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Saturday, December 8, 2001
Heisman winners like new location
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
NEW YORK -- Climbing seven floors on a string of escalators doesn't compare to the experience at the Downtown Athletic Club.
Sure, you don't have to wait 20 minutes to cram into old elevators and then take a fateful journey, swearing you hear someone utilizing a pulley system to lift the human cargo, but nothing is cooler than pressing the "H" for the Heisman Room. Not on the second Saturday in December when the rickety -- but dressed to thrill -- old building hidden away in lower Manhattan lights up with a certain magic that only the prestigious bronzed statue can bring.
The most unfortunate circumstances humanly possible caused the move uptown to the glitzy Marriott Marquis right smack in the middle of Times Square. Damage from the Sept. 11th attacks on the World Trade Center forced the change of scenery Saturday night since the DAC stands just a few blocks south of Ground Zero on 19 West St., where it had handed out the Heisman Trophy ever year since the award's inception in 1935.
|  | | Eric Crouch was the first Heisman winner not to receive his award in the Downtown Athletic Club. |
One would think that the winners of years past who make the annual trek to NYC would be nostalgic for the overwhelmed, but quaint, confines of the DAC. But that wasn't the case at all. The talk of the night among former winners, network people and media members centered around the convenience of having the event in the middle of the city and in a building equipped with all the luxuries that such a big-time sports presentation needs.
"I like the Downtown Athletic Club and I appreciate all the things they did, but this is a better atmosphere," claimed George Rogers, the former South Carolina running back who won the trophy in 1980. "You get to go and see everything around town being here at the Marquis. When you're downtown at the DAC, there's not many places you can go. And that's sad to say, but I just think this was a better place for the times."
The DAC is situated in an area of Manhattan that, even before Sept. 11, becomes a ghost town at the close of business on Fridays. Restaurants are hard to find, as are many of the city's most well-known sight-seeing locations from the island's southwest location. One of the most baffling sights each year is watching former Heisman winners running around in the cold after the ceremony to find cabs, which don't frequent the West St. building or area in abundance.
Mike Rozier, the 1983 Heisman winner out of Nebraska, knows all about it, as a yearly attendee. After throwing many a hug around the torso of this year's winner, Eric Crouch, the running back admitted he liked being at the Marriott.
"It's kind of different, yeah, but you have to understand that the DAC is an old building," he said. "This is modern and has everything. It's more of a happening up here, too. We were all talking about it, and everybody seems to like it more up here."
Though the floor that the Heisman was presented on -- the seventh -- only resembled the DAC by the over-abundance of autograph seekers in the halls and hanger-ons from each of the four schools represented, it had the charm of an insurance convention. Heisman legends such as Tony Dorsett and Johnny Rodgers mixed in with tourists staying in town for the Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall or to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, which made it a lot different than the exclusive feel the Downtown Athletic Club has on Heisman night.
Yet, the DAC president James Corcoran and his staff, along with those at the hotel, did what only can be called an incredible job in preparing the actual Heisman room to look like an exact, but bigger, replica of the mahogany-lined room a few miles downtown. From the walls behind Chris Fowler at the podium to the small breakout alcoves to his right and left, to the seating arrangement of the former winners, four candidates and their families, it was hard to tell on TV that they weren't at the Downtown Athletic Club.
"I kept looking around in awe," said two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Grffin. "I mean, it was so close to being the real thing. It made it nice for all of us that come back every year. They really did a great job with it. No one could have asked anymore out of them."
It was also less chaotic for Crouch and the three runner-ups -- Rex Grossman, Ken Dorsey and Joey Harrington -- as well, as they were able to easily get from the Heisman Room to the various media rooms and then back to a private room to watch the SEC Championship game. At the DAC, they were shuttled up the aforementioned creaky elevators to a media room that had the charm of a prison, where they were often trapped for over an hour due to the elevators.
The one thing this class will miss is the charm, the feeling of history and walking on hallowed ground, something that Rozier admitted was irreplaceable.
"All of us older winners went through there," he said. "We all spent one of the most special nights of our lives in that place. Whether the Heisman is ever actually handed out there or not, none of us will ever forget the DAC."
No decision has been made yet as to what will happen next year, but based on what previous winners felt, continuing this new tradition in Times Square will take nothing away from the Heisman Trophy.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.
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 Eric Crouch is chosen as the 2001 Heisman winner.
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