Recalling Michigan's Heisman Trophy Top Four Finishers with Personal Memories

Aidan Hutchinson is the 11th Wolverine to finish in the top four of voting for perhaps the most coveted and legendary award in athletics

Michigan’s Heisman lore began with Tom Harmon, who won the Trophy in 1940 after finishing second in voting in 1939.

Photo Courtesy of Michigan Photography

By Steve Kornacki

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – How rare is the company Wolverine defensive end Chris Hutchinson is keeping this weekend as one of four finalists at the Heisman Trophy award ceremony?

Well, he’s a player who comes around this program – the winningest in the history of college football -- about every eight years. Hutchinson is the 11th Michigan football player to finish in the top four in 87 Heisman ballots.

Quarterback Bob Timberlake, 1964; wide receiver Anthony Carter, 1982; and tailback Chris Perry, 2003, each finished fourth.

Finishing third were running back Rob Lytle, 1976; quarterback Rick Leach, 1978; and quarterback Jim Harbaugh, 1986. That’s an interesting trio because Lytle and Leach were heroes to current Wolverine coach Harbaugh when his father, Jack, was the defensive backs coach for Bo Schembechler in Ann Arbor.

The second-place Michigan finishers were a pair of World War II heroes: halfback-defensive back-kicker Tom Harmon, 1939, and quarterback-defensive back Bob Chappuis, 1947. Notre Dame quarterback John Lujack beat Chappuis, and Iowa halfback Nile Kinnick, who would die during a training flight as a U.S. Navy aviator in WWII, edged Harmon. The Hawkeyes play in Kinnick Stadium.

Harmon became the first Michigan Heisman winner in 1940, and Desmond Howard ended the program’s long drought as a land-slide winner in 1991. Cornerback-punt returner Charles Woodson also had 588 all-purpose offensive yards in 1997, when he beat out Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning -- who, incidentally, visited Michigan as a recruit.

Harmon’s two finalist finishes means Michigan has had a top four finisher 12 times with him the lone repeater.

The oddsmakers have Alabama quarterback Bryce Young as the favorite to haul in the big honor Saturday night (ESPN, 8 p.m.), and he was the Associated Press Player of the Year with Hutchinson finishing second and Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett third.

That’s probably a good barometer of how the Heisman voting will go because many vote for both the AP and Heisman. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, who Hutchinson sacked three times in Michigan’s 42-27 win over the Buckeyes, is the fourth finalist along with Young, Hutchinson and Pickett.

I’ve been covering Michigan football since 1983, the year after the award began being presented live on TV. From 1935-81, only the winner was invited to New York to receive the Heisman.

However, Harbaugh did not go to New York as a finalist when Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde received the bronze statue. He was busy leading the Wolverines to a 27-10 win at Hawaii the same day, Dec. 6, 1986.

My favorite time at a Heisman presentation came in 1991. I had a contact at David Letterman’s show, and got Friday night tickets for me, Desmond, and Michigan sports information director Bruce Madej. I also was invited to a dinner that night for the finalists and their families, and that was quite special, too.

Desmond was the runaway winner of the award, and the result that interested him the most that day was the Michigan-Duke basketball game. If you must know, the No. 1 Blue Devils won, 88-85, in overtime at Crisler Arena.

And I’ve written stories about Wolverines in the Heisman running.

I spoke at-length with Chappuis for a book The Sporting News did in the 1980s about the Top 25 teams in college football history, with Michigan’s ’47 team spearheaded by Chappuis being one. But the best part of the conversation was about how the B-25 bomber gunner survived being shot down behind German lines and hidden for months by a family in the Italian countryside in their barn.

And on Thanksgiving Day 1991, Mark Harmon called my home in response to a letter written to his mother about the family discussing their late father and husband having Desmond about to join him in the Heisman ranks.

I covered Carter when he led the Michigan Panthers to the 1983 USFL championship, and I believe he would’ve been a better Heisman candidate in this era when every game is televised and stars are made bigger there. He is the only Wolverine to finish in the Top 10 in voting three times: 1980, 10th; 1981, seventh; and 1982, fourth. And he played at the end of an 11-year streak of tailbacks winning the Heisman, 1973-83.

Woodson remains the only primarily defensive Heisman winner, and what I remember most is talking to him when he decided to become a Wolverine in high school. He rushed for over 2,000 yards as a senior, but told me he wanted to play defense because he loved to hit.

I spoke at length with the family of the late, great Lytle when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and got to know Leach quite well during several interviews for a book I was writing -- as well as when he played Major League Baseball.

Linebacker/defensive back Jabrill Peppers finished fifth in Heisman voting in 2016, and current Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart also was fifth in 2006. I enjoyed that ceremony five years ago and the day before with Jabrill and his mother, and recall the photo taken of him posing with the Heisman on a patio high atop a downtown hotel building.

So, the Heisman has been quite a trip through time – one that continues with Aidan Hutchinson, who told me last year in the gym we both frequent in Plymouth that this was going to be an “exciting” year for both himself and this team.

And wherever Hutchinson finishes, it’s already been an unforgettable season for the Big Ten champions headed to the College Football Playoff against Georgia on New Year’s Eve night.

But if he did win, wouldn’t that be something?

For more stories on these and other Wolverines read Miracle Moments in Michigan Wolverines Football History (2018, Skyhorse Publishing, New York City) or Go Blue: Michigan’s Greatest Football Stories (2013, Triumph Books, Chicago).

Send an email (sgkornacki@yahoo.com) if interested in purchasing an autographed copy of the most recent book, which I co-authored with my son, Derek Kornacki, who also writes some great pieces for The Kornacki Wolverine Report.