Professional Football Researchers Association Forum
PFRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of professional football. Formed in 1979, PFRA members include many of the game's foremost historians and writers.
rhickok1109 wrote:Doak Walker and Leon Hart were teammates with the Lions from 1950 through 1955. They played against the Bears and Johnny Lujack four times, twice each in 1950 and 1951.
I was looking at those 1950's Lions teams with Hart and Walker...but I found something odd/dumb...
After Doak Walker left prior to the 1956 season, the Lions replaced him with Howard Cassady, who had won the Heisman at Ohio State. They still had Leon Hart, and they played the Colts twice in 1956. The Colts had Alan Ameche at FB, but Billy Vessels had come down from Canada in 1956 after the Colts had drafted him high in 1953. So you had four Heisman winners playing in those 1956 Colts/Lions games (Cassady, Hart, Ameche, Vessels), and the guy who had the most rushing yards in the second game was the guy who won the Heisman playing TE (Hart).
Ah, I forgot about Vessels!
I was just about to post that those Lions, with Cassady and Hart, played the Packers twice in 1956. Paul Hornung certainly played in the first game and possibly in the second game as well.
Rupert Patrick wrote:I found four in the 1990 Lions Raiders game - Barry Sanders, Tim Brown, Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen all scored touchdowns in the game:
Rupert Patrick wrote:I found four in the 1990 Lions Raiders game - Barry Sanders, Tim Brown, Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen all scored touchdowns in the game:
JuggernautJ wrote:Are the Raiders (Allen, Bo, Tim Brown) the only team with 3 Heisman winners (at the same time)?
And is four the max in a game?
Is that the consensus?
I believe the Raiders were the only team with three Heisman winners playing at the same time.
I think four is the most who ever played in a game, and it happened a few times although a complete list was never assembled. I believe five were the most who ever suited up on both sides for one game, in the 1990 Raiders Lions game, but Andre Ware did not get into the game. That game is notable because all four Heisman winners who got into the game (the three Raiders plus Barry Sanders) scored TD's in the game.
"Every time you lose, you die a little bit. You die inside. Not all your organs, maybe just your liver." - George Allen
On a side note, the New York Giants drafted in three straight years the Outland Trophy winner (the second oldest trophy after the Heisman), who is awarded since 1946 to the top offensive or defensive lineman in the country. From 1972-1974 the Giants drafted Larry Jacobson, Rich Glover and John Hicks, but the three never appeared together in a game (Glover only played one season with the Giants).
And as the Cowboys had Heisman-winners Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett in Super Bowl XII, they had Outland-winners Chad Hennings and Russell Maryland in their three Super Bowl championship teams of the 90s.
In the USFL, the Jacksonville Bulls fielded 1983 winner Mike Rozier, while the New Jersey Generals countered with the reigning Doug Flutie and 1982 recipient Herschel Walker. That's three individual winners in one USFL game, I'm guessing the record for any other league. Unfortunately, Archie Griffin, who had been a member of the Jacksonville Bulls, retired several weeks before the teams' first meeting or that would have been four winners representing five trophies!
