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John Heisman

The Glory Years: Georgia Tech



Heisman coached Clemson football, as well as baseball, through 1903. His football record of 19-3-2 and .833 winning percentage established a yet-to-be-broken school record. In 1903 Heisman married Evelyn Cox, a widow with a twelve-year-old son. The following year Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) lured Heisman away from Clemson, offering a salary of $2,000 and 30 percent of gate receipts. Heisman was at the peak of his coaching career at Georgia Tech, compiling a record of 102-29-6 during his sixteen-year stay. As with his previous teams, Heisman began to develop the Tech program through tough workouts, strict discipline, and the highest standards of commitment from his players.



On a national level, football was under fire for the ever-increasing number of football-related deaths and injuries; twenty-one players were reported to have died in 1904 alone. Consequently, for a period of time numerous schools, including Columbia, Northwestern, California, and Stanford Universities, discontinued their football programs altogether. To create a safer game, Heisman joined those who advocated the legalization of the forward pass. By allowing the ball to be thrown beyond the line of scrimmage (up to that time, only laterals were allowed), the crushing pile of players that led to so many injuries would be neutralized by spreading play across the entire field. Heisman became one of the strongest voices in support of the forward pass, which was finally legalized in 1906.

Related Biography: Coach Glenn "Pop" Warner

Glenn S. Warner earned the nickname "Pop" as captain of the Cornell University football team because he was older than most of his teammates. After graduating from Cornell with a law degree in 1894, Warner became the football coach at the University of Georgia. During the 1895 season Georgia played Auburn, and Heisman successfully used the hidden ball trick against Warner's team. Warner later copied the trick play and is subsequently sometimes credited with inventing it. After two seasons at Georgia, in which Warner's team went undefeated with a 4-0 record, Warner coached two years at his alma mater, Cornell. In 1899 he became the coach at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Five years later he returned to Cornell to coach three seasons. Again in 1907 Warner left Cornell to resume his job at the Carlisle Indian School, the same year that the All American halfback Jim Thorpe joined the Carlisle team.

Warner's greatest coaching success came after becoming the football coach at the University of Pittsburgh in 1914, where his team recorded a 33-game winning streak and earned two national championships. In 1924 Warner moved to California to coach at Stanford for the next nine years. During that time, his teams won three Rose Bowl championships. He spent his final years of coaching at Temple University before retiring in 1933. Best remembered for founding the Pop Warner Youth Football League in 1929, Warner is also credited with numerous innovations in college football, including the screen play, the three-point stance, the use of shoulder pads, and putting players' numbers on their jerseys. Warner and Heisman were two of college football's most influential coaches during the sport's infancy.

Awards and Accomplishments

Heisman retired from coaching in 1927 with a career record of 186 wins, 70 losses, and 16 ties.
1900-03 Establishes school record for winning percentage during three years at Clemson (19-3-2, .833)
1904-19 Goes 102-29-7 during his tenure at Georgia Tech
1915-17 Georgia Tech football team goes undefeated for three consecutive years, adding up to a 31-game streak with no losses.
1916 Georgia Tech beats Cumberland College 220-0, the most lopsided game in the history of college football
1917 Wins a national championship
1936 New York Downtown Athletic Club trophy is renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy in his honor
1954 Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

With the forward pass now at his disposal, Heisman regularly added its use to his game plan. He also developed what became known as the jump shift, or Heisman shift, in 1906. Prior to Heisman's invention of jump shift, players lined up and stayed put until the ball was snapped. Once again breaking with traditional play, Heisman's team would line up in one formation, then one or more men would quickly shift to new positions with the snap coming as soon as they were reset. This put the opponent at a disadvantage as the defensive players had little time to assess the new formation or communicate with teammates regarding necessary changes in defensive coverage.

During his first ten years at Georgia Tech, Heisman fielded good teams that sometimes struggled against chief rivals Auburn, Georgia, and Sewanee. Rules were changing rapidly as the prototype for modern college football began to take shape. By 1912 the game had evolved into what can be recognized as American football. Gifted at forming a winning team from players who were outmatched in size and talent, Heisman's recruiting efforts eventually paid off, and in 1915 he found himself with a truly talented team. For three consecutive seasons, from 1915 to 1917, Heisman's team went unbeaten, outscoring opponents during the 31-game streak 1,599 to 99. The crowning moment came in 1917 when Georgia Tech earned its first national championship.

On October 7, 1916, Georgia Tech participated in the most lopsided game in the history of college football. According to the nearly legendary story, Tech's baseball team (coached by Heisman) had been trounced the previous spring by Cumberland University, a small school in Tennessee. Reportedly, Cumberland had loaded its baseball team with professional players out of Nashville, hoping to salvage its struggling athletic program. Heisman, in need of revenge for the humiliating defeat, offered Cumberland $500 to come to Atlanta for a football game. At halftime the score stood at 126-0, and Heisman told his team, "You're doing all right, but we can't tell what those Cumberland players have up their sleeve. They may spring a surprise." For his part, the Cumberland coach reminded his players to hang on and remember that $500 guarantee.

Legends surrounding the game include reports of several Cumberland players who jumped the fence and deserted and one player who found his way to the Tech bench. When informed he was on the wrong side, the Cumberland player refused to join his own team for fear he'd be put back in the game. The third and fourth quarters were mercifully shortened to 10 minutes, and at the end of the day Tech had racked up 528 rushing yards and an additional 450 yards in punt returns. Cumberland posted a total of 20 yards rushing, 12 yards passing, and 10 fumbles. Georgia Tech's record of 32 touchdowns and 18 consecutive extra points still stands.

Additional topics

Famous Sports StarsFootballJohn Heisman Biography - Football Mad, Chronology, Growing Reputation: Auburn And Clemson, The Glory Years: Georgia Tech - SELECTED WRITINGS BY HEISMAN: