On December 2 1945 1945 Heisman winner Doc Blanchard
For decades, former Army All-American Felix “Doc” Blanchard’s Heisman Trophy sat on a 1970s-style TV console in the living room of his home in Bulverde, Texas. Blanchard won the Heisman Trophy in 1945, when he and teammate Glenn Davis formed one of the most famous backfields in college football history. Blanchard was “Mr. Inside,” and the swifter Davis was “Mr. Outside.” Blanchard, who was the first junior to win the Heisman Trophy, also won the Maxwell Trophy and Sullivan Award in 1945. Behind Blanchard and Davis, Army won consecutive national championships in 1944 and ’45 and finished unbeaten again in 1946. In a 28-game college career, Blanchard scored 38 touchdowns, leading the country in scoring in 1945. Blanchard also played linebacker on defense and handled the team’s kicking duties. For years, the trio of coveted trophies collected dust in his Texas home. “It was kind of a big joke,” said his grandson, Rhett Blanchard, who played football at Wake Forest. “Either my grandmother got tired of looking at them, or he finally said it was time for them to go.” In 1989, Blanchard donated each of his trophies to Saint Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, Miss., a Catholic boarding school about 60 miles from New Orleans where he attended high school in the early 1940s. The trophies are displayed on the second floor of the main school building. “That’s where he just felt most comfortable,” Rhett Blanchard said.
— Mark Schlabach
Sources:
About The Author
