Troy Smith, quarterback of the varsity football team at “The” Ohio State University won the Heisman Trophy last week as the best college football in the country for the 2006 season.
What does this have to do with the law? It’s easy ….
Troy Smith is from Cleveland. John Heisman, name sake of the Heisman Trophy, was born in Cleveland. He was also the football coach at Oberlin College and the predecessor of the University of Akron.
There’s your Cleveland connection.
Before becoming a coach, Heisman earned an L.L.B. from the University of Pennsylvania. Yes, John Heisman was a lawyer. Steven B. Hayes, the son of Woody Hayes, legendary coach of the Buckeyes not only earned a law degree, but was a judge in the Franklin County Municipal Court. Judge Hayes was assigned to hear the case against the former Buckeye star and Heisman hopeful, now felon, Maurice Clarrett.
There’s your legal connection.
So, in the end, Troy Smith wins a lawyer’s trophy while achieving national recognition on a football team long associated with the father of a judge while, at the same time, avoiding the commission of needless felonies.
Just think what would have happened in dear ol’ John Heisman hadn’t gotten a law degree …
Though I can’t think of any Heisman Trophy winners with law degrees, two famous runners-up come to mind. The first is Byron “Whizzer” White, who lost out in 1937, but who of course is more famous for his 30+ years of service on the Supreme Court. The second is Steve Young, who finished second to Nebraska’s Mike Rozier in 1983. Young earned his law degree from BYU in 1994, the same year he was named MVP of Super Bowl XXIX.
In other Ohio/football/law news, former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Cris Collinsworth is a 1991 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
That is some interesting info. Never thought too many football players would want to be lawyers.