John Jacob "Jay" Berwanger (March 19, 1914 - June 26, 2002) was an American football halfback born in Dubuque, Iowa. He was the first winner of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy in 1935 (the following year, though, the award was renamed the Heisman Trophy). Berwanger had been a star at the University of Chicago, whose legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg had been forced into retirement by the university immediately before Berwanger's first season on...
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John Jacob "Jay" Berwanger (March 19, 1914 - June 26, 2002) was an American football halfback born in Dubuque, Iowa. He was the first winner of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy in 1935 (the following year, though, the award was renamed the Heisman Trophy). Berwanger had been a star at the University of Chicago, whose legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg had been forced into retirement by the university immediately before Berwanger's first season on the varsity (1933). In a 1934 game against the University of Michigan, Berwanger left his mark on Michigan center Gerald Ford in the form of a distinctive scar beneath the future President's left eye. Jay Berwanger played football and was a shot putter on the track and field team at Lyons Township High School in LaGrange, Illinois and was coached by Bert Gordon.
Berwanger also competed in track & field for the University of Chicago, setting a school decathlon record in 1936 that stood for over 70 years. It was recently broken by Zach Rodgers...
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