Frank Eliscu is the sculptor of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, now better known as the Heisman Trophy.

When Eliscu was looking for a model for his cherished trophy, he didn’t have to look far. He asked a former high school classmate of his, Ed Smith, who at the time was playing football for New York University, to be the model for a project he was working on. Eliscu finished the sculpture in 1935.

It wasn’t until 1982 that Ed Smith was informed that he was the model used for the sculpting of the famed Heisman Trophy! Three years later he was awarded one of his own by the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy.

Heisman Trophy