Latest / The Heisman Hopefuls Podcast / Four For New York

Transcript

Four For New York · The Heisman Hopefuls Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome to the official.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_06: I've been tropey podcast.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_06: Here's your host, Chris Houston.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome back to the Heisman Trophy Podcast, everybody.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's officially Heisman Week.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_05: We have our four finalists, Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sand.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_05: Of course, we've already talked to three of those four players on the podcast this year.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_05: Tried really hard to get Diego Pavia, but the schedules just didn't align.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_05: And it just seems to me like it's shaping up to be a pretty close race.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_05: Now I've been following the Heisman Trophy for most of my life, and let me tell you, this is a very different year than most years.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_05: The Heisman tends to be a canary in the coal mine for what's going on in college football.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_05: And so you started seeing in the late teens all these transfer players winning the Heisman became very normal.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_05: Now you're starting to see players from schools that don't typically compete for the trophy compete for the trophy.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_05: Now Colorado had won a Heisman way back in 1994, but when Travis Hunter won it for the Buffaloes last year and Boise State's Ashen Genty finished a close second, it seemed to indicate to me that the blue blood powers in college football were starting to see their powers wane.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_05: Now, two of the Heisman Trophy finalists this year are from traditional powers.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_05: Of course, Jeremiah Love is from Notre Dame and Julian Seyan plays for Ohio State.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: Both schools that have traditionally carried a lot of cachet when it comes to the Heisman vote.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_05: You're talking about 14 Heisman trophies between them.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_05: Nonetheless, it's quite possible that the top two spots in the vote could go to players from schools that have never won a Heisman.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_05: And it seems kind of weird until you go look at the team rankings and you see Indiana at number one, schools like Texas Tech at number four, Ole Miss at number six, and Vanderbilt at number 14.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_05: And if you look at the production of these four finals, you'll see that their overall statistics are a bit down compared to previous seasons.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_05: And I think this is a reflection of the overall slowdown or plateauing of offense in college football.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: And I think most of this has come about because of the playoffs and the incentives that it creates.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: It just may be a while before you see another Joe Burrow or Marcus Mariota.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_05: We've seen guys throw for 30 touchdowns and rush for 20 scores.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_05: I've got a feeling those days have mostly gone bye-bye.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: That all said, players are a product of their environment and they perform to the best of their abilities within those confines.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_05: And the four players that are in New York this week are the cream of the crop for college football in 2025.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_05: Now, some of you are probably new to this whole Heisman week thing.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_05: Let's give you a little rundown.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_05: On Friday, the four finalists will show up.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_05: There's going to be all kinds of events going on.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_05: There'll be a press conference.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_05: We're going to have video of that press conference over on our YouTube and TikTok channels.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_05: This is the night when a lot of the finalists are going to hang out with some of the past winners.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_05: On Saturday, the four players will wake up really early, do all kinds of media interviews.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: Their families will get a chance to see a Broadway play.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: There'll be all kinds of swag and goodies distributed from sponsors.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_05: They'll go to Lincoln Center and do a dress rehearsal, and then a few hours later they'll do another press conference.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: And then at seven o'clock, the 91st Heisman Trophy ceremony will get underway.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_05: It really is a whirlwind of a weekend.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_05: And for the player who is named the Heisman Trophy winner, there is little or no rest.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_05: Typically, after a post-ceremony press conference, the Heisman Trophy winner will go out on the town and celebrate with his teammates and his family and friends.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_05: And then we'll get up super early at the crack of dawn on Sunday to talk to ESPN, to talk to this podcast, to do a few other interviews.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_05: And then at noon on Sunday is the Heisman Legends brunch when that player will be formally inducted into the Heisman fraternity.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_05: Overall, the Heisman weekend is a true gauntlet for a Heisman Trophy winner.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_05: Once again, we're going to be posting tons of video content from the weekend on our YouTube and TikTok channels.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_05: We're going to set the scene, we're going to provide the atmosphere, hang out with the four finalists, chat with some Heisman legends.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_05: It's going to be awesome.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: For us, it's like Christmas coming a bit early.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_05: So be sure to like, subscribe, follow along to all our channels.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_05: Help us build our community of dedicated Heisman and college football fans.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_05: One other note about the Heisman weekend is we will be honoring the 25th anniversary of Florida State quarterback Chris Wankey's 2000 Heisman Trophy winning season.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_05: And we will be honoring Ohio State's Archie Griffin on the 50th anniversary of his second Heisman winning season, 1975.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_05: Next up, we've got a great feature on the history of the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_05: If you're into college football, if you're into history, if you're into culture, this is going to be something that's going to really interest you.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_05: So we'll get it going right after these words from Archie Griffin.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is Archie Griffin, the 1974 and 1975 Heisman Trophy winner, and you're listening to the official Heisman podcast.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's quite an event, the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_05: Sometimes it's full of drama, sometimes it's merely a celebration of the winner, a coronation, if you will.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_05: But it's always great to see all the finalists there, uh dressed in their best, representing their schools along with their coaches in most cases.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_05: In general, this culmination of Heisman Week has become interwoven into the fabric of college football.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's something we do every year, and it's just a great tradition.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, like most traditions, it's something that has evolved over time.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_05: So let's look at that.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_05: Let's look at the history of the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_05: Now, if you're listening to this podcast, you're eagerly anticipating the crowning of this year's Heisman Trophy winner.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm right there with you.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: We all have our theories of who will win.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: We're not here to speculate, and we will wait as patiently as we can for ABC's telecast live from Jazz at Lincoln Center, which starts at 7 p.m.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_05: Eastern on Saturday, December 13th.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_05: But what, you may ask, was the genesis for this huge national broadcast, naming the winner of arguably sports' greatest individual award?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it all started as a luncheon.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_05: As most of you probably know by now, in 1935, the University of Chicago's J.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_05: Burrwanger became the first winner of the Heisman.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_05: Back then it was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_05: A year later, the 13.5 inch statue became known as it is today as the Heisman Memorial Trophy.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_05: Burwanger found out he was the winner of this brand new award on November 29th, but he wasn't in New York until December 10th for the midday affair that was to honor him.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_05: He later said the biggest thrill of winning the award was getting to fly in an airplane for the first time en route to Manhattan.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_05: As thrills go in the 1930s, that was pretty swell.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_05: For the next four decades, Heisman winners were pretty much honored in the same way.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_05: The winner was announced in late November or early December, following the annual Army-Navy game, with the Heisman Trophy presentation typically 7 to 10 days later.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_05: Not until 1977 was the announcement made on the same date as the trophy given, when Texas's Earl Campbell was named the winner at the end of an hour-long CBS special.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_05: And it wasn't just your run-of-the-mill special, it was a variety show.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't know whose idea it was, but I'm here for it.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, that is Farah Fawcett doing a song and dance at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in 1977.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_05: The show featured a weird mix of celebrities and sports figures.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_05: And in addition to announcing the Heisman Trophy winner, they also announced the winners of the other major awards in college football.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_05: Here's 1956 Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornig with Mr.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_05: October, Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I'm an ex-football player.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you can still hit that.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: A little fast one.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Who could, you know, 36 home runs in a World Series.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: Forget it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: Go on, Reggie.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: He's a good baseball player, but he quit.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_05: He was a highball drink and a low ball hitter.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: Jay Burrwanger was on hand to give the Heisman to Earl Campbell.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: And now to announce the winner of this year's Heisman, we have someone very special here with us tonight.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: A man who was the first recipient of the Heisman Trophy 43 years ago.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Jay Burrwanger.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_13: Thank you.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_13: Thank you, OJ.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_13: It is indeed a pleasure and an honor for me to be able to announce the 43rd recipient of the uh Heisman Trophy, and it goes to Earl Campbell of the University of Texas.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_05: I just had to share that ceremony as there's never been another Heisman Trophy ceremony quite like that one.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: Of course, it wasn't a live announcement, it was taped, and Earl Campbell knew he was the winner going in.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_05: And of course, there were no other Heisman Trophy finalists present at the show.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_05: But they knew how to have fun in the late 70s, didn't they?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't until 1981 that a Heisman Trophy winner was announced live on national television.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_05: USC's Marcus Allen was in New York City for the announcement, which took place at the Downtown Athletic Club.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_05: And this really set the stage for what was to come the next year, 1982, which was the beginning of the Heisman Trophy ceremony as we know it today.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_05: For the first time there were Heisman Trophy finalists who were invited to New York, and they took part in the ceremony that was shown live on national television.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_05: That was the year Herschel Walker won the trophy, and Eric Dickerson and John Elway were also finalists, but only Eric Dickerson showed up to join Walker for the show.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_05: It was really a far cry from the way players used to be notified that they had won the Heisman.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_05: It used to be telegrams and phone calls.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_05: 1940 winner Tom Harmon of Michigan found out about the award during a radio appearance with Eddie Cantor in New York, but he had to come back two weeks later to receive the actual trophy.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_05: When Terry Baker of Oregon State learned of winning the award in 1962, he reportedly said, No kidding?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_05: That's great.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_05: I'm a very lucky boy.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_05: Then he added, I've got to get back to class.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: So the new era of the Heisman Trophy ceremony that started in 1982 just brought a whole different element to it.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_05: That doesn't mean there weren't also some interesting ceremonies before that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_10: It's probably the biggest sports uh dinner in New York.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_10: It's you know a couple thousand people at it every year.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_10: And all the Heisman winners were invited back every year.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_10: So it's a great brotherhood.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_10: These guys, uh, it's amazing.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_10: Guys that played, you know, years and years ago are still famous because of the Heisman Trophy.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: That's Hall of Fame sports caster Don Cricky, who's been close with the Heisman for decades and served as MC of the awards receptions for about a quarter of a century, starting with the 1973 ceremony that featured John Capaletti's famous speech, as well as an introduction from Vice President Gerald Ford.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_10: Well, the first one I was at was in 1973, and when John Capoletti won, it was a very, very emotional dinner because uh John's younger brother Joey, who was sitting at a table right in front of the Dais, was critically ill with cancer.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_10: And John gave a speech uh that was very heart-moving.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_10: He dedicated a season to his brother Joey and won the Heisman, and the room was just floored by the emotion of the whole Campoletti family and what uh John was going through in his course, what his brother Joey was.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_10: And I often thought to myself, I was MC in the dinner, who could follow up on this?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_10: And uh and we had somebody that could, Bishop Fulton Sheehan, who had a uh nationally syndicated television show, top ten show, and he got up and I don't know what all he said, but he had some healing remarks, and it was nobody was ever at the Heisman that night will ever forget it.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_05: Listening to Cricky recall it, the Heisman Gallas were an almost who's who of mid-century American sports pop culture, with sports celebrities like Yogi Berra, Jim Brown, Bear Bryant, and celebrities like John Wayne in attendance.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_05: Since then, and not counting that 1977 interlude, the Heisman Trophy Ceremony has never really recaptured that glitz and glamour of Yore.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_05: Instead, in the post-1982 era of the live ceremony with finalists, the focus has been where it should be, on the players and their accomplishments.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_05: So there have only been a handful of changes to the ceremony since 1982.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_05: Probably the biggest change came in 2001, following the attacks on 9-11.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_08: Well, you know, uh downtown Athletic Club is right there.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_08: It was gone.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, there was not much that, you know, it was a lot of uh soot, I guess, or smoke and a lot of damage uh to the building.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_05: That's 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch, out of Nebraska, recalling what it was like to be in Lower Manhattan just a few months after the terror attacks.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_08: It was, you know, I didn't get to experience it like everyone else did that won the Heisman Trophy and got to, you know, have their family there and the event and the TV show and everything kind of centered around the DAC.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_08: Um they they brought it up to the uh the Marriott Marquee.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_08: And so um that you know, that was different.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_08: You know, they re- but they did one heck of a job.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, you know, seeing pictures of the downtown athletic club and and they they recreated it.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, they did a tremendous I I I take my hat off to the people that uh worked effortlessly on that.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_08: Um they they did a tremendous job on recreating what what the DAC looked like and you know what the shuts a short time uh to be able to put that together uh was was pretty spectacular.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_05: Since the demise of the Downtown Athletic Club, the Heisman Trophy Ceremony has mostly been held at a theater near Times Square.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_05: In 1994, ESPN gained exclusive rights to broadcast the ceremony, and over the years their on-air talent has done a fantastic job of presenting the show.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: The last couple seasons it's been no different, with the one exception that the ceremony has moved up to Lincoln Center.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_05: And that's your history of the Heisman Trophy Ceremony.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_05: We hope you tune in on Saturday to ABC to watch this year's episode.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_05: Who will win the Heisman?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_05: Who will walk up to that stage and give their speech?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: Speaking of speeches, there's been some great Heisman acceptance speeches over the years, which if you think about it is kind of amazing because these are football players, very young men, who haven't really been trained in the arts of writing speeches, much less giving them.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_05: Giving a speech in front of millions of people on live television is a very tough thing to do.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: An effective speech in general projects the whole spirit, not just the message, but the spirit of the speech maker from a podium to an audience, from one side of a camera lens to another side of a camera lens.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: You put more into it than just the words.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a whole personality.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And this is maybe the hardest thing to teach because people think of speeches as text.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just not true anymore.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: That hasn't been true since the invention of the microphone and the camera.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_05: That's David Frum, a former presidential speechwriter who is now a writer for The Atlantic magazine.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_05: David is a Canadian and doesn't really have much exposure to college football, but I sent him the text and audio of a few standout Heisman speeches so he can tell us why they were so effective.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_05: One of those standout speeches was that of 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nial Kinnock, who, in a time of growing isolationism in America, made a political statement about the war in Europe that had begun just a few months earlier.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_05: Here's the speech in its entirety.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_12: Thank you very, very kindly, Mr.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_12: Hope.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_12: It seems to me that everyone is letting their superlities run away with them this evening.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_12: But nonetheless, I want you to know that I'm mighty, mighty happy to accept this trophy this evening.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_12: Every football player in these United States dreams about winning that trophy and of this fine trip to New York.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_12: Every player considers that trophy the acne in recognition of this kind.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_12: The fact that I'm actually receiving this trophy tonight almost overwhelming.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_12: And I know that all those boys who've gone before me must have come somewhat the same way.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_12: From my own personal viewpoint, I consider my winning this award.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_12: With me tonight to receive this trophy.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_12: I want to take this grand opportunity to thank collectively all the sports writers and all the sportscasters and all those who have seen Pitt and seen their way clear to cast a ballot in my favor for this trophy.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_12: And I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mr.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_12: Prince and his committee, the Heisman Award Committee, and all those connected with the Downtown Athletic Club for this trophy and for the fine time that they're showing me.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_12: And not only for that, but for making this fine and worthy trophy available to the football players of this country.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_12: Finally, if you'll permit me, I'd like to make a comment which in my mind is indicting perhaps of the greatest significance of football and sports interests in general in this country.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_12: I was warm on the great amount of the midwin.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_12: Thank you.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's there's always a question of appropriateness because you you need to remember when you when you when you're there, and this would be whether it's an Academy Award or a football event, why are people there to listen to you?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: In what capacity have you taxed their time and patience?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe there's something you need to say, but maybe you also need to think.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: If they're here um to honor me in one capacity, and I tax their time and patience with something different, uh I I better consider that because I may be alienating half the road over at a time and place when it's not appropriate to alienate them.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's a there's a saying um that a gentleman is someone who never gives offense unintentionally.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes you need to shock people, sometimes you need this is something they need to hear whether they want to hear it or not.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So December 1939, so Poland has been bombed to pieces, you know, Warsaw has been ruined and shattered, and and the Germans are poised to attack.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: At that time in December 39, no one knows that France is going to fall, but you're expecting a nightmarish World War I like conflagration on the battlefields of Western Europe.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is that is that really the point you want to make?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And are you quite confident that the offense you're giving to some portion of the audience is worth it?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I just when when you have this extraneous message, you have to really think hard.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: People aren't gonna like it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Am I gonna run that risk?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is this a big enough reason for me to do something that maybe isn't fitting with the spirit of the event?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_05: Mechanic, without a doubt, pulls off this speech in eloquent fashion, even with its potentially uh controversial subject matter at the very end.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_05: But just two years later, it was quite the different story when Bruce Smith of Minnesota gave his acceptance speech, just a few days after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_07: Mr.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_07: Chairman, Mr.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_07: President, and members of the Downtown Athletic Club, ladies and gentlemen, so much of emotional significance has happened in such a brief space of time.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_07: It's a task of refunding on such a case.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he's also speaking to something that was very much in the air at that time, because you know, you look back on it, and Pearl Harbor was about the stupidest thing the Japanese could have done.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the way the Japanese talked themselves into this crazy um self-destructive was by propagandizing to their people that the Americans were soft and decadent and flabby and and bomb their fleet and nothing gonna do that.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think he was just
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_05: Arguably the most famous speech in Heisman history came 32 years later, in 1973, when Penn State's John Capaletti won the Heisman Trophy.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_05: After being introduced by Vice President Gerald R.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_05: Ford, Capaletti gave a somewhat normal speech that finished off with emotional, gut-wrenching words about his younger brother Joey, who had leukemia.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_05: Here's the tail end of Ford's introduction of Capaletti, who, by the way, is being celebrated at this year's Heisman Dinner Gala for the 50th anniversary of his Heisman Trophy victory.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_05: Following Ford is Capaletti's speech in its entirety.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: The Heisman Trophy symbolizes individual athletic accomplishments in football.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we shouldn't apologize for it.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: We should be very proud of it.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: A player wins it, as John Cappelletti won it, and all of these others, through the intense competition with other players, the length and the breadth of our country.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he wins it because he puts a little extra effort into the accomplishments for himself, but primarily for his team.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I think John Capoletti said it very well in a recent interview.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: He told how he had been ready to quit the Penn State team in 1972 because he wasn't picking up enough yardage.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: But he kept trying through the season of 1972, and he finally gained 124 yards against Illinois.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: And let me quote what John said.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: I learned a lesson that if you stick with something longer than you think you can, things will work out for you.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: End quote.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's right.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_09: A week ago or ten days ago when the Heisman Trophy was announced, uh since then I haven't had too much time to think about what it has meant.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_09: I think listening to the former Heisman Trophy winners tonight, and seeing everyone here to share in it and congratulate me on it, I think that's that's one of the first steps that uh I've taken in in the meaning of this trophy.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_09: Uh I'm sure that the people behind me know much more about it than I do, and uh I'm happy for any advice that that they've given tonight and on what to expect from the future with this trophy.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_09: I have had time to think about uh some things that have put me up here tonight, uh things that have happened in my life, and um I'd like to reflect a little bit on them now.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_09: I think the first thing that uh happened to me was God blessed me with uh a great deal of talent and um a lot of uh people to compliment that talent.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_09: Um my family uh as everyone's met, mostly I think I guess uh they're just great people, and uh I'm very happy to have shared in my lifetime with them.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_09: Um my brother and sisters, it's uh it's been wonderful.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_09: Uh just being with you the past few years, they've they've always been behind me, and um I can't express that enough.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_09: Um my mother and father, there isn't a greater couple around than I think.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_09: And uh I know my mother always cries at these these affairs, so uh I'm gonna try not to.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_09: Um she's a very, very strong woman and very dedicated not only to her children and husband, but also to uh God, and I think this helps her out uh with putting up with us and going through all that she's gone through.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_09: Um one example I think one small example of this is uh a personal thing with with me that I think uh a lot of people may have noticed that my my legs are as straight as arrows and that uh I have no trouble walking now or running now.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_09: But at one time in my life I I couldn't walk without tripping.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_09: And uh my mother uh not only brought me through this, but uh she brought just about every member of our family through something like this.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_09: Uh my father's a a very quiet man.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_09: Uh he's been a great father to all of us.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_09: Um he he asked me the other day, uh when I was home one of the few times, uh how he thought I felt of him as a father.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_09: And uh I wouldn't say much to him then, because it's it's hard to express things like that.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_09: But um there is no greater person and no person I have that more respect for than this man.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_09: I think the the next event that uh was most important to me in my life was uh when I went to high school and I was fortunate enough to be coached by a man uh who dedicated himself not only to his players on the field, but uh very much so off the field.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_09: Uh he's a great lover of football, but he'd sacrifice anything for a teammate or a player when he was playing and when he was coaching.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_09: Uh he passed away this summer, uh Jack Godshawk.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_09: But I think in the in the 43 years that he was here on earth, he did more for uh young people and people he was associated with, and I think most of us get a chance to do in a lifetime.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_09: The next next step, I think, was I was going to Penn State.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_09: Uh it was a hard decision making a choice of colleges at the time.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_09: I didn't know that much about it.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_09: But I think one thing that swayed me uh was the man sitting to my right, and uh that's Coach Paterno.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_09: When I was being recruited, he he uh came down to my house.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_09: I think he was not only on a recruiting trip, but he was looking for a good meal, an Italian meal.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_11: Um when he came in the door, um he he looked over and on the couch.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_09: My brother, Joseph, was sitting, was lying there.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_09: He was very ill at the time, and more so than usual.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_09: And uh instead of that that's not a joke, but uh um Coach Baterno was more concerned and did more talk more about what he could do for my brother than what he could do to get me at Penn State.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_09: And uh for this I'm very thankful, and I I'm glad I had the show, had the chance to show some appreciation of this man in the last four years.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_09: I think everybody uh here knows uh mostly about his coaching accomplishments at Penn State.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_09: The his record is is a great one, probably the greatest in the country.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_09: But uh he's carried on a great tradition at Penn State, I think, which started with uh Ripangle.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_09: And uh he's more concerned with young people after they get out of school and while they're in school, what he can do for them to make better lives for them, not only uh on the football field, but uh in life itself.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_09: I think uh Vice President Ford said uh you can't compare uh life to a football game, but I think you can compare a football game to life.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_09: And uh this is what he's tried to show us in my four years there, and in the years he's been there coaching and teaching.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_09: And uh I don't think there's a more dedicated man anywhere uh concerned with young people and a better teacher of life on and off the field.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_09: The next group of people I'm going to talk about I've been with for uh four years, and I've played with them.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_09: They're my teammates this year, the seniors and the co-captains who you've met down here.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_09: I don't think I've been closer to a group of people who I've worked with, sweated with, and have done more with in four years than I've done with anybody in my lifetime.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_09: I don't think I could have gotten any closer to the group that I've been with.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_09: And I think that um it takes a lot of hard work to do what we've done this year, and I'm just glad that I did my part for my teammates and that we've had the season we've had, and we've had the closeness that we've had, and for them I'm thankful for that.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_09: Also, there's a coach here tonight who I'm very proud of.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_09: He's our backfield coach at Penn State.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_09: His name is Bob Phillips, and I think uh he's mainly responsible for a lot of the attitude that goes on at Penn State among the players.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_09: He's a very dedicated man uh to his work, but he goes about it with a a healthy and just a bright attitude, and uh he uh can relate this to the players to the point where you want to do things for them, and you take the attitude that you're not out there just to get something finished and go in and take a shower, but you're out there to to accomplish something.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_09: And uh people like him are the reason that I think that a lot of the players and I know myself we're out there this year doing the things we did, and I'd like to thank him for that.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_09: The next part, um, I'm very happy to to do something like this.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_09: I thought about it since the Heisman was announced ten days ago, and this is dedicated trophy that a lot of people have earned.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_09: I've earned, my parents, the people I've mentioned, and numerous other people that are here tonight and been with me for a long time.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_09: The youngest member of my family, Joseph, is uh very ill.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_09: He has leukemia.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_09: And if I could dedicate this trophy to him tonight and give him a couple days of happiness, this is worth everything, I don't know.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_09: Um that I go through a lot on Saturdays and during the week, and as most athletes do, you get your bumps and bruises, and it's a terrific battle out there in the field.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_09: And it but it only for me, it's on Saturdays, and it's only in the fall.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_09: For Joseph, it's all year round, and it's a battle that's uh unending with him, and he puts up with much more than I'll ever put up, and I think it just trophy is more of his than his mine, because he's been a great inspiration to me.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_09: I'd just like to to thank everybody here tonight for putting up with me.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_09: The downtown athletic club for for having this affair and the way they treated myself and my parents and the guests of Penn State these last two days.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_09: And I don't I don't think I'll ever, ever forget this night.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just beforehand that this was a quite a new thing in um sports speeches.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it makes a kind of sense to me.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I wrote a history of the 1970s and um that was published about 20 years ago, and one of the themes of that book was that it was a period the people who'd been through the depression and the second world war um did back a lot of the emotion.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much emotion to discuss.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and there's a famous quote from Ernest Henryway, uh, I guess after the First World War, we said that the uh that when you confronted what they confronted with words like glory and honor and sacrifice and emotion and holler.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is a style, and everyone has seen the series management and seeing people who are performing in um in this style of uh light and matter don't be don't be to religious in public, don't be to emotional public, don't you know grief or joy too much in public is where every everything is kind of rye and drained and hard on generations and then generational style change, and suddenly in the 1970s we have this opening, it would have been very familiar to people of the 1870s, by the way, uh very strange to people of the 1930s and 40s.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have this opening where emotion begins to flow in and the power, I think, of of the when you read it, it doesn't say that much.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but when you hear it, you can hear how much feeling there is behind what it is.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's that's an example of how um the whole person to attack it maybe uh on its own face and you wonder why they do I ask from what makes these kinds of images so powerful.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_05: Why did they stick with this?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_05: Why are they ingrained in our memory?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: From a very early American form called personality remember the form called personality around the words are also the hitter is horrible.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he has his very hidden, head, hidden body disorder and he's part of the line.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's what gives us for I suppose it's a little complexity.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um but it also robs the player of individuality and um makes him a little bit less of a focus of personality than so these moments where they come out from behind the mask would be of course line.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_05: In all my years of following the Heisman Trophy, one thing I've noticed is that in the days leading up to the Heisman Trophy, many of the winners are shy in front of media or they don't speak well.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_05: But when they get up on that stage, they transform, they transform into this new person.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_05: And it's really an amazing thing to observe.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I've always wondered how this happens so often at the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_05: Here's Fromm's explanation for why this happens.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because uh their job every day is going onto a field with no idea whether I'm off a winner or a loser.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: So um you know, it it it's it's one thing to be a politician who is preparing for two or four years for a competition, and maybe the one and only time in their life where they either win or lose.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's another thing to be an athlete.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, literally every time you do this, this is what happens you win or lose.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you should be ready for that.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: And um so I would think an athlete would be in a well out of a position to have one the concession speech and the acceptance speech are both prepared, or both ready, and be psychologically prepared to meet both contentions.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_05: Well, coming up this Saturday night, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner will deliver his acceptance speech in front of millions, and maybe, just maybe, people will still be talking about his words for decades to come.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_05: The Heisman Trophy podcast streams every Wednesday during the college football season and is hosted, produced, edited, and engineered by Chris Easton.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_05: The pod is available on all streaming networks, including Spotify and Apple Music, and features video interviews and bonus content on YouTube and TikTok.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_05: We also have a Reddit community.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_05: Special shout out to Isaac Lohencron and big thanks to Rob Whalen, Tim Henning, and the Heisman Trust for their support.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_05: Reach out to us via email at pod at heisman.com for feedback and commentary.