Berry Tramel, Sports columnist
Heisman victor a legend for life
’Life-changing’ Trophy symbolizes greatness, fame for player who wins
By Berry Tramel
Comments 
13
Published: December 13, 2008
A life will change tonight. Maybe Sam Bradford’s. If not Slingin’ Sam, then Colt McCoy or Tim Tebow, the other guys in this trio with names right out of a Zane Grey novel but with fames right out of a Grantland Rice dispatch and games that Amos Alonzo Stagg never could have conceived.
Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow. AP Photos
Multimedia
NewsOK Related Articles
- 50 in 50: The Oklahoman asks someone from each state...
12/13/2008 State, Voter, Vote, Reason Alabama Jack Rouss, manager of Gabriel’s Sports Cafe in Birmingham, Tebow, "To me, it’s automatic. If he...
- Heisman Blitz
12/13/2008 Men in motion Heisman finalists By all accounts, Heisman voters have struggled mightily in deciding between the three finalists: OU’s Sam Bradford,...
- The cases for and against each Heisman candidate
12/13/2008 Colt McCoy →Texas quarterback Why he’ll win No player was more valuable to his team. McCoy is the Longhorns’ leader in every way. He had a...
- Q&A with OU's Sam Bradford
12/13/2008 The Heisman Trophy will be awarded tonight in New York City. Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford is not only a finalist but a favorite. Enough said. Jenni...
- Heisman: OU's Sam Bradford says return to New York...
12/13/2008 MANHATTAN, N.Y. — During spring break this year, Sam Bradford saw New York City for the first time, traveling with his mother, Martha. Eight months...
- Can OU's Sam Bradford win the Heisman?
12/13/2008 Why Bradford will win Statistically, no player had a better season than Bradford. In fact, no Heisman quarterback has had a better statistical season than...
- Bradford, McCoy, and Tebow find they have more in...
12/13/2008 NEW YORK — The Oklahoma Sooners’ Sam Bradford, Texas’ Colt McCoy and Florida’s Tim Tebow have only known each other for a few days...
- Heisman Notebook
12/13/2008 White contacts Bradford; Griffin talks to Tebow Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford received a text message this week from ex-Sooner QB Jason White, who won...
A name will be called and a life will never be the same.
"From the point I
won the Heisman, life changed,” said
Steve Owens, OU’s 1969 Heisman Trophy winner and co-chair, along with ’03 Heisman winner
Jason White, of the
Sammy B. Fan Club in Gotham City tonight.
Don’t be fooled. That trophy is covered with more than bronze. It is cast in status. A title. A distinction unlike any in sport or maybe out.
"Being part of that fraternity and the things it involves, it just changes,” White said of life. "When you’ve got the Heisman Trophy attached to your name, you’ll get recognized just about everywhere you go.
"He won’t realize it until a couple of months after it happens. Then every time he signs his name, it’s not Sam Bradford anymore. It’s Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford.”
The Heisman is the stuff of legend. White is not the greatest quarterback in Sooner history;
Jack Mildren, for one, was better. Owens is not the greatest player;
Lee Roy Selmon tops that list.
But the statues that rise a post pattern east of Owen Field are not of Mildren or Selmon or
Kurt Burris or
Roy Williams. They are of White and Owens and the Billys, Vessels and Sims. They are of OU’s four Heisman winners.
The Heisman is sport’s Oscar. Its symbol of greatness and fame. The Heisman is the monument of memory.
"This is a big deal,” Owens said. "It’ll hit him when he gets there.”
Owens meant
New York. The script is different from 40 years ago, when the winner was announced and then brought East for the banquet. Today, of course, there are finalists and drama and a winner and losers.
But the sledgehammer is the same.
"Myself personally, really didn’t hit me until I had to get up and had to make that acceptance speech,” Owens said.
"I have lunch with
Howard Cosell and
Frank Gifford. Go be on the
Johnny Carson show with
Muhammad Ali. Get a call from
President Nixon.
"You think, ‘This is a big thing.’ Small kid from
Oklahoma and these things happen to you? Never think it would happen.”
Who thought it could happen to Bradford, when he quarterbacked a so-so team, by Putnam City North standards, as a high school senior. Then signed with OU in what seemed to be an insurance recruit. A quarterback you might need in a pinch, just in case.
Two seasons and 84 touchdown passes later, Bradford is a Sooner for the ages, and his legacy will be maximum sealed forever tonight if the Downtown Athletic Club suit says the name every Sooner fan wants to hear.
For White, "the best part of the whole ceremony is when the name of the winner is called. You know exactly what they’re going through.
"It’s not, ‘I wonder what he feels like.’ You’ve been there and done that.”
So how did White feel when he heard his name, capping one of football’s great comeback stories?
His heart beat fast. Real fast. He didn’t know what to do. "Didn’t know whether to jump up and yell or anything,” White said. "It’s just kind of an anxious feeling. You’ve got about two seconds to figure out what you’re going to say, if you haven’t wrote it down before.”
But there’s the charm of the Heisman. The winners don’t have to say a thing. The trophy does all the talking for a life that is changed.
Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080. Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
Leave a Comment
Sports Photo Galleriesview all
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
CLICK ON LINK
http://www.ioffer.com/i/88117171
GO SOONERS! WIN THE BCS!!!
The trophy is a great one, but the media, sports information departments at some schools, and general politics within the sport of CFB have diminished the importance of the once prestigious award. I see two of this years finalist and one that was left un-innvited that are deserving but the recent predecessors you have mentioned were in fact not worthy.
Uhm, Berry Tramel, legends for life???? Get serious. There was a time when the award was given to the best player in the country but that has long changed. Politics, campaigning and the media has turned this into a joke with close to 1/2 of the past 20 winners being undeserving. As for the legend stuff, Eric Crouch, Chris Weinke, Danny Wuerffel, Rashaan Salaam, Gino Torretta, and yes, Jason White. Outside of a 50-mile radius from their respective universities, these are names that are long forgotten except for the most ardent of football fans. They had great years, were rewarded for it--rightfully or not, but have moved on to obscurity. Coaches, other sports, jail. This award does not make a legend. The man makes the legend. A legend is recognized on-sight by everyone. These guys would have to explain who they are and then some would still say, "Huh?". Walter Payton is a legend. Staubach is a legend. Kareem is a legend. Bird is a legend. Jordan, Magic, Butkus.