Heisman Trophy
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50 free Heisman Trophy trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Heisman Trophy has been college football's most coveted individual prize since 1935. One vote each December turns a great season into a permanent line in the sport's history, and the list of winners doubles as a tour of nine decades of the game. This quiz covers the award from every angle: the man it is named for, the club that first handed it out, the statue itself, and above all the players. Most questions ask you to name a winner from a clue about his school, his season or what he did next, with extra weight on the winners since 1960. It is built for college football fans, tailgate and pub quiz hosts, and anyone who wants to see how many winners they can still place. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up a story even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The player on the Heisman Trophy is frozen mid-stride performing which classic ball-carrier move?
A stiff-arm
A stiff-arm, the straight-armed shove that holds off a tackler, is the statue's pose. The college player who modelled for it didn't learn his statue had become the Heisman until 1982.
Q 02Which Ohio State running back became the first two-time Heisman winner, in 1974 and 1975?
Archie Griffin
Archie Griffin also ran for at least 100 yards in an NCAA-record 31 consecutive games for the Buckeyes.
Q 03Which Auburn running back won the 1985 Heisman and later became a Major League Baseball All-Star?
Bo Jackson
Bo Jackson led off the 1989 MLB All-Star Game with a 448-foot home run and was named the game's MVP.
Q 04Which Michigan cornerback beat Peyton Manning to become the first mainly defensive Heisman winner?
Charles Woodson
Charles Woodson also returned punts and caught passes in 1997 as Michigan went unbeaten and shared the national title.
Q 05Joe Theismann began rhyming his name with Heisman, then lost to which Stanford quarterback in 1970?
Jim Plunkett
Jim Plunkett, the first Latino winner, later came off the bench to lead the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories.
Q 06Which USC running back forfeited his 2005 Heisman in 2010 and had it reinstated 14 years later?
Reggie Bush
Reggie Bush gave up the award during an NCAA case over gifts from agents, and the Heisman Trust returned it in 2024 after the rules on paying players changed.
Q 07Which Florida State quarterback won the 1993 Heisman, then skipped the NFL for an NBA career?
Charlie Ward
Charlie Ward was a first-round pick of the New York Knicks in 1994 and helped them reach the 1999 NBA Finals.
Q 08Which Texas A&M quarterback became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, in 2012?
Johnny Manziel
Johnny Manziel, nicknamed Johnny Football, was also the first freshman to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 in a season.
Q 09Which Florida quarterback became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy, in 2007?
Tim Tebow
Tim Tebow finished that regular season as the first FBS player to run and throw for at least 20 touchdowns in the same year.
Q 10Which Colorado star won the 2024 Heisman while starting at both cornerback and wide receiver?
Travis Hunter
Travis Hunter logged nearly 1,400 snaps on offense and defense that regular season, 382 more than any other player in the country.
Q 11Which Oklahoma State running back won the 1988 Heisman during a record 2,628-yard rushing season?
Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders had spent his first two college seasons as a backup, and he learned of his win in Tokyo, where his team was preparing to play Texas Tech.
Q 12Which Georgia running back won the 1982 Heisman, then joined the USFL's New Jersey Generals?
Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker ran for 1,812 yards in his first USFL season and was the league's MVP in its last.
Q 13Which Boston College quarterback won the 1984 Heisman a week after his Hail Mary beat Miami 47–45?
Doug Flutie
Doug Flutie's desperation throw was followed by a jump in applications to his college, a bump that became known as the Flutie effect.
Q 21Which University of Chicago back won the first Heisman, then became the NFL's first-ever draft pick?
Jay Berwanger
Jay Berwanger never played a professional down after a salary dispute, and his Aunt Gussie used the trophy as a doorstop.
Q 22Which Syracuse halfback, the first Black Heisman winner, died of leukemia before playing a pro game?
Ernie Davis
Ernie Davis, nicknamed the Elmira Express, met President Kennedy while he was in New York to collect the trophy in 1961.
Q 23Which 1966 Heisman winner later coached Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel to the same trophy?
Steve Spurrier
Steve Spurrier probably sealed his own award by waving off the regular kicker and booting a 40-yard field goal to beat Auburn 30–27.
Q 14Which Navy quarterback won the 1963 Heisman, served in Vietnam and won two Super Bowls with Dallas?
Roger Staubach
Roger Staubach volunteered for a one-year tour in South Vietnam, and he later became the first Heisman winner to be named Super Bowl MVP.
Q 15Which USC tailback won the 1968 Heisman and later had the NFL's first 2,000-yard rushing season?
O. J. Simpson
O. J. Simpson won the vote by 1,750 points, a record margin that stood for 51 years.
Q 16Which LSU quarterback won the 2019 Heisman after transferring from a backup role at Ohio State?
Joe Burrow
Joe Burrow used his acceptance speech to describe hunger in his Ohio hometown, and more than $450,000 in donations then reached the local food bank.
Q 17Which Auburn quarterback won the 2010 Heisman after stops at Florida and a Texas junior college?
Cam Newton
Cam Newton led Blinn College to the 2009 junior college national title, then won the BCS championship with the Tigers a year later.
Q 18Which Oklahoma quarterback, once a walk-on at Texas Tech, won the 2017 Heisman Trophy?
Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield was the first winner since sports scholarships arrived in the 1950s to have started his college career as a walk-on.
Q 19Which Oklahoma quarterback won the 2018 Heisman after being a top-ten pick in baseball's draft?
Kyler Murray
Kyler Murray, taken ninth by the Oakland Athletics, went first in the 2019 NFL draft and became the first player chosen in the first round of both sports.
Q 20Which Michigan receiver struck the Heisman pose after a punt return touchdown against Ohio State?
Desmond Howard
Desmond Howard had planned a backflip but lost his nerve, and weeks later he won the 1991 award with 85 percent of the first-place votes.
Q 24John Heisman ran the sports program at which New York organization that first presented the trophy?
Downtown Athletic Club
The Downtown Athletic Club first called its prize the DAC Trophy in 1935, then renamed it after its sports director died the next year.
Q 25John Heisman lobbied football's rule makers for three years to legalize which play in 1906?
The forward pass
The forward pass, he argued, would open up the game and curb dangerous mass plays such as the flying wedge.
Q 26John Heisman coached Georgia Tech to a record 222–0 rout of which Tennessee college in 1916?
Cumberland
Cumberland had already dropped football and sent a scrub team of law students and fraternity brothers because it was not allowed to cancel.
Q 27The Heisman Trophy, which stands about 13 inches tall and weighs 45 pounds, is cast in which metal?
Bronze
Bronze gives the statue its heft, and the sculptor's original plaster model sold at auction for $228,000 in 2005.
Q 28Which Alabama wide receiver, nicknamed the Slim Reaper, won the 2020 Heisman over Trevor Lawrence?
DeVonta Smith
DeVonta Smith later became the fifth player to win a Super Bowl, a college national title and the Heisman.
Q 29Which Alabama running back won the 2015 Heisman in a season of 2,219 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns?
Derrick Henry
Derrick Henry carried the ball 395 times in 15 games that season, and both of his totals set SEC records.
Q 30Which running back became Alabama's first Heisman winner in 2009, narrowly edging Toby Gerhart?
Mark Ingram
Mark Ingram was nine days short of his twentieth birthday, which made him the youngest winner up to that time.