CLEVELAND, Ohio – The city on Wednesday granted landmark status to the birthplace of John Heisman, a legendary football coach and namesake of college football’s most prestigious player award.
By doing so, City Council and Mayor Frank Jackson also corrected a mistake made 42 years ago, when with much hoopla a state historic marker celebrating Heisman’s birth was placed at the wrong house.
The correct residence is at 3928 Bridge Ave., not the house three blocks away, at 2825 Bridge Ave., where dignitaries including former winners of the Heisman Trophy gathered in 1978 to see the marker erected.
Heisman is considered one of football’s greatest innovators and the father of the forward pass.
Although born in Cleveland, he grew up in Pennsylvania. His first coaching job was at Oberlin College, where his teams beat both Michigan and Ohio State.
Over nearly four decades, he also coached at Buchtel College (now the University of Akron), Auburn, Georgia Tech, Penn, Washington, and Rice. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.
Karl Brunjes, a senior assistant city planner for Cleveland’s Landmarks Commission, said questions about Heisman’s actual birthplace were raised soon after the historic marker was erected.
Brunjes recently told a City Council panel that the confusion was created by ordinances that changed how houses were numbered on Cleveland streets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In some cases, odd and even numbers flipped sides of the street, he said. That was the case on Bridge Avenue.
A columnist in The Plain Dealer questioned the placement in 1984, suggesting the marker should be at 4006 or 4008 Bridge. In 1988, a resident found property records confirming the marker was in the wrong location.
Researcher Craig Bobby in 2002 meticulously researched the area, house numbers and history and wrote to the Ohio History Office about moving the marker to the correct location.
Another researcher, Christopher Busta-Peck, also confirmed the location in his 2009 blog post for Cleveland Area History.
Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents the Ohio City neighborhood, has credited resident Fay Harris for her persistence in keeping the issue alive.
In addition to correcting the location, the new historic marker will correct Heisman’s birthdate. The original marker listed that as Oct. 3, 1869, based on county records. But the family Bible belonging to his mother, Sarah Heisman, lists his birth as Oct. 23, 1869.
“That was an important error on that marker,” Brunjes told the council panel.
A new marker has yet to be made, Brunjes said.
When it is, McCormack is hoping a public ceremony can be arranged.
“This is going to be a great addition at the new house and in the neighborhood,” McCormack said recently. “The community is excited to have this.”
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