‘Hopalong’ Cassady donates Heisman football to legion
By BOB McCLURE
Article published on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007
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| Photo by BOB McCLURE |
| This football will be raffled off Nov. 24 at American Legion Post 158 in Treasure Island. |
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TREASURE ISLAND – Former Heisman Trophy winner Howard “Hopalong” Cassady has donated a football autographed by 21 former Heisman winners for a raffle by American Legion Post 158.
The raffle is Saturday, Nov. 24, 7 p.m., at the post, 111 108th Ave.
Tickets are $5 each or three for $10. Proceeds will benefit the post’s charitable and civic activities.
Cassady, 73, and his wife Barb, live in Tampa, visit Treasure Island frequently and stop in regularly at Post 158.
“They come in here a lot,” said Cheryl Ross, bar manager at the post. “We had a poker run and a blood drive going on and (Howard) asked if we would be interested in raffling off one of his Heisman footballs.”
Cassady, a former running back and defensive back at Ohio State, won the Heisman Trophy – college football’s most prestigious award – in 1955. The same year he was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year and won the Maxwell Award, a similar award for the nation’s top college football player.
As a past Heisman winner, he is invited each year by the Downtown Athletic Club to the Heisman selection ceremony in New York. Past Heisman winners are given a commemorative football each year to use for autographs from other past Heisman winners.
The football to be raffled is one of those. It contains the autographs of 21 former Heisman winners, including John Lattner (1953), Pete Dawkins (1958), Billy Cannon (1959), Joe Bellino (1960), Gary Beban (1967), Johnny Rodgers (1972), Billy Sims (1978), George Rogers (1980), Ty Detmer (1990), Gino Torretta (1992), Danny Wuerffel (1996) and Eric Crouch (2001).
Cassady got his nickname his freshman year at Ohio State when sports writers who saw him play said he “hopped all over the field like the performing cowboy.”
Cassady, an All-American in 1954 and 1955, scored 37 touchdowns in 36 games for the Buckeyes. He posted a career rushing total of 2,466 yards, 4,403 all-purpose yards and scored 222 career points.
As a defensive back, he never had a pass completed against him in four seasons.
Following college, he was the third pick overall in the 1956 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions. He also played for the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles before retiring in 1963. As an all-purpose back, he scored 27 career touchdowns.
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Article published on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007
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