Ware wins Heisman UH passer leaps probation, anonymity hurdles for college football's top prize

(HT6) HOUSTON, DEC 2, 1989 -- University of Houston quarterback Andre Ware with hands up Saturday as he was named the winner of the Heisman Trophy. At right is his coach Jack Pardee. (HT6) HOUSTON, DEC 2, 1989 -- University of Houston quarterback Andre Ware with hands up Saturday as he was named the winner of the Heisman Trophy. At right is his coach Jack Pardee. Photo: Gaylon Wampler, STR Photo: Gaylon Wampler, STR Image 1 of / 21 Caption Close Ware wins Heisman 1 / 21 Back to Gallery

This story, reprinted here as it originally appeared, ran on the front page of the Chronicle on Dec. 3, 1989. Stories also ran in the sports section.

NEW YORK - When the season began, hardly anyone outside Texas knew his name. An NCAA probation that kept his team from appearing on television didn't do much to enhance his national profile, either.

In the end, though, the numbers simply couldn't be ignored. They grew each week, to record-breaking dimensions, and the reputation grew with them. And when the final totals of a remarkable season came in Saturday night, Andre Ware had added yet another impressive statistic:

The University of Houston's junior quarterback from Dickinson had accumulated 1,073 votes in the Heisman Trophy race, good enough to make him the 55th recipient of the award honoring the top player in college football.

"Anything's possible, but I certainly wouldn't have believed it was possible at the start of the year," Ware said Saturday on a television hookup from Rice Stadium, where the Cougars wrapped up a 9-2 season with a 64-0 win over the Owls.

And who would have? Hardly anyone until the last few weeks, when the yardage and touchdowns continued to pile up and even the most determined of his critics had to concede that something special was happening in Houston. Ware was no early favorite, and he fought critics and doubters every step of the way. Saturday, though, his mother, Joyce Ware, was clutching the Heisman Trophy as the hint of tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

"This is the proudest moment of my life," she said after accepting the award on behalf of her only child.

At the University of Houston, it was a pretty special moment as well. Ware becomes the first UH player to win the Heisman and the first Southwest Conference athlete to claim the award since Texas' Earl Campbell in 1977.

"I want to thank the University of Houston for believing in me to the fullest. They never sold me short," Ware said. "I was here when the program was about to hit rock bottom. To see it all turn around and to see the alums coming back is really something."

Ware's selection, announced in a nationally-televised ceremony, ended a week of high hopes and roller-coaster emotions for the Wares and a UH football team that was alternately excited and apprehensive about what Saturday would bring.

"This is the dearest moment I've had in athletics," said Houston head football coach Jack Pardee.

Ware had emerged in recent weeks as the favorite, but most everyone expected the voting to be tight. And indeed it was. In the fourth-closest election in Heisman history, Ware received 242 first-place votes to 185 for runner-up Anthony Thompson, the Indiana running back, but Ware's grand total of 1,073 points was just 70 better than Thompson's overall score. (Voters were required to list three players, with three points awarded for a first-place selection, two for second and one for third.)

Major Harris, the West Virginia quarterback, finished third with 709 points, followed by Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice (523) and Colorado quarterback Darian Hagan (292).

The pattern of the voting, however, reflected the wide-open field and some reservations about Ware's candidacy. Some said Houston's run-and-shoot offense would have made anyone a star. Others argued that a player whose team was on NCAA probation should not win the game's most prestigious award. Still others pointed out that UH had lost to Texas A&M and Arkansas, the two toughest teams on the Cougars' schedule.

"It depends on how you look at it," West Virginia's Harris said Friday. "He's got the statistics. He had a great year. They're on probation.

"A lot of things go into it. They can go out there and go for it on fourth down because they're not thinking about a bowl. Win or lose, he's going to get his stats."

Evidently, Harris wasn't the only one who felt that way. It made for a controversial race, and one that went down to the final week.

In all, 918 ballots were distributed, mostly to print and electronic media divided into six geographical regions. Of those, 743 were returned in time to be counted, and Ware's name was completely omitted from 246 (33 percent).

Ultimately, though, Ware's spectacular statistics won over just enough of the critics to get him over the top. His candidacy also was aided by the late-season fade of several of his competitors and the decision by most voters to withhold their ballots until the final week.

Only 17 percent of the returns were in before last weekend's games.

"That was a clear indication to me that everyone was waiting until the last minute," said Dennis Leahy, chairman of the Downtown Athletic Club Heisman Committee.

It also may have made the difference.

While Ware was throwing for 475 yards and four touchdowns against Texas Tech last Saturday, Thompson managed just 97 yards on 28 carries against Indiana in an upset loss to Purdue that knocked the Hoosiers out of a bowl bid.

Notre Dame's Rice also hurt his cause, gaining only 50 yards rushing and 106 passing in the Irish's loss to Miami. And Harris (182 passing yards and 56 rushing with one TD in a win over Syracuse) failed to have the sort of game that would turn a close race his way.

TV or no, probation or no, Ware's numbers were staggering. So much so that Ware was able to overcome all that anonymity and become only the ninth junior to win the award and the first player ever to claim the Heisman from a team banned from appearing on live telecasts.

His season-ending performance Saturday left little room for anyone to suggest a re-count: Ware's 36 completions in 51 attempts for 400 yards and two touchdowns Saturday gave him the 365 completions in 578 attempts for 4,699 yards for the year, breaking the single-season yardage record (4,571 yards) of BYU's Jim McMahon.

His two touchdown passes enabled him to finish the season with 46, just one short of McMahon's one-year record. In all, Ware set 13 NCAA records in 1989.

So a season that began in anonymity and saw its share of doubters and critics ends with a Heisman - the first ever awarded a black quarterback - and an endorsement from the runner-up.

UPDATE

Ware skipped his senior year and entered the NFL draft after winning the Heisman.

He joined the Detroit Lions and spent four years playing for the team. He later played for the Los Angeles Raiders and was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ware was cut from that NFL expansion team before the regular season began.

Following his NFL career, he played in the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Rough Riders, the BC Lions and the Toronto Argonauts. He also played with the Berlin Thunder in the German NFL Europe league.

After football, he got his bachelor's degree in marketing and moved into broadcasting, serving as a radio commentator for UH football. Ware, who lives in Houston, currently works for the Texans' radio broadcast team and is an analyst for college football games on ESPN.

In 2004, Ware was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 2012, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

- Erin Mulvaney