Biggest Winners Ever

A critical question is "Who is the biggest Trophy winner of all time?"

The best way to analyze "biggest winner" is to examine the points scored, as a percentage of points possible (number of voters times three).

Please note: We recommend that analysts do not use total points or vote margin to compare modern Heisman Trophy contests to earlier contests. To be sure, OJ Simpson's 1968 win was a landslide - but with 1200 voters, there were nearly 30% more voters than in the current voting. It's simply not an "apples-to-apples" comparison.

The years with more voters (as many as 1200) will have have higher total points and vote margins than the years with fewer voters (as few as 500). The number of voters shouldn't determine our historical view of "the biggest winner ever."

The only responsible method for comparing Heisman Trophy wins across multiple years is to compare the winner to the total possible points (number of voters times three.)

In short, "How close did this winner come to a unanimous #1 selection?"

Top Trophy Winners of All Time

year	trophy winner	school	points	voters	pct.
2005	Reggie Bush	USC	2541	923	91.8%
2006	Troy Smith	Ohio State	2540	924	91.6%
1998	Ricky Williams	Texas	2355	921	85.2%
1993	Charlie Ward	Florida State	2310	919	83.8%
1968	O.J. Simpson	Southern California	2903	1200	80.6%
1991	Desmond Howard	Michigan	2077	917	75.5%
1976	Tony Dorsett	Pittsburgh	2357	1048	75.0%
1999	Ron Dayne	Wisconsin	2042	922	73.8%
1984	Doug Flutie	Boston College	2240	1050	71.1%
2007	Tim Tebow	Florida	1957	925	70.5%
1986	Vinny Testaverde	Miami (Florida)	2213	1050	70.3%
1997	Charles Woodson	Michigan	1815	921	65.7%
1967	Gary Beban	UCLA	1968	1033	63.5%
1994	Rashaan Salaam	Colorado	1743	920	63.2%
2008	Sam Bradford	Oklahoma	1726	926	62.1%
1982	Herschel Walker	Georgia	1926	1050	61.1%
1951	Richard Kazmaier	Princeton	1777	987	60.0%
1974	Archie Griffin	Ohio State	1920	1075	59.5%
2000	Chris Weinke	Florida State	1628	922	58.9%
1970	Jim Plunkett	Stanford	2229	1264	58.8%
1975	Archie Griffin	Ohio State	1800	1041	57.6%
1983	Mike Rozier	Nebraska	1801	1050	57.2%
1981	Marcus Allen	Southern California	1797	1050	57.0%
1955	Howard Cassady	Ohio State	2219	1324	55.9%
1963	Roger Staubach	Navy	1860	1123	55.2%
1940	Tom Harmon	Michigan	1303	800	54.3%
1990	Ty Detmer	Brigham Young	1482	917	53.9%
1979	Charles White	Southern California	1695	1050	53.8%
1959	Billy Cannon	Louisiana State	1929	1197	53.7%
2003	Jason White	Oklahoma	1481	922	53.5%
1960	Joe Bellino	Navy	1793	1130	52.9%
1995	Eddie George	Ohio State	1460	921	52.8%
1992	Gino Torretta	Miami (Florida)	1400	918	50.8%
1996	Danny Wuerffel	Florida	1363	920	49.4%
1953	John Lattner	Notre Dame	1850	1255	49.1%
1977	Earl Campbell	Texas	1547	1050	49.1%
1966	Steve Spurrier	Florida	1679	1160	48.2%
2002	Carson Palmer	Southern California	1328	922	48.0%
1985	Bo Jackson	Auburn	1509	1050	47.9%
2004	Matt Leinart	USC	1325	923	47.9%
1987	Tim Brown	Notre Dame	1442	1050	45.8%
1935	Jay Berwanger	Chicago	84	65	43.1%
1971	Pat Sullivan	Auburn	1597	1260	42.2%
1969	Steve Owens	Oklahoma	1488	1212	40.9%
1958	Pete Dawkins	Army	1394	1191	39.0%
1989	Andre Ware	Houston	1073	918	39.0%
1972	Johnny Rodgers	Nebraska	1310	1127	38.7%
1949	Leon Hart	Notre Dame	995	908	36.5%
1936	Larry Kelley	Yale	213	195	36.4%
1980	George Rogers	South Carolina	1128	1050	35.8%
1945	Felix "Doc" Blanchard	Army	860	848	33.8%
1937	Clinton Frank	Yale	524	531	32.9%
1973	John Cappelletti	Penn State	1057	1075	32.8%
1957	John David Crow	Texas A & M	1183	1267	31.1%
1939	Nile Kinnick	Iowa	651	700	31.0%
1964	John Huarte	Notre Dame	1026	1104	31.0%
1938	Davey O'Brien	Texas Christian	519	584	29.6%
1948	Doak Walker	Southern Methodist	778	908	28.6%
2001	Eric Crouch	Nebraska	770	925	27.7%
1954	Alan Ameche	Wisconsin	1068	1318	27.0%
1956	Paul Hornung	Notre Dame	1066	1318	27.0%
1965	Mike Garrett	Southern California	926	1160	26.6%
1978	Billy Sims	Oklahoma	827	1050	26.3%
1961	Ernie Davis	Syracuse	824	1091	25.2%
1950	Vic Janowicz	Ohio State	633	958	22.0%
1962	Terry Baker	Oregon State	707	1109	21.3%
1944	Les Horvath	Ohio State	412	750	18.3%
1952	Billy Vessels	Oklahoma	525	1222	14.3%

Note: We're not able to include the years 1988, 1941-43, 1946-47 - as the Trophy Trust website does not have the total number of voters listed for those years.

If this research is used, please credit "analysis by Kari Chisholm, a political consultant who operates StiffArmTrophy.com".

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