John Heisman

John W. Heisman (October 25, 1869 – October 3, 1936) was an American football coach.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and played football at Brown University 1887-1889 and at the University of Pennsylvania 1890-1891. He coached at Oberlin College in 1893, went to Akron University in 1894, and returned to Oberlin the next year. In 1895, he went to Auburn University, where he stayed for five years. With all these schools combined, he lost only five games.

In 1900, he went to Clemson University, where he coached for four seasons before moving to Georgia Tech. He put together a spectacular 16 seasons there, including three undefeated seasons and a 32-game undefeated strreak. His team also scored a record 222 points in a game against Cumberland in 1916.

He went back to Pennsyvania for one season in 1920, then to Washington and Jefferson, before ending his career with four seasons at Rice University.

He was an innovator and developed one of the first shifts, had both guards pull to lead an end run, and had his center toss the ball back, instead of rolling or kicking it. He was a proponent of the legalization of the forward pass.

After retiring from coaching, he became director of the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City. There, he began the tradition of awarding a trophy to the best college player of the year. Since 1935, that trophy has been called the Heisman Memorial Trophy.