On December 4 1993 1993 Heisman winner Charlie Ward
Charlie Ward played so well during the 1992 season — he came within “Wide Right II” of leading Florida State to a national championship — that Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden was sure he would win the Heisman Trophy as a senior the next year. Bowden was so confident that he told then-sports information director Rob Wilson to refrain from launching any Heisman Trophy campaigns for Ward. “Do not do a Heisman campaign for Charlie,” Bowden told Wilson. “It’s only going to hurt him. Leave him alone and he’ll win this thing by himself. He’ll win this thing without any help from us.” That’s exactly what Ward did. He became FSU’s first Heisman Trophy winner after completing 69.5 percent of his passes for 3,032 yards with 27 touchdowns and only four interceptions. More importantly, Ward led FSU to its first national championship by beating Nebraska 18-16 in the 1994 Orange Bowl. Ward won the 1993 Heisman Trophy in a landslide over Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler, which, at the time, was the second-largest voting margin ever. As a result, Ward became the first player to win the Heisman Trophy and a national title in the same season since Pittsburgh’s Tony Dorsett in 1976. “He was just one of the most exciting players in the country [as a junior] and nearly took us all the way that year,” Bowden said. “I just felt with another year and the fact we had a pretty good group coming back, he had the people surrounding him that would get it done.” Ward, who played basketball at FSU and later spent 11 seasons in the NBA, donated his Heisman Trophy to the public library in his hometown of Thomasville, Ga.
— Mark Schlabach
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