On December 3 1992 1992 Heisman winner Gino Torretta
Gino Torretta, with his slicked-back hair and his wire-rimmed glasses, looks more like the businessman he is today than like the quick-thinking passer who won the 1992 Heisman Trophy at Miami. Torretta’s trophy sits in his office in South Florida when it doesn’t travel with him. The latter happens more than you might think. “I bring it with me to do speaking engagements,” Torretta said. “I had a case made for it, and I can check it as baggage.” One of the first trips that Torretta made with the encased trophy took place soon after 9/11. “In the Fort Lauderdale airport, you have to stand there as they X-ray your bags,” Torretta said. “I’m the only one there. The X-ray guy is looking at the display on the machine. He turns it left. He turns it right. He looks at the front and the back. He looks around and says, ‘What is this?'” Torretta, 10 years after a career in which he led the Hurricanes to the 1991 national championship and to play for a second one the following year, went unrecognized. The security agent couldn’t help himself. “Is this what I think it is?” he asked. Torretta nodded. “It is what you think it is,” Torretta said. Within seconds, the agent called every one of his colleagues over. “They had the case open,” Torretta said. “They pulled it out.” They oohed and aahed over it, the reaction that never gets old for Torretta. “It’s neat to show it to people,” he said. “Not a lot of people get to see it. Even if they’re 60 years old, they remember the guys who won it when they were in college. It transcends age. I had a guy tell me recently, ‘I remember Joe Bellino’s legs on the cover of Time magazine.'” Not to mention the just-the-facts mien of airport security.
— Ivan Maisel
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