Les Horvath

Leslie Horvath (October 12, 1921 – November 14, 1995) was an American football halfback who won the Heisman Trophy while playing for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 1944.

Horvath was the first Ohio State player to win the Heisman, an award given to the best college football player in the United States.

Horvath was born to immigrant parents from Hungary in 1921, in South Bend, Indiana; his family soon moved to Parma, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

He attended Parma Senior High School starting in 1936 and played on the track, basketball and football teams until the 11th grade.

He decided to switch schools because he felt his basketball teammates were not taking the sport seriously.

Horvath's family relocated, and in 1938 he enrolled at James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland, one of Parma's rivals.

Playing as a quarterback for the Rhodes Rams, Horvath guided the team to seven straight wins in 1938, but the team lost to West Technical High School for a chance to be the Cleveland Senate League's Western Conference representative in the city championship.

He entered Ohio State in 1939 on a work scholarship, but tried out for and made the football team the following year.

He graduated in 1939.

After graduating, Horvath attended Ohio State University on a work scholarship, but managed to make the school's football team in 1940.

Horvath was small for a football player – he weighed just 160 pounds – but was a quick runner and had a strong arm.

Ohio State's football team was a disappointment in 1940, however, finishing the season with a 4–4 win–loss record under head coach Francis Schmidt.

Schmidt was fired after the season and replaced by Paul Brown, an Ohio high school coach who had guided Massillon Washington to a series of undefeated records and state championships.

Brown simplified Ohio State's offense, but imposed a level of discipline and organization that had been absent under Schmidt.

Horvath was a reserve halfback in the Buckeyes' single-wing offense in 1941, when the team posted a 6–1–1 win–loss–tie record and finished second in the Big Ten Conference standings.

He played in many games, but senior fullback Jack Graf and senior halfback Tom Kinkade got most of the carries for Ohio State.

He played as a reserve halfback on the 1942 team coached by Paul Brown that won Ohio State's first-ever national championship.

Horvath graduated that year and moved to Ohio State's dental school.

Despite his small frame, Brown recognized Horvath's potential as a senior in 1942 and made him a regular starter at halfback beside Paul Sarringhaus and fullback Gene Fekete.

While Sarringhaus and Fekete were Ohio State's main offensive weapons, Horvath averaged eight yards per carry in a victory over Pittsburgh and scored two touchdowns and passed for 109 yards in a win over Illinois in Cleveland.

Ohio State was ranked first in the country in the AP Poll early in the season, but fell in the rankings after a loss to Wisconsin in October.

The team won the rest of its games, however, including a 21–7 victory over arch-rival Michigan at the end of the season.

Horvath passed to Sarringhaus for a 35-yard touchdown and caught another 32-yard touchdown pass from Sarringhaus in the Michigan game.

Ohio State's 9–1 record put it on top of the Big Ten standings and in the final AP Poll, giving the school its first-ever national championship.

Horvath expected his college football career to be over in 1942.

He finished his undergraduate degree that year and enrolled in a graduate program at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry.

Ohio State's football program, meanwhile, struggled in 1943 after Brown and many of its best players entered the military during World War II.

Carroll Widdoes, an assistant under Brown, was appointed the acting head coach and led the team to a 3–6 record.

The following year, Widdoes asked Horvath to return to the team, taking advantage of a wartime rule that allowed college programs to use graduate students if they had not exhausted their four years of college eligibility.

Widdoes promised Horvath a leading role as the team's left halfback, a level of prominence he had been denied under Brown.

In 1944, however, acting Ohio State football coach Carroll Widdoes asked Horvath to rejoin the team, taking advantage of a World War II-era rule allowing graduate students with remaining eligibility to play.

Horvath agreed, and helped lead the Buckeyes to a 9–0 record and a second-place showing in the AP Poll.

He won the Heisman and was named an All-American at the end of the season.

Horvath graduated from dental school in 1945 and served as a dental officer in the U.S. Navy for two years.

Following his discharge, he played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams in 1947 and 1948 before being released and signing with the Cleveland Browns in |1949.

The Browns won the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) championship that year.

Horvath retired from playing in 1950 and moved to Los Angeles to practice dentistry, and lived there for the rest of his life.

Horvath was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1977.

The school retired his jersey number 22 in October 2000.

Horvath grew up in Parma, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland and became a standout high school athlete despite his small stature.