Mark Ingram Heisman

Mark Ingram is the Only Heisman Trophy Winner From the University of Alabama (Bama) Crimson Tide
By Kim Patel
Mark Ingram is the only Heisman Trophy winner to come out of the University of Alabama (Bama) Crimson Tide football program despite the storied football history of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama based school. Mark Ingram won the first Heisman Trophy for the University of Alabama on December 12, 2009. Interestingly after no sophomores won the award for the first 72 years it was issued Ingram became the third consecutive sophomore to win the award after Tim Tebow of the University of Florida in 2007 and Sam Bradford of the University of Oklahoma in 2008.
The University of Alabama began playing college football in 1892 and in over a century of play the football program has amassed an impressive resume of accomplishments. The most prominent of the achievements is 13 national championships with the most recent one coming on January 7, 2010 in a 37-21 victory over the University of Texas at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Producing 44 consensus All-American players, winning 26 conference titles, and boasting 31 postseason bowl victories all speak volumes about the caliber of play at the University of Alabama.
The consistent track record of team success exhibited by the Crimson Tide makes it all the more peculiar that the school had never had a Heisman Trophy winner before December of 2009. The Heisman is commonly accepted to be the most prized individual award in all of college football. For the last 75 years the Heisman Trophy has been given annually to the top college football player in the nation. For a football program like Alabama to only have one recipient of the award while other hallowed institutions like the University of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, and the University of Southern California all have seven apiece is quite surprising to most sports fans.
Prior to Mark Ingram securing the prize for the Crimson Tide eight players from the school on nine occasions had finished as finalist in the top five of the voting. Those nine players are:
Joe Kilgrow (1937) finished 5th as a running back Harry Gilmer (1945) finished 5th as a running back Harry Gilmer (1947) finished 5th as a running back Pat Trammell (1961) finished 5th as a quarterback Lee Roy Jordan (1962) finished 4th as a linebacker Johnny Musso (1971) finished 5th as a running back Terry Davis (1972) finished 5th as a quarterback David Palmer (1993) finished 3rd as a wide receiver Jay Parker (1994) finished 5th as a quarterback
While University of Alabama football fans are primarily concerned with winning national championships whether they all admit it or not the folks that cheer on the crimson and gray are thankful that the Heisman Trophy drought was finally brought to an end thanks to Mark Ingram.
Kim, the author of this article, expects that when Mark Ingram signs his first NFL contract one of his first purchases might be a University of Alabama golf bag. Prior to being selected as the number one pick in the 2010 NFL Draft Sam Bradford, the sophomore Heisman winner that immediately preceded Ingram, stating that a University of Oklahoma golf bag was something that he looked forward to buying as one of his first purchases to be paid for by his new NFL contract. Fans considering buying a college themed golf bag are encouraged to check out the links in the previous two sentences.