Tennessee football: Hendon Hooker’s rank among Vols’ Heisman robberies
1951. 2. 839. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Running back. Hank Lauricella. player
Winner: Dick Kazmaier
The first Heisman robbery ever for Tennessee football came five years before Johnny Majors. UT won the national championship this year, finishing the regular season 10-0 and ranked No. 1 across the board. Doug Atkins is the biggest name in retrospect from this team outside of the coach, Robert Neyland.
However, Hank Lauricella was the biggest star on offense. He finished the year with 111 carries for 881 yards (7.9 yards per carry) and eight touchdowns to go along with 352 passing yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions. Simply put, Lauricella did it all for the Vols.
Dick Kazmaier of the Princeton Tigers won the award, though. Kazmaier had 149 carries for 861 yards (5.8 yards per carry) and nine touchdowns. To be fair, he had 966 passing yards to go along with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions there, and Princeton went 10-0.
By this point in the sport’s history, though, the level of competition at Princeton compared to the level at UT was relatively what it is now, so it made no sense to value those numbers the same as Lauricella’s. Voters did, though, and as a result, the Vols had their first of four players finish second in the voting.