berwanger

Jay Berwanger, Heisman Winner.

To football aficionados, Jay Berwanger is well-known as the winner of the first Heisman Trophy and the first player chosen during the National Football League’s first draft. Less well-known is that he achieved his athletic successes at the University of Chicago, a school now more closely associated with Nobel prizes than big-time football. Berwanger, a halfback, played for the University of Chicago Maroons at a time when Chicago was a member of the Big Ten Conference–before Robert Hutchins, the University’s president, famously abolished varsity football in 1939.

Even in an era before football teams were divided up into offensive and defensive squads, Berwanger was renowned for his versatility.

In 23 varsity games in three seasons