The story of two-sport star Charlie Ward’s incredible Heisman season, 30 years later
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Harry Lyles Jr., ESPN Staff Writer
WALKING INTO THE Thomas County Public Library in Thomasville, Georgia, visitors see what they’d expect to see in any small-town library.
A flat-screen in the entranceway spells out the rules: no food, drinks, smoking or cellphones. Through a set of double doors is the circulation desk, with three banners above promoting the summer reading challenge.
To the left is the children’s section, with kid-sized tables and chairs and floor tiles with images of water, bubbles and a large goldfish. There’s a check-out desk to the right, an alphabet quilt to the left, butterfly mobiles hanging from the ceiling and shelf after shelf of colorful books.
Along the back wall, next to a window with a “Speak Quietly Please” sign, is a small glass case. On it sits a piece of paper in a plastic cover, propped against a small statue, with a quote that reads, “One way to get a quality education is to read what you don’t want and do what you’d rather not.” The quote is from Charlie Ward Jr., the former Florida State football star and pro basketball player who grew up less than 2 miles from the library.
Next to the quote sits a list of Ward’s accomplishments during the 1993 FSU national championship season in a black picture frame.
Inside the case is Ward’s No. 17 Seminoles jersey, a basketball card from his time with the New York Knicks, a framed photo of Ward and one more item of note. Right there — between a mostly empty magazine rack adorned with toadstools and a mini puppet theater — as presented by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York City to Ward 30 years ago, is the 45-pound Heisman Trophy.
An unsuspecting visitor would be taken aback. But for those who know Charlie Ward, the Thomas County Public Library children’s room is the perfect place for his Heisman Trophy.
WILLARD AND CHARLIE Ward Sr. are surrounded by trophies at their Thomasville home in what they call the “awards room.” The room is filled with an assortment of athletic trophies, awards and memorabilia from the whole family. Charlie Jr.’s Davey O’Brien Trophy, a Charlie Ward Jr. Boulevard sign (many have been stolen over the years in Thomasville), a 1993 ACC Offensive Player of the Year trophy and many more. In the middle of the room is a plate commemorating the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.
Among the many receipts of Charlie Jr.’s success at all levels of athletics, the Wards recall the exact moment they knew their son was gifted enough to fill such a room.
When Junior — as his family calls him — was 2 years old, a friend saw him out on a shuffleboard court bouncing a ball.
“She said, ‘Look at that boy!'” Willard says. “She saw the skills he had for a child that age. I hadn’t paid any attention to it.” Charlie Sr. adds: “He had cat reflexes.”
Athleticism is ingrained in the Ward family DNA. It’s evident from the way Charlie Sr. (who prefers to be called “Coach”) goes between different motions during a conversation — one moment he’s shooting an imaginary basketball, another he pantomimes swinging a baseball bat or settles in for a dribbling motion. If push came to shove, even at 84, the elder Ward — who played for Florida A&M and legendary coach Jake Gaither in Tallahassee — would be willing to compete.
Junior’s athletic career was molded in the Thomasville neighborhood, where he grew up playing every sport imaginable.
“We were playing in the streets,” Charlie Jr. says. “Street ball, whatever the ball was, we made it happen. We had quite a few guys in the neighborhood. Then we would take our neighborhood and go play another neighborhood. That’s the way we got down in the streets. And those were our rivalries and how we handled our business. It was all about bragging rights.”
The basketball hoop Junior grew up shooting on was 12 feet high, not the regulation 10 feet, as set by his father so nobody could tear the basket down. That didn’t matter to Junior.
“I mean, you shoot the ball and make it go in,” he says. “Whether it’s 12 feet, 10 feet, you just have to make adjustments.”
Willard feels a key event that shaped her son was a knee injury he had early in high school. A bone issue that required surgery left his doctors unsure of his athletic future.
“When that was taken away, I was, of course, frustrated,” Junior says. “But I was able to learn that I needed to make sure I took my schooling seriously because it can be easily taken away, the thing that I enjoyed most.”
As Charlie Jr. became a better student, something he said he previously hadn’t taken pride in, he also recovered physically and had a very successful high school athletic career. He wouldn’t have been Charlie Ward if he didn’t.
“Junior’s the kind of person — and his dad’s the same way — I said, ‘Only way he didn’t play or something, he wouldn’t have an arm, a leg, a head or something. But as long as he had one of those things, he was going to get out there,'” Willard says. “And that was that determination. ‘You won’t tell me I can’t do it.'”
CHARLIE WARD DID not immediately jump from high school to Florida State.
Despite his good grades coming out of high school, Ward’s ACT score didn’t meet the NCAA standard. He didn’t want to lose a year of eligibility, as the Proposition 48 rules at the time would have dictated, so he spent a year taking classes at Tallahassee Community College, less than 40 miles from his hometown of Thomasville.
When Ward finally arrived at Florida State in 1989, the future Heisman Trophy winner and first-round NBA draft pick saw the field immediately — as the team’s punter.
Because of an injury to Florida State’s starting punter, Ward took on the job and didn’t redshirt as planned. Even in that role, he did things people rarely saw. In a game against Tulane, Ward had a run, pass and punt in one drive.
But it was in practice — specifically, the team’s final preseason scrimmage — that Ward’s legend began to take hold.
“They always play the first and second team versus the rest,” former Florida State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mark Richt recalled. “Charlie was on the rest, and almost single-handedly won the game against the varsity. … And usually you spot the [rest] some points because you’re trying to make it competitive, but [the varsity] just about lost to the team Charlie was quarterbacking.”
And this wasn’t just any defense Ward went up against. It included the likes of LeRoy Butler, Terrell Buckley, Kirk Carruthers and Odell Haggins, all of whom played in the NFL.
Fullback William Floyd said, “Coach had to come over like, ‘Hey, man, you got to tell Ward, you got to call different plays, whatever, he’s making us look crazy over here.’ And he’s going against the starting defense.
“It was like, ‘Man, this is our starting defense, man! We can mess up their confidence if this keeps happening.'”
IN SPRING 1990, Bobby Bowden wanted Ward to compete for the starting quarterback job. But Ward knew he wasn’t going to win the role, given the team’s success the previous season and the experienced QBs — Casey Weldon and Brad Johnson — in front of him.
He also wanted to play basketball, which was a key factor in his choosing Florida State over Georgia coming out of high school, and as a freshman, he had met the academic requirements set by FSU.
“Coach Bowden had allowed Brad Johnson to play basketball and football,” Ward said, “and that’s what I wanted to do. … And my mom’s going to hold his feet to the fire if things change.”
When Ward approached Bowden about playing basketball during his redshirt season, Bowden told him he should think about it some more, which Ward didn’t like, and Ward’s mother let Bowden know.
“I said, ‘Coach Bowden, this is Charlie Ward’s mama,'” Willard recalled. “‘Junior called me real upset because he had asked you about playing basketball and you said to him to think about it. And he said he wasn’t going to go back and ask you again.'”
So, after playing scout team quarterback through the middle of October, Ward switched gears and joined the basketball team, immediately adding a unique personality to the group.
3:29
The start of Charlie Ward’s legendary Seminole basketball career
Take a look at Charlie Ward’s Seminole career, from his early days as FSU’s punter to his prowess on the hardcourt as the basketball team’s point guard.
“We used to call ’em ‘The Saint and the Sinners,'” former Seminoles basketball coach Pat Kennedy said with a laugh.
“Charlie was a saint, and the rest of the guys on the team were the sinners. If [Charlie] gave you a look, they all got very, very scared. It was almost as if there was an angel looking at you.”
Ward didn’t like cursing and still doesn’t to this day. It created a moment early on between him and Kennedy that changed the way Kennedy coached forever.
“The old New York in me, I used to get pretty fiery with some of my pregame and halftime talks,” Kennedy said. “And I gave a pregame talk before a Florida game, and it was a little salty. And so the guys went out on the floor. And Charlie was — I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with something.
“So I said, ‘Charlie, what’s up?’ He said, ‘Coach, you know, Coach Bowden doesn’t use that kind of language, and he gets us to play awfully hard as well.’ So from that point on I really — and then my whole coaching staff, because I had a few New York guys with me — we all cut back on the salty language.”
Ward said, “I was a big stickler for just being respectful. I wasn’t a curser. So I would share my displeasure with coaches, players, and they knew it.”
Sam Cassell, a member of the basketball team, still can’t talk about it without laughing. “You don’t curse him now. You curse around him too much and he just looks at you like, ‘Come on.’ He just shook his head like, ‘Wow, you can’t express it some other way?'” Cassell said with a cackle.
“We laughed at it. He was Charlie Ward. He was just Charlie Ward around us. You respect it because that’s who he was.”
For all of the ways Ward was orchestrating better behavior off the court, he was putting in just as much work on it. He added a different dynamic to the team as a distributor and defensive stopper, allowing scorers such as Cassell and Bob Sura to thrive.
“My job was to get those other guys the ball,” Ward said. “I shot, but I was a football guy. So me coming out there just jacking up shots wasn’t going to help us be productive.”
But when Ward did focus on scoring, he made it count. One of the biggest shots of his basketball career at FSU came in the Metro Conference championship against Louisville in 1991 — a 3-pointer to send Florida State to the NCAA tournament. The Seminoles would reach the second round before losing to second-seeded Indiana.
As Ward continued to improve as a basketball player, the stakes got higher. Florida State started playing in the ACC in the 1991-92 season, and its first conference game was at North Carolina. Ward scored 18 points, upsetting the Tar Heels 86-74 in front of what Cassell infamously called a “wine and cheese” crowd.
“After the game, Dean Smith grabbed him and said, ‘Son, you need to give up football,'” Kennedy said. Florida State would end up making the Sweet 16 that season, losing again to Indiana, which ended up in the Final Four.
The following season, as Ward emerged as a legitimate two-sport standout, his star continued to grow.
Kennedy recalled, “We’re starting one of our early home basketball games and my sports information director says, ‘Coach, somebody’s asking for two tickets for tonight, and they said it was Spike Lee.’ And we got the phone number, we call back and it was, in fact, Spike Lee.”
Lee attended a handful of games during that 1992-93 season, wearing a No. 17 Florida State football jersey. In a game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, during which Ward and Yellow Jackets star Travis Best went back and forth, Ward hit a layup to win the game 83-82.
“Spike was sitting under the basket in the first row,” Kennedy said. “Spike gets up, runs out onto the court with his 17 jersey and picks Charlie up, and he’s carrying Charlie around.”
The Seminoles finished that season having made the Elite Eight as a No. 3 seed, losing to No. 1 seed Kentucky.
With Ward as point guard, Florida State made three straight NCAA appearances, helping the Seminoles develop a reputation beyond football.
“He just grew and grew on us to where he became a pro, and not everyone thought he was a professional basketball player, obviously, when he first came in,” Kennedy said. “That’s the greatness of the story, you know?”
“I mean, no one ever, ever thought Charlie was going to be a professional basketball player.”
CHARLIE WARD’S TURN as Florida State’s starting quarterback arrived in 1992, when he made history as the school’s first Black player at the position.
His recruitment was pushed by Wayne McDuffie, Bowden’s offensive coordinator from 1983 to 1990.
“There had to be some politicking because Coach Bowden wasn’t sold on me,” Ward said, “Because he hadn’t played a Black quarterback, one. And two, he thought that his system didn’t fit me because he felt like I was a runner, and he wanted someone that was going to drop back and pass the football. But that’s all he knew, and he didn’t know anything different because that’s all he had. … [McDuffie] was very demonstrative in his approach to give me enough courage and they took a chance on me as a dual-threat quarterback.”
He was no finished product during the early portion of his time as QB1, and his lack of experience was evident. And as FSU’s first Black quarterback, he said, “I’m glad we didn’t have social media.”
“If you don’t have [experience], you got to go through the struggles of it. The struggles to get there,” he said. When he finally became the starter, in his fourth year at the school, “I had no meaningful quarterback snaps like what I was getting ready to go into.”
In his first start, the 1992 season opener, Ward threw four interceptions in a 48-21 win over Duke. In his second, he threw another three picks in a 24-20 win at Clemson. He was getting benched for an occasional series (or more) for Danny Kanell, a freshman, before going back in and finishing games.
“He was matching those [interceptions] with touchdowns and with great runs, and so we kind of felt like we had something really good there,” co-offensive coordinator Brad Scott said. “But there is a price to pay for experience and Charlie had to kind of go through that.”
“Coach Bowden had a meeting with our offensive staff,” Richt said. “He says, ‘Charlie’s throwing a lot of interceptions. Is that your fault?’ and he’s looking at Brad Scott. And he looked at me, he goes, ‘Is it your fault?’ And he goes, ‘Or is it my fault?’ And we’re like, ‘It’s our fault. We’ll get it fixed.'”
Richt had a conversation with Ward, telling him the school record for interceptions was 17. He told Ward, “Charlie, when you hit No. 16, you’re not going to break the school record because you’re not going to play anymore,” Richt recalled with a laugh.
Everything changed when FSU played Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta. In a nationally televised game, Ward was again benched for Kanell after throwing three interceptions.
“The only option was me,” Kanell said. “And I wasn’t ready. But he was playing that poorly where they had to get him off the field. … I was like, barely just making sure I could hand the ball off. The offense was pared down, we couldn’t do any of the things that we could do with Charlie. And so I would go in for a series or two, and Charlie would come back in and he was like a different person.”
When Ward reentered these games, Florida State essentially went into its two-minute offense — with Ward in the shotgun, no-huddle, four wideouts and one running back — instead of its typical I-formation, toss-sweep, play-action attack.
Georgia Tech led 21-7 with 14:27 remaining in the game. Ward engineered the comeback, as Florida State once again went up-tempo. He completed 14 of his final 19 passes for 137 yards. The realization that a permanent change was needed was undeniable.
Richt said, “Of course of all people, my wife goes, ‘Charlie seems to do better out of the shotgun. You might think about starting a game that way.'”
Florida State did just that two weeks later against Maryland and won 69-21. The week after that brought a 70-7 win over Tulane. Then a 45-24 win over Florida, followed by a 27-14 Orange Bowl win over Nebraska.
“That’s kind of the birth of the fast-break offense,” Richt said. “The offseason between ’92 and ’93, we designed the entire offense around the no-huddle.”
“That’s when you knew that Charlie had figured something out,” Floyd said.
THE OVERWHELMING CHOICE as No. 1 in the preseason polls, Florida State was an unstoppable force during the first five weeks of the 1993 season. In wins against Kansas, Duke, No. 21 Clemson, No. 13 North Carolina and Georgia Tech, the Seminoles outscored their opponents 228-14.
Ward’s recollection of that stretch was not about what they did offensively, but rather the heroics of their defense. In their first game against Kansas, Florida State’s defense had a 12-play goal-line stand that team members and fans still talk about. (The Seminoles’ offense would follow with a 99-yard drive for a score.)
In Week 6, FSU got over the hump against No. 3 Miami after losses the previous three seasons, including Wide Right I in 1991 and Wide Right II in 1992.
After wins over No. 15 Virginia, Wake Forest and Maryland, the 9-0 Seminoles traveled to South Bend to take on No. 2 Notre Dame in a “Game of the Century” on NBC, with ESPN’s “College GameDay” in town for the first time in the show’s history. Ward had missed the previous week because of a bruised clavicle and was excited for the opportunity.
But it wasn’t the Seminoles’ night. Offensively, they weren’t as explosive as they had been in previous weeks, and their defense played out of character in the second quarter, allowing the Irish to build a 21-7 cushion.
Despite this, Ward and FSU had a chance at the end. Down 31-24, Ward marched the offense toward Notre Dame’s Touchdown Jesus, down to the Irish 14-yard line for one more shot. Ward’s pass was batted down in the end zone, and the Irish held on.
While it felt like Florida State’s national title hopes died in South Bend that night, it got a second wind the following Saturday.
As the Seminoles were in Burt Reynolds Hall preparing to play NC State in a matter of hours, everything changed.
“Right before it was time for us to walk down,” Ward said, “they started yelling that Boston College is lining up to kick the game-winning field goal [against Notre Dame].”
That prompted everyone to crowd around a TV wherever they could.
“[The kick] goes through, and that is when the whole dorm erupted,” Ward said.
Richt recalled chaos on Tennessee Street, which is essentially the north border of the Florida State campus. “Everybody started jumping out of their cars and dancing around the place because we had a chance to play for the national championship again,” he said.
The players were late getting to the locker room, but it didn’t matter. A team that was already primed to channel its energy had extra juice after the Irish were upset.
“That helped refocus us a little bit more,” Ward said. “A reason why we didn’t lose very many games was our mentality switch after a loss. We just wanted to make sure somebody paid the next week if we lost a game. Unfortunately it was North Carolina State that was on the back end of it.”
The Wolfpack got trounced 62-7.
At that point, the only thing standing between Florida State, Charlie Ward and Bobby Bowden and a shot at their first national championship was No. 7 Florida. The Gators hadn’t lost a home game since 1989, when Florida State knocked them off 24-17 during Ward’s freshman season.
The Seminoles came out strong, and took a 27-7 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Gators pulled within 27-21 with just under six minutes to go. “And now it’s as loud as I don’t know what in that stadium,” Floyd said.
Despite both the game and national championship hopes potentially slipping from the Seminoles’ grasp, Floyd was comforted amid the chaos.
“What I love is that you can look in [Ward’s] eyes and tell that you always had a chance to win,” he said. “He didn’t have to say a word, you can just look at his eyes.”
2:58
The game that secured the Heisman for Charlie Ward
In a must-win road test, Charlie Ward and the Seminoles fight off the Gators and boast his status for the Heisman Trophy.
Facing a third-and-10 from the Seminoles’ 21-yard line, Ward flicked the ball to his checkdown option as his protection broke down. Running back Warrick Dunn caught it just beyond the 30. Wideout Tamarick Vanover threw the last-needed block on Florida cornerback Anthone Lott, and Dunn galloped into the end zone to put the game away 33-21.
“It went from the loudest to the quietest in five seconds,” Ward said.
In what is still one of the biggest moments in Florida State football history, Ward connected with his roommate, Dunn, whom he had been helping get through the most difficult time of his life.
Dunn’s mother, Betty Smothers, was a police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and had been killed in the line of duty Jan. 7, 1993, when Dunn was just 18.
Former Washington Commanders quarterback Doug Williams was a family friend of Smothers, and wanted to make sure Dunn was being looked after. So he contacted Ward, who wore the No. 17 because of Williams.
“I didn’t have a roommate at the time,” Ward said. “And so there was no big issue for me to room with a freshman that was coming in, and also someone — one of my heroes — asked me to take care of him.
“He had a lot of stuff going on, a lot of stuff he had to process. And so, just being there for him was what he needed. We were made to be roommates in a lot of ways.”
Dunn was grateful to have Ward as a friend.
“We had deep conversations. And he was there to listen to me,” Dunn said. “Those are moments that I can never take back. Always be thankful for. He will always be my big brother.
“I just think us having a connection every day together, being roommates and so forth that, on that play, he believed in me. And I think that just signifies the impact our relationship had during that whole [year].”
As the ABC broadcast showed Ward running down the field to celebrate with Dunn, analyst Bob Griese said, “Give it to Charlie, go ahead,” referring to the Heisman Trophy. Legendary play-by-play man Keith Jackson responded, “You can call off your party and just mail it to him.”
Fifteen days later, in New York, Ward was announced as the 59th winner of the award, with a margin of victory of 1,622 points — second at the time only to O.J. Simpson’s 1,750-point win in 1968, when more ballots were distributed.
The attention of winning the Heisman made the 2½-week lead-up to the national championship game against Nebraska more difficult for Ward.
“I remember the line at his dorm room was like 20 or 30 players deep with memorabilia, with balls, Florida State gear, to have him sign because he’s the Heisman Trophy winner,” Kanell said. “That stuff normally didn’t happen, and we had first-round draft picks. We had guys who were going to play in the NFL.”
Dunn recalled other people coming to their door with requests. “‘Can I get his autograph? Can I get this?’ Charlie’s not here. Charlie’s not here. Charlie’s not here.” Eventually, Dunn put a sign on the door that read, “CHARLIE AIN’T HERE.”
Florida State had a celebration for Ward in Doak Campbell Stadium, where his No. 17 jersey was retired.
“That might have been the one time I saw him uncomfortable and truly not at peace with any situation,” Kanell said.
“I was always uncomfortable with the spotlight,” Ward said. “The night of the celebration, where they retired my jersey, grateful. But one thing I started to learn and understand was, you know, I was a man of faith, God was putting me in certain positions for a reason.”
When the national title game against the Cornhuskers finally arrived, the Seminoles were off the majority of the night.
“They played good defense,” Ward said. “And they knew everything we were doing or trying to do. They disrupted our routes … and they had a game plan.
“Their game plan was to hit. And so whether it was during a play or after the play, it didn’t matter. They actually took penalties because they were trying to send a message.
“But, you know, it didn’t deter me from being whoever because I wouldn’t get out of character in any form or fashion.”
After Nebraska’s Byron Bennett knocked through a 27-yard field goal to give the Huskers a 16-15 lead in the fourth quarter, Ward was given an opportunity with 1:16 remaining.
“There’s a TV cut where Nebraska goes down and scores,” Floyd said. “And [Ward’s] on the sideline, warming up, you know, that cool and calm Charlie demeanor. And he’s looking out on the field like, ‘Oh, they scored?’ Then he just starts throwing the ball again, warming up. So that’s TV seeing it. But me seeing it live, I’m looking at Charlie, and I’m looking in his eyes and I know we got a chance to win this thing.
“Man, we got Charlie Ward.”
Florida State’s offense took over on its 35-yard line after the Huskers’ kickoff went out of bounds. On one big play, Ward found Dunn for a 21-yard catch, then 15 yards were tacked on for a Nebraska late hit.
Ward led FSU to the Nebraska 3-yard line, where the Huskers’ defense held, but Scott Bentley hit the field goal to give Florida State an 18-16 lead with 21 seconds left. After a few more tense moments, including a premature Gatorade bath for Bowden, a last-ditch field goal try by Nebraska went wide left and the Seminoles had their championship.
“It was kind of surreal in the sense that the thing that we set out to do, we were able to accomplish,” Ward said. “And there’s no better feeling than when you prepare for a test, and you go in and ace the test.”
After the conclusion of the 1993 football and 1993-94 basketball seasons, it was time for Ward to take his athletic career to the next level. He wouldn’t say whether he wanted to go pro in football or basketball, wanting to keep his options open.
During the NFL draft that April, Ward was at the home he grew up in. After not hearing his name called in the first or second rounds, Willard recalls him getting up.
“He went outside, got that basketball, and started shooting,” she said.
Charlie Sr. added, “He said, ‘I better go work on my basketball skills.'”
The Kansas City Chiefs called Ward during the fifth round the next day. Ward said they wanted him to be Joe Montana’s backup, then take the reins once Montana retired.
“I told them I couldn’t guarantee that I would come to camp if I got drafted in the fifth round. Because if I got drafted in the first round in the NBA, I’m going there,” he said. “I was just being honest with them, so they didn’t draft me.”
In a telephone interview on ESPN2 midway through the seventh round, Ward said, “Basketball and the Canadian [Football] League are now a big option. A lot of teams in the NBA are telling me I have to concentrate on one sport. Maybe I will. Some [NFL] teams might have been interested, but they weren’t willing to take a chance. Maybe I’ll be the first Heisman winner that plays in the NBA.”
Ward wasn’t selected in the NFL draft, and that June was taken by the New York Knicks with the 26th pick of the NBA draft. He had a 12-year pro career, the first Heisman winner to play in the NBA.
PEOPLE VISITING THE Thomas County Public Library want to know if Charlie Ward’s Heisman Trophy is the real thing.
They’re often wearing some sort of Florida State apparel, trying to look as natural and casual as possible, just to get a peek at a piece of history. But the legend of Charlie Ward, and the hard evidence of one of his greatest two-way college stars of the past 50 years, is well known by everybody in Thomasville.
If you’re visiting the library to see the Heisman, everybody working inside can tell from the moment you walk in the door.
The children’s section of a public library certainly isn’t where one expects to find one of the most prestigious trophies in all of sports. But it ended up being the best fit for the Ward family, and fitting for who Ward is as a person.
Willard Ward was a librarian herself. The library wanted to put the trophy on display for a time, and of course, the Wards were happy to oblige. So the trophy was taken off its shelf at the Wards’ home and taken to the library.
Then the Wards decided it should stay there.
“At that time, we had no alarm system, and the library did,” Willard says. “And it just dawned on me, we would have more people that would go see it down there.”
Senior laughs, “And we’d have to keep this house too clean if we had it. And we just normal folks.”
So in a small town — Thomasville, Georgia — sits one of the 86 Heisman Trophy awards. Library employees say Charlie Sr. has been known to sit in the same seat to the right of the circulation desk to enjoy his morning coffee and read the newspaper, his son’s Heisman on display a short stroll away.
“Every award, everyone’s not going to be able to win. But what they can strive to do is have a sense of achievement,” says Ward, who is a motivational speaker and has been a high school football or basketball coach since 2007. “So whatever that achievement may be, it may be reading five books during the summer, and then you get a reward for that, whatever that reward may be.
“And so it’s not so much about the Heisman, but it’s about the process and the journey of it. We all have those processes and journeys to meet our goals. That is something we can all strive to do. And that’s what it’s really symbolic of.”
As we approach the one-month mark of the 2025 college football season, the state of quarterback play among the contenders (and pretenders) across the country is becoming clearer.
LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Texas’ Arch Manning — all for different reasons — have followed hefty preseason hype with relatively slow starts this fall. Elsewhere, Josh Hoover (TCU), Haynes King (Georgia Tech) and Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) are looking very much as expected, and some of the nation’s biggest offseason question marks, including Oregon’s Dante Moore and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed, have emerged as surprise stars.
Week 4 was a big one for transfer passers as Joey Aguilar (Tennessee), Carson Beck (Miami), John Mateer (Oklahoma), Fernando Mendoza (Indiana) and Beau Pribula (Missouri) all built on impressive starts with their new programs. Meanwhile, fellow portal quarterbacks Jackson Arnold (Auburn), Devon Dampier (Utah) and Jake Retzlaff (Tulane) experienced their first stumbles in their new uniforms Saturday.
With four full weeks of college football in the books, here’s our take on the Top 25 and how early-season quarterback situations are developing across the country. — Eli Lederman
Previous ranking: 1
Freshman Julian Sayin is off to a terrific start through three games, having replaced national championship-winning quarterback Will Howard. Sayin ranks 29th nationally in QBR (77.2) and is completing almost 79% of his throws. Sayin didn’t put up big numbers in Ohio State’s season-opening 14-7 victory over then-top-ranked Texas. But he was accurate and avoided any big mistakes (sacks or turnovers), which allowed the Ohio State defense to salt away the win. In Week 2’s 70-0 victory, Sayin set a school record with 16 straight completions to begin the game. Then, in Week 3, he passed for 347 yards as the offense got rolling against Ohio in the second half after a slow start. Some big tests loom ahead, most notably on Nov. 1 against Penn State and in the regular-season finale at Michigan. But Sayin has impressed so far with his poise and precision. — Jake Trotter
Previous ranking: 3
Carson Beck has helped lead the Hurricanes to a 4-0 start following a 26-7 win over Florida on Saturday. Though his performance against the Gators was not up to his standard — Beck went 17-of-30 for 160 yards with one interception — he is still completing 73% of his passes on the season and has helped position Miami in the top five as a CFP contender. Beck has shown an ability to make big plays in the passing game with his receivers, who are skilled at going up and making acrobatic catches or coming down with jump balls. Following an open date, Miami plays Florida State in Tallahassee, and Beck said he is looking forward to playing in Doak Campbell Stadium for the first time. — Andrea Adelson
Previous ranking: 2
The Ducks continue to boast one of the most balanced offenses in the country as they totaled 305 passing yards and 280 rushing yards in their 41-7 win over rivals Oregon State Saturday. One slight difference about this week’s performance, however, was that they let quarterback Dante Moore loosen his arm a bit more. Whether it was by design or not, it worked; Moore threw 31 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns, all season highs. It was another reminder that no matter how good the Ducks have been this season, Moore still has more in the tank. Even if he doesn’t have the kind of off-the-charts pop that others at his position might boast, the sophomore has proved he can be efficient, explosive when needed and, most importantly, capable of managing Oregon’s offense to perfection so far. — Paolo Uggetti
Previous ranking: 4
After a slow start to the season due to a torso injury, Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier again looked like one of the best passers in the FBS on Saturday, albeit against FCS program Southeastern Louisiana. And with a trip to Ole Miss coming up next, it couldn’t have come at a better time for LSU. Nussmeier completed 25 of 31 passes for 273 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in 2½ quarters of action against the Lions. It was the first game in which he threw for more than 250 yards this season. “This week was big about trying to find our rhythm and getting in stride heading into SEC play,” Nussmeier said. LSU coach Brian Kelly thought Nussmeier did a better job seeing the field and throwing in rhythm. — Mark Schlabach
Previous ranking: 7
Veteran Drew Allar is off to a bit of a slow start statistically. He ranks 111th in QBR (38.4) and has thrown just four touchdowns over three games. But the Nittany Lions have yet to be pressed, as they coasted past Nevada (46-11), Florida International (34-0) and Villanova (52-6). The spotlight, however, will be on Allar and Penn State next weekend when Oregon visits for a prime-time, “White Out” showdown. Allar admitted over the summer that the time has come for the Nittany Lions “to get over that hump” against big-time opponents. Under coach James Franklin, Penn State is 4-20 against teams ranked in the AP top 10 — and Allar has only one career top-10 win (Boise State last year) as Penn State’s starting quarterback. Beating the Ducks this time around would be a huge statement for Allar and the Nittany Lions. — Trotter
Previous ranking: 5
Any lingering quarterback concerns that Georgia fans had about Gunner Stockton were probably put to rest after his performance in a 44-41 overtime victory at Tennessee on Sept. 13. The sophomore completed 23 of 31 passes for 304 yards with two touchdowns and ran 13 times for 38 yards with another score. It was a much better performance for Stockton, who struggled to get the ball down the field in a 28-6 victory against Austin Peay the week before. He led the Bulldogs on four touchdown drives of 72 yards or longer, including one near the end of regulation that resulted in his 28-yard scoring pass to London Humphreys on fourth down. Georgia’s offensive line needs to get better, and Stockton needs to improve at keeping his eyes down the field while scrambling. — Schlabach
Previous ranking: 8
So far, things could not have gone better for the Seminoles with transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos, who has been a perfect fit for the offense and the team in general. Castellanos has thrown for 594 yards and three touchdowns this season, completing 71% of his passes, while adding 139 yards rushing and three scores. Florida State has not had to rely on the passing game just yet, as the Seminoles have steamrolled their opponents on the ground. Castellanos did have a bit of a scare in a 66-10 win over Kent State when his leg got rolled up on, but he said afterward he was “all good.” — Adelson
Previous ranking: 9
Washington State transfer John Mateer has delivered on the hype that followed his offseason arrival in Norman. Through four games, he has already taken care of his principal objective: stabilizing a Sooners offense that finished 113th in total offense a year ago. But Mateer has also brought with him a brand of playmaking ability Oklahoma hasn’t had at the quarterback position since Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts rolled through the program in the late 2010s. Following Saturday’s 24-17 win over then-No. 22 Auburn, Mateer ranks sixth nationally in passing yards (1,215) and tied for second among Power 4 quarterbacks in rushing scores (five). He was far from perfect facing an SEC defense for the first time, and Mateer’s turnover tally (four) and propensity for working himself into trouble are worth keeping an eye on as Oklahoma stares down ranked matchups in six of its final eight games of the season. But there’s no doubt that Mateer has significantly raised the floor for the Sooners’ offense. The question now is just how high the ceiling can be this fall. — Lederman
Previous ranking: 6
The Aggies had a bye week, a fortuitous break after an emotional trip to Notre Dame where they won on a fourth-down touchdown with 13 seconds left. It was A&M’s first road nonconference win against a ranked team since 1979 and first road win against any ranked team at all since 2014. Marcel Reed was just 17-of-37 in that game but threw for 360 yards, and KC Concepcion and Mario Craver have provided the 3-0 Aggies with the big-play threats they lacked last season. Last year, A&M got off to a hot start, beginning 7-1, including a win over No. 8 LSU. Then, a slide started, beginning with a road loss to South Carolina followed by a 43-41 triple-overtime loss to Auburn. The Aggies get the Tigers at home next week, who are coming off a road loss to Oklahoma, to try to keep this year’s momentum rolling. — Dave Wilson
Previous ranking: 20
Although Indiana retained many of its top players from its 2024 CFP team, it needed to replace standout quarterback Kurtis Rourke. The team plucked one of the top available transfers in Cal‘s Fernando Mendoza, who joined his younger brother and fellow quarterback Alberto Mendoza at IU. How would Mendoza adjust? The answer came Saturday with a near-flawless performance, as Mendoza had three more touchdown passes (five) than incompletions (two), finishing with 267 passing yards and finding four different teammates for scores. He became the second FBS player with five passing touchdowns and 90% completions against an AP ranked opponent in the past 30 years, joining Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud in 2021 against Michigan State. Mendoza could end up being an upgrade from Rourke. — Adam Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 12
After four games, Rebels coach Lane Kiffin has a good problem on his hands. Ole Miss has two quarterbacks who are more than capable of running the offense. Starter Austin Simmons won the job in camp and has thrown for 580 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions. Simmons injured his ankle in the fourth quarter of a 30-23 win at Kentucky on Sept. 6, and backup Trinidad Chambliss has played even better in his absence. In Saturday’s 45-10 rout of Tulane, Chambliss passed for 307 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 112 yards on 14 attempts. In the past two wins over Arkansas and Tulane, Chambliss threw for 660 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions, while running for 174 with two scores. With LSU going to Oxford, Mississippi, next week, Kiffin faces a difficult decision. “I’m not saying he’s Russell Wilson, don’t get me wrong, but there’s some similarities in that kind of in the ‘it factor’ and how he moves and holds himself, you know, that I’ve kind of said that since he’s gotten here,” Kiffin said of Chambliss, who won two Division II national championships at Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan. — Schlabach
Previous ranking: 17
Behren Morton took some rough hits on Saturday, including a hit to the head that knocked him out of the Red Raiders’ road test at Utah. But Texas Tech did not miss a beat when backup Will Hammond stepped in to replace him. The redshirt freshman threw for 169 yards, rushed for 61 yards and led a 21-0 scoring run in the fourth quarter for a massive 34-10 victory against then No. 16 Utah. Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said Morton will be fine, and a bye week is arriving at a good time for this team. But Hammond, who put up the second-best QBR (96.3) in FBS during Week 4, has done more than enough to prove he’s ready to help this team win if called upon. — Max Olson
Previous ranking: 10
A tuneup against 0-4 Sam Houston might have been what the doctor ordered for several scuffling Longhorns who had yet to find their stride this season. Arch Manning accounted for five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing — and completed 14 passes in a row a week after the Longhorns’ offense got booed after 10 straight incompletions against UTEP. Saturday, Manning finished 18-of-21 for 309 yards, including two touchdown passes of 53 and 13 yards to Ryan Wingo, who had just nine catches and one touchdown in the first three games, and edge rushing star Colin Simmons recorded his first solo sack of the year. The Longhorns head to Florida on Saturday hoping to keep building momentum in their SEC opener against the 1-3 Gators before facing Oklahoma, which beat Auburn to move to 4-0, in Dallas the following week. — Wilson
Previous ranking: 16
Joey Aguilar and Tennessee faced a unique test this week, needing to get back on track after a devastating loss to Georgia last week. Safe to say, they passed it. Aguilar threw for 218 yards and three touchdowns and needed to play only one drive in the second half as the Vols broke out to a 42-7 halftime lead and cruised 56-24 over UAB. The Vols are averaging 53.5 points per game through four games, and Aguilar has 1,124 passing yards and 12 touchdowns. They have an explosiveness that they lacked with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback last season, and the defense has been fine against teams not named Georgia. Starting next week at Mississippi State, however, the Vols embark on a run of three road trips in four games. We’ll see if Aguilar’s solid early form travels. — Bill Connelly
Previous ranking: 13
The Cyclones were idle this week ahead of next week’s home game against surging Arizona. At 4-0, Iowa State is off to a promising start, but it has to turn in a comprehensive win against an FBS opponent as all three such wins have come by one score. Quarterback Rocco Becht is finding a way to help pull these games out, but Iowa State needs more explosive plays from its offense if it expects to seriously compete for the Big 12 title. — Kyle Bonagura
Previous ranking: 15
Ty Simpson had to wait years to win Alabama’s starting job, and his tenure began as inauspiciously as possible with a dire loss at Florida State. Simpson has been almost perfect since, however, completing 41 of 46 passes for 608 yards and seven TDs against UL Monroe and Wisconsin. The Tide rolled in both games, setting the table nicely for an enormous and potentially season-defining trip to Georgia next Saturday. If Simpson looks good in a Tide win, he enters the Heisman discussion and Alabama’s CFP bona fides get a nice boost. If he struggles and Bama loses, the CFP starts to seem like a pipe dream. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 19
Beau Pribula has had it pretty easy early in his tenure as Mizzou’s starting quarterback. He has completed 72% of his passes with an 8-to-2 INT-to-TD ratio, he has been a solid scrambling weapon at times, and he has been able to turn around and hand the ball off to Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts. They’ve taken it from there. The running back duo rushed 35 times for 214 yards and two touchdowns in Mizzou’s 29-20 win over South Carolina on Saturday night. Despite missing left tackle Cayden Green, Mizzou had 285 yards rushing, Pribula took only one sack and Mizzou went 7-for-13 on third downs. Only some third-down brilliance from the Gamecocks’ LaNorris Sellers kept this one competitive, but the Tigers moved to 4-0 by finishing the game on an 11-0 run. With a buy game against UMass and a bye week coming up, it looks like Pribula will lead an unbeaten team against Alabama in Columbia in a couple of weeks. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 18
Saturday’s win over Temple wasn’t exactly pretty, but then again, things rarely are for the Yellow Jackets. QB Haynes King likes it that way. Few quarterbacks in the country have proved their toughness more than King, who added three touchdowns in Week 4’s 45-24 win over the Owls. King’s ability to make plays with his legs is what sets him apart, but he has also been stellar as a passer — a big question coming off last season’s shoulder injury. Georgia Tech’s next two games are against Wake Forest and Virginia Tech — two of the ACC’s bottom-feeders — meaning he’ll have a shot to pad his stat line even more before a showdown at Duke on Oct. 18. — David Hale
Previous ranking: 21
Freshman phenom Bryce Underwood earned his first Big Ten road victory on Saturday with a 30-27 win at Nebraska. He didn’t put up crazy stats on the day — 105 passing yards, 61 rushing yards, one TD — but didn’t need to while the Wolverines’ run game overwhelmed a top-10 scoring defense with 292 rushing yards on 9.1 yards per carry (excluding sacks). Interim coach Biff Poggi loved the poise Underwood brought to the sideline and huddle that gave his team no doubt it’d win. The young QB’s developmental trajectory through four games remains extremely exciting to watch. — Olson
Previous ranking: 22
Diego Pavia fought for an extra year of eligibility in 2025 and is absolutely making the most of it. The sixth-year senior avenged last year’s upset loss to Georgia State with a 70-21 rout on Saturday night that has Vanderbilt off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2008. Pavia has dramatically raised his completion percentage from 59.4% last season to an SEC-best 73.9%, ranks among the top 10 in QBR (85.7) and is powering a top-10 scoring offense that’s putting up 47.5 points per game. The Commodores have one more nonconference tuneup against Utah State before an epic October schedule against four of the SEC’s best in Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas. — Olson
Previous ranking: 25
The Horned Frogs played a bit sloppy but never panicked against SMU in a 35-24 win, the last iteration of a rivalry that dates back to 2015. Josh Hoover threw for 379 yards and a career-high five touchdowns, and a stacked receiving room saw Eric McAlister become this week’s star, with eight catches for 254 yards (second best in school history) and three touchdowns, narrowly missing two more, one on an interception that was wrestled away from him and another on a possible TD catch that was ruled incomplete and wasn’t reviewed by officials. The defense held SMU to 384 yards, 4-of-13 on third down and the Mustangs’ fewest points all season. The Frogs, who snuck into the AP Top 25 at No. 24 this week, head to Tempe to take on defending Big 12 champs Arizona State on Friday night, a test that could start to reveal if TCU is back on its 2022 trajectory. — Wilson
Previous ranking: NR
If there wasn’t much talk about Jayden Maiava‘s season so far, then let the chatter begin. The Trojans’ quarterback was impressive against Michigan State in a 45-31 win, looking as comfortable as ever in Lincoln Riley’s offense. Maiva completed 20 of 26 passes for 234 yards (and crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the season) while adding three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns too. It’s not clear yet just how good USC is and can be in the Big Ten and beyond this season, but through four contests, there’s no doubt that the explosive offense the sport has come to expect when Riley has a dynamic quarterback in tow is alive and well with Maiava under center. In fact, after putting up 517 yards of offense against the Spartans, the Trojans’ average yards per game for the year (604 per game, tops in the country) will go down. At the center of it all has been Maiava. — Uggetti
Previous ranking: 24
When the season opened, the biggest question looming over Notre Dame was at quarterback. It took until late in fall camp before CJ Carr won the job, and the Irish — fresh off a trip to the national championship game — might’ve reasonably been concerned about putting their fate in the hands of a QB with no starting experience. Turns out, Carr has been fine — throwing for 223 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-30 win over Purdue on Saturday — and Notre Dame’s Achilles’ heel has been the area the Irish might’ve felt best about: the secondary. Purdue threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns Saturday, and the battered and struggling defensive backs in South Bend showed little ability to adjust. Notre Dame might have its QB1, but the job now is stopping the other team’s quarterback. — Hale
Previous ranking: 11
When the Illini slogged through the first half Sept. 6 against Duke, struggling along the line of scrimmage, quarterback Luke Altmyer kept the team on track, avoiding major mistakes and buying enough time for a second-half surge. But Altmyer had no chance to be a hero at Indiana, which swarmed him all night, recording five sacks in the first half and seven in the game. Other than a 59-yard touchdown pass to Collin Dixon, Altmyer was limited to 87 passing yards on 13 completions and constantly faced pressure. He certainly can play better and will need to beginning this week against USC. But Altmyer was far from Illinois’ biggest problem in the Indiana debacle. He has given the Illini a veteran presence who, when given time, can pick apart defenses. — Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 14
The celebration in Utah about a revived Utes offense was premature, it turns out. Utah and Texas Tech were locked in a defensive tussle for much of Saturday’s 34-10 Texas Tech win before the Red Raiders finished the game with a flurry of touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The Utes struggled in both phases on offense, managing just 101 yards rushing on 31 carries (3.3 yards per carry) and only 162 yards through the air. The ineffectiveness of the offense was compounded by four turnovers that served as an unpleasant reminder of the past two seasons. — Bonagura
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Alyssa Roenigk
LITTLE FALLS, N.J. — Yogi would have loved this.
Hundreds of people, young, old and wearing matching commemorative T-shirts, just finished dancing the “YMCA” on the field at Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair State University. Little League teams, former MLB players and local politicians laugh and clutch their gloves as volunteers hand out souvenir baseballs. Yankees organist Ed Alstrom plays “Charge!” from a stage in center field, and the crowd responds on cue.
“Yogi loved bringing people together,” says Yankees great Willie Randolph, who played for Berra from 1976 to 1988 and later coached the Yankees and managed the Mets. “He made everyone feel like they’re family. He would have been ecstatic. I think he’s looking down on this field and is so proud.”
They have all come here on a Sunday afternoon, from as far away as California and Florida, to celebrate a man who treated every interaction much like a game of catch. Berra cared as much about what he tossed into a conversation as how he received what was thrown his way. So, what better way to honor him than by playing the biggest game of catch? Ever.
The current record is 972 pairs, set eight years ago in Illinois. On its face, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest game of catch sounds simple: Gather a couple thousand people, pair them up and ask them to toss baseballs back and forth for five minutes. Doing it, however, is anything but easy.
When Eve Schaenen, the executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center at Montclair State, approached Guinness with the idea, adjudicator Michael Empric, who is overseeing the day’s process, told her that many mass-attendance record attempts fail.
“That’s part of why we wanted to do this,” Schaenen says. “There are stakes. Yogi played a game where you could strike out. You could lose. That doesn’t mean you don’t try. He was told he couldn’t so many times and look at what remarkable things he did with his life.”
Berra was born 100 years ago and died before many of the kids gathered here were born. He made his MLB debut in 1946, retired as a player in 1965 and stopped coaching in 1989. Yet, everyone here on this day has a story about a time they were touched by his life. Berra connected deeply with people. It didn’t matter if he was talking to a teammate, a waiter, the president or his postman. With Berra, everyone got the same guy.
That this record attempt is taking place one day before the anniversary of his death (and his MLB debut) on Sept. 22 might have elicited him to create one of his popular Yogi-isms. “Well,” he might have said, “we’re a day early, but right on time.”
TO BASEBALL FANS, Yogi Berra is a legend. An MLB Hall of Famer. A man who played in 75 World Series games and won 10 rings — both records unlikely to be broken — and was one of the best “bad ball” hitters in history. The image of Berra leaping into the arms of Yankees pitcher Don Larsen after calling the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956 is indelible in the minds of baseball fans.
“All Yankees fans are Yogi fans,” says Paul Semendinger, a retired principal and adjunct professor at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. He is wearing a replica 1939 Lou Gehrig Yankees jersey. “But you can be a Yogi fan without being a Yankees fan.”
Case in point: Semendinger, 57, is here with his 26-year-old son, Ethan, and 87-year-old dad, Paul Sr., “the world’s biggest Ted Williams fan.” (Paul Sr. is wearing a Red Sox jersey.) “You could root for Yogi even if you’re not a fan of his team,” Paul Sr. says, “because he was a good person.”
Semendinger and his son run a Yankees blog and play on a softball team together. He and his dad still meet up a few times a year to play catch in the backyard. “For 87, he still throws a pretty good knuckleball,” Semendinger says.
When Josh Rawitch, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was 10, he sent Berra a baseball card from his home in Los Angeles and asked him to sign it. “It came back with his signature in this perfect penmanship,” Rawitch says. “I was a big fan of baseball history and although I was a Dodgers fan, he was Yogi Berra.” Over the years, Rawitch met Berra multiple times and became a fan of him as a man. “For someone with 10 rings, he never took himself too seriously,” he says. “He had such humility.”
Rawitch is here to display Berra’s Hall of Fame plaque, which a museum employee drove nearly 200 miles from Cooperstown, New York, to Little Falls on Saturday. It’s the first time the plaque has left the Hall since Berra was inducted in 1972.
“It’s rare that we do this,” Rawitch says. “But we knew we wanted to be a part of something so special.”
Anthony “Uncle Tony” Stinger turned 90 this year. He was in the right-field grandstands at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 22, 1946, when Berra made his MLB debut. “It was a Sunday, the second game of a doubleheader against Philadelphia,” Stinger says. “I took the 4 train from Harlem to the stadium, and the Yankees called Yogi up that day. He could hit anything, even a ball a foot off the ground. They didn’t know how to pitch to him.”
Stinger has lived in the Bronx for 53 years and came here with his nieces. Although he’s only spectating, he says he wouldn’t have missed this event for the world. “Yogi would be amazed,” he says, looking around the stadium.
TO MANY, BERRA was a war hero. The St. Louis native signed with the Yankees in 1943 but delayed his MLB career to enlist in the Navy on his 18th birthday and served as a gunner’s mate in World War II. He provided cover from a rocket boat for the troops who landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He was wounded by enemy fire and earned a Purple Heart, although he famously never received the medal because he didn’t fill out the paperwork. He didn’t want his mother to worry.
Daniel Joseph Clair joined the Marines in 1966 and earned a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam. He’s here to play catch with his wife, a lifelong Yankees fan. “I met Yogi outside the stadium once,” Clair says. “He took the time to talk to me before he got on the bus.”
To many of the players he coached, Berra was a lifetime friend and confidant.
“I’m getting goose bumps talking about him,” Randolph says, rubbing his arms. “Some of my best memories as a young manager are sitting in my office before games and talking baseball with Yogi. When I think about being the first African American manager in New York history, which I am very proud of, Yogi was very instrumental in that. He taught me so much. I miss him every day.”
Two months after his death, Berra was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his military service as well as his civil rights and educational activism, although he would balk at being called an activist. He would say he was just treating people equally, as he would want to be treated.
Berra grew up on The Hill, a heavily Italian area of St. Louis, and later faced prejudice and ridicule for being Italian and not looking like a typical ballplayer. Throughout his life, whether by crossing racial lines or through his work with Athlete Ally on LGBTQ equality — an organization he joined in his 80s — he wasn’t trying to set an example, yet time and again, he did.
Berra befriended Jackie Robinson in 1946 when they played on opposing teams in the International League. The next year, Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier. Before games, Berra would walk across the field at Yankee Stadium to find Robinson and chat with his friend. “I don’t think he was doing it to make a statement, but 60,000 people saw him talking to Jackie,” Berra’s eldest granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, says. “This was 18 years before the Civil Rights Act. He was making a comment, whether he knew it or not.”
When Elston Howard became the Yankees’ first Black player in 1955, Berra began grooming him as his replacement behind the plate. During spring training in segregated Florida, Howard couldn’t ride on the same bus, eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as his white teammates. So, Berra often joined him at his.
TO PEOPLE WHO never watched baseball, Berra was a cultural phenomenon, a “Jeopardy!” answer, a man they quoted sometimes without knowing who they were quoting.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
It’s déjà vu all over again.
You can observe a lot by watching.
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
Berra was the personification of a cartoon bear, a Yoo-hoo pitchman and, as Wynton Marsalis once said while touring the museum, “the Thelonious Monk of baseball.” He was world famous and as recognizable as any figure in sports, yet he was also the guy his three sons would find downstairs in the mornings having coffee with the postman, garbage man and a few of Montclair’s finest.
Tommy Corizzi is too young to have seen Berra play or coach. In fact, he was born just one year before Berra died. He’s here with his “pop pop,” Tom Corizzi, who loved the idea of spending a Sunday afternoon connecting with his grandson and his favorite team. “Yogi was cool,” Tommy, 11, says. “I want to be in the world record book with him.”
Thirteen-year-old Jake Esarey Elmgart is here with his baseball team. He donated the $2,500 he raised for his bar mitzvah project to this event to help pay for kids with special needs to attend.
Just last week, a local woman handed Lindsay a letter she said she found in a drawer recently. The woman’s son, now in his 30s, wrote the letter to Berra in 2000 — 35 years after he retired — but never sent it. “You were in your car and while you were driving, you pointed at me and put your thumb up,” Justin LaMarca, then 8, wrote in pencil and in cursive. “I yelled to you and said you are my favorite player in the world.”
TO ME, BERRA was my best friend’s grandpa.
I met Lindsay in 2002 when I joined the staff at ESPN The Magazine in New York City, where she worked at the time. We became fast friends. Her family became mine in the way that happens when you live far from your own. Grammy Carmen was chic and sentimental. Grampa Yogi was funny and grumpy and warm and honest, and I think of them every Christmas when I hang the oversized red ceramic ornament they bought for me at New York’s 21 Club. Or at Halloween, because they always answered the door for trick-or-treaters in the same costumes: Grammy Carmen as an adorable witch and Grampa Yogi as Yogi Berra.
A half hour before the record attempt, I’m standing outside the museum with my dad, Fred. We came here in May 2012 to celebrate Berra’s 87th birthday. We toured the museum and watched the Yankees beat the Mariners from a party suite at Yankee Stadium. My dad remembers watching Grampa Yogi interact with fans and former players, singing him “Happy Birthday” and eating pieces of a pinstriped cake.
The previous night, my dad watched a few innings of a game with him in Berra’s living room. “Here’s your chance to ask him anything,” I told him.
My dad was 12 when Berra retired as a player. He grew up on a Belgian horse farm outside of Pittsburgh and never had the chance to see him play in person. He had few opportunities to watch him play on TV because the networks carried only local games back then, plus the Game of the Week on Saturdays. He does, however, remember watching the Pirates beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. “I was 7,” he says. “I’m not sure if I remember it as much as I remember the photo of Yogi standing in left field watching Bill Mazeroski’s homer go over the fence. That’s an iconic Pittsburgh picture.”
At the top of the ninth inning in that shocking game (if you’re a Yankees fan), Berra hit a grounder to tie the score 9-9. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Mazeroski hit a walk-off homer to seal the series for the Pirates. “Yogi said the worst day of his life was watching the ball go over the fence at Forbes Field,” my dad says. (I did tell him to ask the man anything.) “Imagine all he’d experienced in his life, and he said that was his worst day.”
Grampa Yogi died three years after that visit. That weekend was one of many times I watched my best friend share her grandpa with the world. Lindsay had watched her grandmother do so graciously throughout her life, listening with care as people told her how much they loved her husband. But Lindsay didn’t understand how people who had met her grandfather for only a moment, if at all, could feel the same kind of love toward him that she did. After his death, as tributes poured in from around the world, she realized that though their love might not be the same as hers, it is just as real. And it is flowing through this stadium now.
I’M STANDING ON the field precisely 3 meters across from my dad, a baseball glove on my left hand. My dad tosses a baseball my way. I catch it and look around. Baseballs are flying everywhere. People are laughing and dancing and dropping balls. We’re all singing along to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.”
There’s a mystical quality to the relationship that develops between the two people on either end of a game of catch, and it’s happening for all of us now. Maybe it’s how attuned we’ve become to each other, to subtle shifts in our partner’s body position and the message those movements communicate. I’m ready. Send it my way. Maybe it’s the meditative rhythm of the back-and-forth and how quickly the world narrows to the space between us. Or maybe it’s as simple as the eye contact and focus the act requires.
My dad doesn’t remember the first time we played catch together. I don’t, either. But being here on this day, tossing a baseball methodically with him, I’m transported to a Little League field in Cape Coral, Florida. I am 11, wearing an oversized blue Expos jersey and stirrup socks, and warming up with him before a playoff game. The last time we played catch, I was likely in high school and playing shortstop for the CCHS Seahawks.
Lindsay is playing catch with her boyfriend, Peter, surrounded by her family. She remembers the first time she played catch with her grandpa. “My earliest memories are playing wiffle ball in the front yard at holidays,” she says. “Uncle Dale had broken a window at a neighbor’s house, so we played with something safer.” The real baseballs came out when her grandfather was asked to throw out a first pitch. “He’d call each of the grandkids until someone was available to come up to the house and play catch with him,” Lindsay says. “He didn’t want to embarrass himself on the mound.”
When Berra’s boys were young, he was coaching and away from home during baseball season, so they never had the chance to play catch with their dad. Dale says that while Berra loved to toss the football or shoot baskets with him and his brothers, he believes his dad never wanted them to feel pressure to play baseball. “When I signed with the Mets in 1972, I warmed up with him during spring training,” Larry says. “That’s the only memory I have of playing catch with my dad. But I feel him today.”
Larry is playing catch with his son, Andrew. While Empric watches from the stage, volunteers walk the neatly spaced rows of participants looking for rule breakers: people who are on their phones, rolling the ball rather than throwing it or too young to meet the cutoff (age 7). When the five-minute clock runs out, everyone hoots and cheers and high-fives.
“If Dad were here, he’d probably ask, ‘Why would all these people do this? They don’t have to be here,'” Larry says. “He never understood the impact he had on people just by saying hello, by waving, by inviting them in for coffee. He always said, ‘I just played baseball.’ He never understood the aura he created.”
After several excruciating minutes, Empric walks to the podium to deliver the result. “I can now announce that today … in Little Falls … New Jersey … USA … you had a total of … 1,179 pairs,” he says, and hands Schaenen an oversized plaque, which she thrusts into the air. The crowd erupts. “It’s a new Guinness World Record,” Empric says. “Congratulations! You are officially amazing.”
For a while, no one moves. For nearly an hour, many people stay on the field and soak up the magic flowing between the baselines. Some continue to play catch, others chat with the people they stood next to during the attempt. This is what today was all about. Yogi was many things to many people, and today, he brought us all together.
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