Franco Harris is usually the more logical choice with football, especially with his Super Bowl titles during the Steelers’ dominance. However, I went with this former Heisman winner because of a cheesy, made-for-TV movie I saw a couple times as a kid, Something for Joey. My ex-roommate Paul, a walking sports encyclopedia probably knows it. I would agree with him that it’s not Brian’s Song or Rudy yet it belongs in their company because it really happened.
John played football in high school and went on to Penn State. He was relegated to defensive halfback since the Nittany Lions had Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell as runningbacks (or whatever college has). Once John got the chance to play tailback, he really shined. In 1973, he scored 17 TDs, rushed for 1522 yards (three games with 200-plus) and helped Penn State go 12-0. It’s a small wonder this got him the prestigious college trophy.
Unfortunately, while he was riding high as a college-football phenom, John’s younger brother Joey was fighting leukemia and losing. If the movie is to be believed, Joey’s situation inspired John to play as well as he did. Regardless, John’s Heisman acceptance speech, primarily dedicated to Joey was the impetus for the movie.