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Superb Fountain Pen Autograph of 1941 Heisman Trophy Winner Bruce Smith.
Lot 13. Superb Fountain Pen Autograph of 1941 Heisman Trophy Winner Bruce Smith. . Among Heisman winners, Smith’s signature is one of the more elusive. This example is an outstanding return address on a 3” x 1” section of lined paper. In blue fountain pen, Smith neatly wrote “Bruce Smith, Cox., Bldg. 1111, Camp Perry, Great Lakes, Ill.” The signature is bold, and excellent for matting and display. When it was written, Smith was a coxswain, a junior officer, at the U.S. Navy’s Great Lakes, Ill., Station. He had received the Heisman Trophy in New York on Dec, 9, 1941, two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, he enlisted in the Navy as a pilot. He spent three years in the Navy, some of it playing football, primarily at Great Lakes and at the St. Mary’s Flight School in California. He won Armed Forces Player of the Year Honors. After the war, he played professionally for three years with the Packers and Rams. Smith was awarded the Heisman for leading the Minnesota Gophers to consecutive 8-0 seasons and national championships in 1940 and 1941. A halfback, he was a master at breaking free for long-runs. In 1942, Columbia Pictures announced that his football career would be featured in a 1942 film entitled “Smith of Minnesota.” He played himself in the film. Smith apparently is the only Heisman winner ever nominated for sainthood, a result of his work with cancer patients after he was diagnosed with the disease himself. He succumbed in 1967. Great example of his World War II signature authenticated by Kevin Keating.
Winning Bid $783.
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