You Should Know Jay Berwanger

Do you ever run across an interesting fact and try to burn it in your memory? I frequently see or hear something and think, "I'm going to need that someday." And then I forget to write it down and away it goes. And then somebody says it again and I'm like, "When you say it, I know it." And they don't believe me.

I hate not knowing about sports...especially something or someone as important as Jay Berwanger. And so begins our journey.

Jay Berwanger happens to be the answer to TWO important trivia questions:

• Who won the inaugural Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the most outstanding player in collegiate football?
• Who was the #1 pick in the very first NFL draft?

Answer? Jay frickin' Berwanger. Playing running back (and many other positions) for the University of Chicago, he won the trophy in 1935.

Interesting fact about the Heisman -- the award actually wasn't called the Heisman when he won it -- it was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy. However, he is recognized as the "first winner of the Heisman."

Okay, flash forward to February 1936, the first year the NFL decided to hold a draft that would would give underperforming teams first crack at available college players. The best player available? Obviously Berwanger, since he won the Heisman for his play during the '35 season.

So, with the first pick in the 1936 draft, the Philadelphia Eagles selected the award-winning back out of U of C (which was in the Big Ten Conference at the time).

You can write the rest, right? Berwanger goes on to be a big star, a hall-of-fame player that turned around a poor Eagles franchise? Wrong. No one actually talked to Berwanger about his post-collegiate goals, which didn't involve football. The Eagles couldn't sign him, so they dealt him to the Chicago Bears, which encountered the same situation as Philly.

Berwanger would never play a down in the NFL, choosing instead to sell foam-rubber before enrolling in the Navy’s flight-training program during WWII. After the war, he started his own business and lived until the age of 88.

Store it away. You'll need it someday.