John U. Bacon

The Heisman Trophy had humble beginnings. In 1935, the Downtown Athletic Club of New York City – a private organization with no ties to the NCAA or any major football conference or team – decided to give an award to the best player in college football. The next year, when the Club’s most famous member, John Heisman, died of pneumonia, the members named the award after him.

They made a fine choice. Heisman went to Brown University as an undergrad, and the University of Pennsylvania for his law degree before becoming a coach in 1892. He coached at six colleges, including Georgia Tech, where he led his team to a 33-game winning streak. Many historians consider him the father of the forward pass. And, on the side, Heisman was a skilled Shakespearean actor.

But his best line was his own. To start the season each fall, he would hold a football in his hand and tell his players, “Men, it is better to die as a young boy than to drop this ball.”

It did not take long for Heisman’s trophy to gain prestige. Today it’s probably the best-known trophy awarded to an American athlete. But, there is a catch: The winner has to be an eligible amateur athlete.

That never seemed to be a problem until Reggie Bush took home the hardware in 2005. No one questioned his achievements. He gained over 2,600 yards and scored 18 touchdowns for the University of Southern California. The Trojans have won seven Heisman Trophies, tying Notre Dame and Ohio State, and they claim more national titles than anyone. Or they used to.

The Trojans also apparently set some records for breaking the rules. Bush received more than a quarter million dollars in gifts from sports marketers – which people at USC knew about, and let slide. But when Bush signed a $20 million NFL contract and refused to pay back his benefactors, they sued him. And that’s how the famously feckless NCAA got their man.

Pete Carroll, the architect of this corrupt regime, magically decided to jump back to the NFL right before the NCAA hit USC with some of the harshest penalties any school has received in a quarter-century. USC’s athletic director, Mike Garret, was summarily fired – and rightly so. The Trojans had to “vacate” their victories – a fancy phrase for forfeiting – for their entire 2005 national title season.

But the current players will pay the real price. They will lose scholarships and not be able to go to a bowl game for a couple years.

There was, however, one unanswered question: With the Heisman winner declared ineligible, should Bush have to give back his trophy?

Lots of people thought not. After all, plenty of Heisman Trophy winners were horrible people – with O.J. Simpson leading the pack. I say, that’s beside the point. True, Reggie Bush did not commit a felony – but that’s why he’s losing his trophy, and not his freedom.

The apologists also argue that Bush had a great year, and won the award in a landslide. So what? That’s like praising Michael Milken’s business savvy for stealing more money than other folks earned honestly.

The Heisman people did the right thing. And, this week, when Reggie Bush announced he would return his trophy, he did the right thing, too – finally – and perhaps, for the first time.

And this once noble trophy, named for an uncommon man, got a bit of its dignity back, too.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism; and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.