Leslie Horvath (October 12, 1921 – November 14, 1995) was an American football quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy while playing for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 1944. Horvath was the first Ohio State player to win the Heisman, an award given to the best college football player in the United States. The school retired his jersey number 22 in October 2000.
Horvath grew up in Parma, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland and became a standout high school athlete despite his small stature. He entered Ohio State in 1939 on a work scholarship, but tried out for and made the football team the following year. He played as a reserve halfback on the 1942 team coached by Paul Brown that won Ohio State's first-ever national championship. Horvath graduated that year and moved to Ohio State's dental school. In 1944, however, acting Ohio State football coach Carroll Widdoes asked Horvath to rejoin the team, taking advantage of a World War II-era rule allowing graduate students with remaining eligibility to play. Horvath agreed, and helped lead the Buckeyes to a 9–0 record and a second-place showing in the AP poll. He won the Heisman and was named an All-American at the end of the season.
Horvath graduated from dental school in 1945 and served as a dental officer in the U.S. Navy for two years. Following his discharge, he played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams in 1947 and 1948 before being released and signing with the Cleveland Browns in |1949. The Browns won the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) championship that year. Horvath retired from playing in 1950 and moved to Los Angeles to practice dentistry, and lived there for the rest of his life. Horvath was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1977.
Early life
Horvath was born to immigrant parents from Hungary in 1921, in South Bend, Indiana; his family soon moved to Parma, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He attended Parma Senior High School starting in 1936 and played on the track, basketball and football teams until the 11th grade. He decided to switch schools because he felt his basketball teammates were not taking the sport seriously. Horvath's family relocated, and in 1938 he enrolled at James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland, one of Parma's rivals. Playing as a quarterback for the Rhodes Rams, Horvath guided the team to seven straight wins in 1938, but the team lost to West Technical High School for a chance to be the Cleveland Senate League's Western Conference representative in the city championship. He graduated in 1939.
College career
After graduating, Horvath attended Ohio State University on a work scholarship, but managed to make the school's football team in 1940. Horvath was small for a football player – he weighed just 160 pounds – but was a quick runner and had a strong arm. Ohio State's football team was a disappointment in 1940, however, finishing the season with a 4–4 win–loss record under head coach Francis Schmidt. He finished his undergraduate degree that year and enrolled in a graduate program at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry. He also won the Heisman Trophy, an award given each year to the best college football player in the country. While at Ohio State, he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
Military and professional career
After graduating from Ohio State's dental school in 1945, Horvath signed to play for the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League. Horvath, however, applied for a commission to join the U.S. Navy and was sworn in as a lieutenant j.g. that August. He was sent at first to Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois for training, where he practiced dentistry and acted as an assistant to Brown, who had entered the Navy and was coaching the base's football team.
Before his discharge from the Navy in 1947, there was speculation that Horvath might join the Cleveland Browns, a new team coached by Brown in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Led by quarterback Bob Waterfield, Los Angeles finished the season with a 6–6 record in 1947. Horvath rushed for 68 yards and had three receptions.
Horvath, who worked as a dentist in the offseason in Los Angeles, was released by the Rams in 1949. He signed with the Browns a week later, closing his dental office and moving to Cleveland to reunite with Brown. Cleveland finished the season with a 9–1–2 record and won a fourth straight AAFC championship. The AAFC disbanded after the season and the Browns were absorbed by the NFL, but Horvath decided to quit football to practice dentistry back in California.
Later life and death
Horvath married Shirley Phillips, an airline hostess after the 1949 season, and moved back to Los Angeles. He coached little league football and practiced dentistry in Glendale, California, a major Los Angeles suburb, for the rest of his life. Ohio State retired his number 22 uniform in 2001, six years after his death.