CLEVELAND, Ohio - College football fans know the annual Heisman Trophy announcement is Saturday, crowning the sport's best player. It's probably the year's most appropriate day to hoist a Dortmunder Gold from Great Lakes Brewing Co.

The flagship lager with Ohio's first craft brewery has a direct tie to the trophy.

According to Great Lakes co-owner Pat Conway, it was a sense of Cleveland pride and affinity for history that link the two. Here's the story:

"Thaine Johnson was our original brewer. He was a lager guy," Conway said. "We said 'Why don't you start with a lager cause that's Thaine's background.'

"We centered on a Dortmunder lager because we wanted people to transition out of Miller-Coors flavor profile to something more European, more rich, and instead of starting out of the box with an extraordinary hoppy beer why not start with a balanced German lager? Dortmunder fit the bill. Wasn't as dry as the pilsners."

The early beers out of the gate included Eliot Ness, a Vienna-style lager that is "a little bit more on the malty side," then Burning River India Pale Ale and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. All remain as part of the brewery's line of year-round beers.

"The names were chosen for the civic connections," he said. "We decided to open in Cleveland. We went to great pains to open in the city. We did a lot of research, went to the Western Reserve Historical Society. They helped me with a lot of the artifacting."

So we settled on the name 'Heisman' because John Heisman's home is over on Bridge (Avenue). He was born in Cleveland and his name ... speaks to excellence in intercollegiate football. We thought as we were celebrating Cleveland, why not get people familiarized with Heisman?"

Heisman, born in October 1869, was a pioneer in the game and began his coaching career at Oberlin. He later moved on to larger schools, and his career included 16 successful years at Georgia Tech.

"His dad was a cooper - he made barrels," Conway said. "We don't know if he was making beer barrels, but since he was born across the street - here was Schlather Brewing, here was Gehring Brewing - so presumably he was.

"You can see the back yard of the house from the brewery, near St. Ignatius' football field. ... It's part of our history. Our founding fathers were Anglican and lagers supplanted ales, and Heisman was part of the Germanic movement."

"So we chose the name Heisman. I think for the Great American Beer Festival it was entered as the Heisman."

Conway and company were pleased with the lager, and so were the judges at the annual competition in Denver. It won a gold medal.

But not everyone was pleased. The New York-based Heisman Trophy officials discovered Great Lakes' beer.

"We got a cease-and-desist letter saying 'you have to change your name because we own the rights to the name,' " Conway said.

Breweries routinely go through a vetting process to ensure their prospective beer names haven't been taken. When a duplicative name lands on a label, the breweries usually come to an amiable agreement and the cases rarely go to court. But cease-and-desist letters are used.

So the then-nascent brewery changed the name. The choice was logical.

"The brewmaster's wife said 'You won a gold medal - why don't you go with Dortmunder Gold?' "

The Heisman Trophy does predate the brewery by more than 50 years.

Jay Berwanger won the inaugural trophy, Dec. 9, 1935. Six Ohio State players have won seven trophies; Archie Griffin won in back-to-back years, 1974-75.

It's been won mostly, but not exclusively, by seniors. Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel is one of two freshmen who have won.

The story has an ironic footnote:

"Years later we found we could have kept the name," Conway said. "They (Heisman Trophy officials) were right, but only as it pertains to intercollegiate athletics. So we changed the name but found out we didn't have to. The horse had left the barn."

It was the Heisman for a couple of years, said Conway, who said he gets a kick out of hearing folks order the lager today with its original name.

"That's why when those veterans say 'Ill have a Heisman' you know they were here at the beginning."

Most Heisman Trophy winners go on to some sort of an NFL career. The last winner who went undrafted was Jason White of the Oklahoma Sooners in 2003. Maybe someone could brew a witbier or White IPA and call it 'Trophy Wit' - and see if it draws a cease-and-desist letter.