Frank Eliscu

Frank Eliscu (1912–1996) was an American sculptor and art teacher who designed and created the Heisman Memorial Football Trophy in 1935 when he was only 20 years old. The first Heisman Trophy, a strong young bull of a football player cast in bronze, was presented to a college football player in 1935, and is considered one of the greatest honors a college athlete can receive. Over the years the Heisman Committee has paid tribute to Eliscu and his creation several times, and in 1985, the Heisman Committee invited him to speak at the 50th Anniversary Heisman ceremonies.

Since then he has amassed a body of work that spans from public fountains to ex-President Gerald Ford's inaugural medal (later given as a gift to Leonid Brezhnev when Ford visited Russia), to the five-story rone frieze that decorates the glass panes above the doors to the Library of Congress. This massive sculpture won the Henry Hering Memorial Medal from the National Sculpture Society. Eliscu also is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his "Sea Treasures."

A resident of New York and later Sarasota, Eliscu died in Sarasota, Florida on June 19, 1996 at the age of 83.

Frank Eliscu was born in Washington Heights, Manhattan. His parents were Charles Eliscu and Florence Kane who was of Jewish descent. He had a sister, Rita Rothman and two brothers, William Eliscu and Nelson Eliscu. He married Mildred Norman and had one daughter, Norma Eliscu Banas.

Eliscu graduated from Pratt Institute in 1931 and from New York Teacher's College in 1942. He was awarded a permanent teaching certificate in 1944. In 1941, Eliscu apprenticed with Rudolph Evans and worked with him on the sculpting of the statue of Thomas Jefferson for the Jefferson Memorial.

Eliscu served in the army in World War II from 1942 to 1945. He was first put to work on camouflage and maps for the Allied invasion. In 1943, he developed a unique technique used by the US Army to rehabilitate facial disfigurements from war injuries. According to his discharge papers, "Made drawings in the operating room of surgical procedures, modeling of features for reconstructive surgery, and carving cartilage for grafting in plastic surgery, pigmentation of skin in plastic procedures. Had three assistants working under him. Served at Valley Forge General Hospital in Plastic Surgery Department." Following his service, the unique research Eliscu did on tattooing pigmentation to cover the discoloration from skin grafts and for people with port wine stains was used at the New York Hospital. Eliscu applied for a patent for the tool he developed to use intradermal injections of permanent pigments.

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