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There have been several. New York's Downtown Athletic Club started handing out Heisman Trophies in 1935. Although the NFL college draft started a year later, (Heisman winner Jay Berwanger was the first player selected), pro football was barely a professional enterprise. Campus heroes had plenty of other job opportunities that didn't involve getting dragged up and down a field in a leather helmet. 1936 Winner Larry Keller became a teacher and a coach, while 1937 Winner Clinton Frank
went into advertising. And there's nothing like a war to sideline a career. 1939 Winner Nile Kinnick became an Air Force pilot and disappeared in the Caribbean. 1945 Winner Felix "Doc" Blanchard spent his entire career in the Army Air Force. Several Heisman winners played an obligatory two or three years in the pros before settling down to their real careers. 1944 Winner Les Horvath graduated with a degree in dentistry, and after a stint in the army played three years of diversionary pro ball before establishing a practice in Los Angeles. Legendary 1951 Winner Richard Kazmaier made the cover of Time
Magazine and went straight to Harvard Business School: "I knew I could earn more money in business than I could in professional football...I had achieved everything I could achieve as an individual and as part of a team. What more could I want?"
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