Laurie Dorsey remembers seeing her father’s Heisman Trophy as a child. It was prominently displayed in the game room of the family’s house.
Clint Frank won the award in 1937 as a running back and safety for Yale. He was the third winner of the trophy, which is given annually to the nation’s top college football player. Teammate Larry Kelley won it the previous year.
“He was very proud of his achievement,” Dorsey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her home in North Carolina. “But he was never showy about it. I never heard him talk about it to anybody. He was kind of quiet about it, but I know in his heart it meant an awful lot to him.”
Dorsey said the family was proud of it, too, and she and her brothers and sisters enjoyed when friends would come over and see it.
“They’d ask questions and say, ’Your Dad won the Heisman Trophy?’ and we’d say ’Yes,’ and it was all very exciting.”
Frank died in July 1992 at 76, and his Heisman remained in the family. However, Dorsey, who now owns it along with a sister and two brothers, said they have decided to sell it.
“It’s difficult to share because we all live in different cities and states,” Dorsey said. “We became kind of the caretakers for it. We kept it safe in a bank vault. Now we would like to see it go to someone who really loves football and appreciates the Heisman and can enjoy it.”
Frank’s Heisman is part of Heritage Auctions’ sports memorabilia offerings and is open for bidding through Oct. 18. Heritage, which is handling a Heisman for the first time, has estimated the price will exceed the $399,000 garnered by Rashaan Salaam’s 1998 trophy earlier this year. Salaam, who starred at Colorado, died at 42 in 2016 from an apparent suicide.
Other Heismans sold at auction include: Kelley, 1936, for $328,100 in 1999; O.J. Simpson, 1968, for $255,000 in 1999; Bruce Smith, 1941, for $394,240 in 2005; and Charlie White, 1979, for $293,750.
“The Heisman Trophy is such a recognizable award that people that collect that type of thing, they’re either interested in college football, some historical item from their alma mater, or significant trophies in general,” said Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions.
Dorsey said she and her siblings haven’t decided what they will do with the proceeds from the sale of their father’s trophy.
“It’s been with the family for a long time,” she said. “I’m sad to see it go, but I want to see it with someone who really appreciates football and the Heisman.”
After Frank graduated from Yale with a degree in economics, he went into advertising. He served five years with the Army Air Corps during World War II, before returning to advertising. In 1954, he started his own company, which he later sold in 1976. Some of the accounts he worked on included Reynold’s Aluminum, Toyota and United Airlines.
Frank, who never played professionally, was elected to the National Football Hall of Fame in 1955. He also was a director of two hospitals and served on the board of directors of a lab, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Illinois Racing Board.
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