The Heisman Trophy, which has been without an official home since the Downtown Athletic Club closed four years ago, will remain in Lower Manhattan as the centerpiece of the National Sports Museum being planned in a building on Broadway at Bowling Green.
The overseeing board of the Heisman Trophy Trust, which controls the trophy, entered into an agreement Tuesday with the National Sports Museum to house the trophy and create an exhibit using Heisman historical artifacts and memorabilia. Philip Schwalb, the chief executive and founder of the sports museum, said the museum hoped to become the site of the annual presentation of the Heisman Trophy, a nationally televised event in which the top college football player of the year is selected.
The 9,290m2 museum at 25 Broadway in the former Cunard Passenger Ship Line building is scheduled to be completed in November 2006. It is considered the first national museum to celebrate all sports under one roof.
"The Heisman deserves a permanent home," said Bill Dockery, president of the Heisman Trophy Trust. "We're had offers coming in from all over the country. But we're delighted that the trophy is staying in New York City and staying downtown where it was born, nurtured and grew to be the premier individual sports award in America."
The Heisman Trophy was first awarded in 1935 by the Downtown Athletic Club, which had erected a 35-story building at the southern tip of West Street and quickly became a mecca for Wall Street businessmen and sports enthusiasts.
In 1936, the trophy was named in honor of the club's late athletic director, John Heisman, a longtime college football coach. It has been given out every year since, recognizing some of the most notable athletes of the 20th century. The Downtown Athletic Club, only a few blocks from the World Trade Center, closed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Since then, the Heisman Trophy ceremony has taken place at other Manhattan locations, most recently at the New York Hilton in Midtown. The landmark Downtown Athletic Club building, no longer controlled by the club, is being converted into condominiums, Dockery said.
"It's exciting that the Heisman is coming home to help in the rebirth of Lower Manhattan," said Schwalb, whose sports museum will take shape with the help of US$52 million in Liberty redevelopment bonds. "From the back windows of the National Sports Museum you can see the old Downtown Athletic Club building. It's a historical touchstone, and I'm very enamored with the fact that you can see building to building."
The collection of former Heisman Trophy winners, many of whom attend the award's presentation annually, have been eager for the trophy to find a new home, even if they will reluctantly say goodbye to the Downtown Athletic Club's wood-paneled Heisman Room, where the trophy presentation was held for decades.
"We'll remember the Downtown Athletic Club as it was," John Cappelletti, the 1973 Heisman winner, said Tuesday. "There's nothing we can do about it now. More important than anything else is that the Heisman has found a place that hopefully will be its permanent home. I am glad it's going to a place of sports history. You don't want the Heisman on display in some hotel lobby."
Schwalb's concept for a national sports museum has been several years in the making. The design calls for a highly interactive site dedicated to the history, meaning and culture of sports.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
In-form teenager Mirra Andreeva on Thursday crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, after going down in straight sets to fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16. World No. 7 Andreeva, who already has two titles under her belt this season, lost 6-3, 6-2 against the 22nd-ranked Alexandrova in just over an hour. The 17-year-old Andreeva had defeated her elder sister Erika in the previous round on Wednesday, but Alexandrova quickly took control as she claimed her fourth win over a top-10 player this season. The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in February became the youngest winner of a WTA
RSS