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Spurrier's Heisman Win Doesn't Compare To Today

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2007

GAINESVILLE - With great fanfare and probably with no fewer than three pre-announcement, Vaseline-lens, tinkling-piano feature stories, University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow - or Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden or Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel - will be revealed Saturday at approximately 8:50 p.m. as the winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy. In 1966, when Florida quarterback/future ballcoach Steve Spurrier won the award, the method of informing the winner was decidedly more low-key.

Sitting in his office on a random weekday in early November that year, Florida sports information director Norm Carlson picked up the phone.

"Would you tell Steve Spurrier he won the Heisman?" Carlson remembers the voice on the other end saying. "And get him over to the president's office."

So Carlson banged on Spurrier's dorm-room door, collected the Gators' senior quarterback and shuttled him to the house of UF president J. Wayne Reitz. There, Spurrier received a phone call from the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, informing him he'd won college football's most prestigious award.

The big reveal isn't the only thing that has changed about the Heisman in 41 years. The way players enter the collective consciousness of the Heisman electorate has shifted along with the technology available for delivering information.

Guess how many games Steve Spurrier played on television in the 1966 regular season? Zero.

No one outside the stadium itself could watch Spurrier play live. Meanwhile, voters and fans couldn't catch the highlights on ESPN, which wouldn't exist for another 13 years.

By contrast, Tebow played seven of 12 regular-season games on national TV. The other five either were broadcast regionally or on statewide pay-per-view, and highlights of all were readily available on local newscasts, ESPN, Sportsline.com or YouTube.

In 1966, all Spurrier had was NormTube. Carlson, who since retiring in 2002 has served as the Florida athletic department's historian, sent film reels to television stations across the country of Spurrier passing, punting and kicking. Before Spurrier's now-famous performance against Auburn on Oct. 29, Carlson sent out more. Florida Gov. Hayden Burns - who earlier had called Carlson to offer his assistance in winning Spurrier the Heisman - had the postage charged to the department of tourism, Carlson said.

The pork-barrel project worked. One day that season, Carlson received a call from UCLA coach Tommy Prothro.

"Carlson! What are you doing?" Carlson remembers Prothro saying. "Spurrier's on TV out here as much as Bruins quarterback Gary Beban."

The exposure - plus a healthy dose of cajoling from former Tampa Tribune sports editor Tom McEwen - piqued the curiosity of the nation's newspapermen. Carlson's greatest coup came when The New York Times assigned reporter Joseph Durso to cover the Auburn game, which happened to take place just before Heisman ballots were due. Durso's account of the throwing and kicking heroics of "the cool cat from Tennessee" found the eyeballs of Heisman voters everywhere. Soon after, Carlson received a phone call asking him to bring Spurrier to the president's mansion.

There wasn't a Vaseline lens in sight.

Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.

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