Even when the likely winner is not a Sooner, though, the aura in a workshop that produces dozens of high-profile sports awards is nonetheless distinct when college football’s outstanding player is named.

Suitably for a new statue designed to look old, the process of making a Heisman is both normalized and artisanal. The ancient Egyptians would have known how to make a Heisman: The lost-wax casting method has been used to fashion bronze sculptures for roughly six millenniums.

Hot wax is poured into the molds — one a sturdy, plastic mother mold and the second, inside that, a silicone mold that is sensitive enough to pick up the contours of the figure’s nose, the parallel lines on his helmet and the pebbly base. The mold is hardened to make a cast. Flaws in the cast — for instance, seam lines where the molds came together — are removed with a heated metal implement.

The wax cast is then dipped in what is known as investment, a kind of liquid ceramic, which hardens and, crucially, is heat resistant. This is then heated, melting the wax, which escapes out a hole in the bottom of one of the player’s feet. The hole is not visible once the trophy is mounted on its base.