The U. S. Military Academy has produced 3 Heisman Trophy winners

While the United States Military Academy has slipped from its lofty status as one of college football's top programs, there's no denying the successful past of Army football that produced national championship football teams and players that were recognized as college football's best.

USMA Heisman Winners
DOC BLANCHARD 1945,
GLENN DAVIS 1946,
PETE DAWKINS 1958.

Throughout the college football landscape there is traditionally a long list of programs that have produced waves of great teams and All-Americans.  While many might hesitate to put Army in that category,  only four schools, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC, have produced more Heisman Trophy winners than the Black Knights.

The lethal rushing combination of Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis first brought Heisman glory to West Point following the 1945 and 1946 seasons.  Not only did the backfield duo both gain the nation’s top individual award and earn All-American status three years; they helped lead the Cadets to three consecutive (1944-46) national championship claims.

Doc Blanchard

Blanchard, who became the first junior to win the award, was known as “Mr. Inside” because of his punishing running style delivered by six-foot, 200-pound plus frame.  Oddly enough Blanchard only entered West Point after being rejected from the Navy’s V-12 program because he was considered overweight and because he had a vision problem.

Whatever vision problems Blanchard had, Army Legendary Coach Earl Red Blaik never lost sight of how the South Carolina native struck fear into Army opponents.  “Doc Blanchard was the best built athlete I ever saw: 6 feet and 208 pounds at his peak, not a suspicion of fat on him, with slim waist, atlas shoulders, colossal legs,” Blaik wrote in his book “You Have to Pay the Price.”  For a big man, ‘Doc’ was the quickest starter I ever saw, and in the open he ran with the niftiness as well as the speed of a great halfback….”

Glenn Davis

The perfect compliment to Blanchard’s power running style was Glenn Davis who was dubbed “Mr. Outside” for his ability to shed tacklers with his blazing speed.  In his first year as a varsity regular, the California native led the nation in scoring in 1944 while averaging an amazing 11.1 yards-per-carry.  “He was emphatically the greatest halfback I ever knew,” Coach Blaik wrote.  “He was not so much a dodger and side-stepper as a blazing runner who had a fourth, even fifth gear in reserve, could change direction at top speed and fly away from tacklers as if jet-propelled.”

When the dust had settled after their final year at Army in 1946, both players had combined to score an NCAA record 97 touchdowns and 585 points while leading the Black Knights to a 27-0-1 record. When considering their Heisman impact, Blanchard and Davis still rank as the most dominating backfield tandem of all time.  The pair ranked an amazing 2-3 in 1944, 1-2 in 1945 and 1-4 in the 1946 Heisman balloting.

While Davis had much in common with his running mate Blanchard, it paled in comparison to a bond he would later develop with another Heisman winner.   Davis married Yvonne Ameche, the widow of Wisconsin’s Alan Ameche who won the award in 1954.  Another love interest of Glen Davis was Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor, who he dated prior to marrying actress Terry Moore.

Another similar comparison to Blanchard is the fact that both Heisman winners donated their trophies to their high schools.  Davis' resides at Bonita High in Laverne, CA., while Blanchard's spent many years at St. Stanislaus High School in Bay St. Louis, Miss.  The trophy resided at Davis' high school until it was washed away by Hurricane Katrina.    Davis is buried at West Point near his former Army head coach, Red Blaik.

Pete Dawkins

Not only did the 1958 season produce Army Heisman winner Pete Dawkins, but it was also the Black Knights last undefeated season.  Dawkins totaled 12 touchdowns during the season as he combined his rushing, receiving and kick returning skills to account for 1,216 total yards. Dawkins’ tackling of the Heisman Trophy was just one of his many accomplishments as the rambling Cadet ranked 10th in his 1959 graduating class of 499.

Following his career at West Point, Dawkins snubbed the NFL’s Baltimore Colts and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar instead.  Displaying the same leadership that he did on the field and in the classroom, Dawkins became the youngest Brigadier General on active duty in the U.S. Army at the age of 43.Pete Dawkins was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and later earned a Phd. from Princeton. He was awarded two bronze stars for valor in Vietnam and retired as a Brigadier general. Today, he's a high-ranking executive with Citibank in New York.