from the nearby dorms. Stars for the Clemson team included captain and tackle Norman Walker, end Jim Lynah, and halfback Buster Hunter. Clemson beat Georgia and lost to VPI 17–11, with Carpenter starring for VPI. The season closed with a defeat of North Carolina. Lynah later transferred to Cornell and played for Pop Warner.
Heisman was described as "a master of taking advantage of the surprise element." The day before the game against Georgia Tech, Heisman sent in substitutes to Atlanta, who checked into a hotel, and partied until dawn. The next day, the varsity team was well rested and prepared, while Georgia Tech was fooled and expected an easy win. Clemson won that game 44–5. In a 28–0 defeat of Furman, an oak tree was on the field, and Heisman called for a lateral pass using the tree as an extra blocker.
The 1902 team went 6–1. Several fights broke out that day. As one writer put it: "The Carolina fans that week were carrying around a poster with the image of a tiger with a gamecock standing on top of it, holding the tiger's tail as if he was steering the tiger". Another brawl broke out before both sides agreed to burn the poster in an effort to defuse tensions. In the aftermath, the rivalry was suspended until 1909. The last game of the season, Clemson beat Tennessee 11–0 in the snow, in a game during which Tennessee's Toots Douglas launched a 109-yard punt (the field length was 110 yards in those days).
thumb|300px|1903 Clemson football team: Heisman in back, second from left with glasses|alt=refer to caption
The 1903 team went 4–1–1, and opened the season by beating Georgia 29–0. The next week, Clemson played Georgia's rival Georgia Tech. To inspire Clemson, Georgia offered a bushel of apples for every point it scored after the 29th. The team then beat North Carolina A&M, lost to North Carolina, and beat Davidson. While both teams can therefore be listed as champion, Heisman named Cumberland champion.
In 1902 and 1903, several Clemson players made the All-Southern team, an all-star team of players from the South selected by several writers after the season, analogous to All-America teams. They included ends Vedder Sitton and Hope Sadler, quarterback Johnny Maxwell, and fullback Jock Hanvey.
Fuzzy Woodruff relates Heisman's role in selecting All-Southern teams: "The first selections that had any pretense of being backed by a judicial consideration were made by W.Reynolds Tichenor...The next selections were made by John W. Heisman, who was as good a judge of football men as the country ever produced."
Georgia Tech
After the 73–0 defeat by Clemson, Georgia Tech approached Heisman and was able to hire him as a coach and an athletic director. A banner proclaiming "Tech Gets Heisman for 1904" was strung across Atlanta's Piedmont Park.