March 20, 2007
Heisman High School needs an asterisk
By Stan Dyer
It was impressive enough to turn my head right in the middle of the NCAA basketball tournament. A high school (or should I say "college preparatory program") claiming 70 former members of its football program went on to play in the NFL. That's impressive. The same program also boasts being the only such program in the last 60 years to produce two future Heisman Trophy winners. Yes, it piqued my interest, and I decided to find out the names of those 70 players as well as those Heisman winners. Well, I looked, I found a few names and now I have a good idea where an asterisk belongs.
The school is Fork Union Military Academy. It's in Fork Union, Virginia. They call themselves "FUMA." I went to the website expecting to see a list comparable to the list Grambling compiled, or a list of names like all the quarterbacks who came from Pittsburgh. I didn't find it. I only found a list of 15 names, and even some of those are questionable. The 15 names I found are
Vinny Testaverde,
Eddie George,
Don Majkowski,
Will Furrer,
Plaxico Burress,
Ernest Wilford,
Billy McMullen,
Roman Oben,
Dexter Coakley,
Darryl Blackstock,
Jim Druckenmiller,
Rickey Dudley,
Chris Perry,
Mike Quick and
Sonny Randle. That's an impressive list of alumni, and the school can be proud of that, but it's not what I was expecting.
Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University in Louisiana sent 200 players to the pros including Hall of Famers
Buck Buchanan,
Charlie Joiner,
Willie Brown (who played for the Broncos before going to the Raiders) and
Willie Davis. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the "Cradle of Quarterbacks," produced
Joe Namath,
Joe Montana,
Dan Marino,
Jim Kelley,
Marc Bulger,
George Blanda,
Jeff Hostetler,
Bruce Gradkowski and
Charlie Batch. I was expecting Fork Union's list to look more like one of these two lists. While I was being mildly disappointed, I also found it difficult to confirm that one of Fork Union's Heisman winners, Vinny Testaverde, was even an alumnus.
Everyone else seems to believe Testaverde played his high school ball at Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, New York. Reading a little further, I discovered that Testaverde played for Fork Union's "postgraduate" team. I didn't know High Schools had postgraduate sports programs. I thought that was called "recreational" or "remedial." Not taking anything away from any of these players, but there should be an asterisk right there. The whole concept just smells a bit odd, and many of the 70 players did play for the remedial team. Each "postgraduate" player needs an asterisk.
Fork Union is also the only place in the world who believes it is the only school in 60 years to have two Heisman-winning alumni. Their two Heisman winners are Vinny Testaverde, who won in 1986 (whose alumni status is already in question), and Eddie George, who won in 1995. When I do the math, my figures tell me it is only 21 years since 1986. The only way I can conclude they chose the figure of 60 years was to separate them from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas, who also had two Heisman winning alumni, but 49 years apart. Woodrow Wilson High's Heisman alumni were
Davey Obrien (the fourth ever to win the trophy), who won in 1938 (in 1937,
Byron "Whizzer" White of the University of Colorado was runner up to
Clint Frank of Yale), and
Tim Brown of Notre Dame who won in 1987. Apparently, Fork Union never heard of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, or they need to update their website.
John Huarte of Notre Dame who won the Heisman in 1964, and
Matt Leinart of USC who won in 2004 were both alumni of Mater Dei High and they won their trophies 40 years apart. For Fork Union, it at least looks better for their credibility if they can get their math right.
There's no doubt that Fork Union has plenty to be proud of in their sports programs, and every High School should be proud of all the accomplishments of all its alumni, but Heisman High? In this case, it seems that small school in Virginia may have exaggerated its claims just a bit. It might not be a bad idea for school officials to qualify their claims, check the math, and, while they're at it, put an asterisk by a few of those names. Maybe Asterisk High is more suitable.