O.J. Simpson
Southern California Back
O.J. Simpson piled up a monumental record in two seasons at USC. In 18 games he gained 3,187 yards, scored 21 touchdowns in 1968 and 13 in 1967. His 40 carries in the UCLA game his senior year gave him an NCAA record of 334 for one season. His 205 yards in that game swelled his season total to 1,654 for another NCAA record. He was the second Heisman Trophy winner from USC. Since graduation O.J. has become not only a legendary rusher in NFL, but also an actor, and an advertising pitchman. He closed out a great football career in 1979 with the '49ers. He went on to be seen on television and movie screens regularly. He was a sports broadcaster for NBC and ABC. He owns and is CEO of two companies, Orenthal Productions and O.J. Simpson Enterprises.
O.J. was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1985.
| Points | |||||||
| Place | Name | School | Pos. | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
| 1st | O.J. Simpson | Southern California | Sr. | TB | 855 | 128 | 82 2,853 |
| 2nd | Leroy Keyes | Purdue | Sr. | RB-CB | 49 | 358 | 240 1,103 |
| 3rd | Terry Hanratty | Notre Dame | Sr. | QB | 22 | 86 | 149 387 |
| 4th | Ted Kwalick | Penn State | Sr. | TE | 14 | 69 | 74 254 |
| 5th | Ted Hendricks | Miami (Florida) | Sr. | DE | 7 | 52 | 49 174 |
| 6th | Ron Johnson | Michigan | Sr. | RB | 12 | 36 | 50 158 |
| 7th | Bob Douglass | Kansas | Sr. | QB | 9 | 33 | 39 132 |
| 8th | Chris Gilbert | Texas | Sr. | RB | 12 | 34 | 20 124 |
| 9th | Brian Dowling | Yale | Sr. | QB | 15 | 25 | 24 119 |
O.J. Simpson, USC's standout tailback, won in the biggest landslide in Heisman history. Simpson accumulated the most points (2,853) and the widest margin of victory (1.750) in the balloting as he swept all five regions. Terry Hanratty, who broke George Gipp's total yardage records at Notre Dame, was a distant third, but remains one of the few players to finish in the top 10 in Heisman balloting as a sophomore, junior and senior.
No. registered electors: 1,200
Date of announcement: November 26, 1968
Date of dinner: December 5, 1968
The positions within each region are as follows:
| Place | EAST | SOUTH | MIDWEST | SOUTHWEST | FAR WEST |
| 1st | Simpson | Simpson | Simpson | Simpson | Simpson |
| 2nd | Keyes | Keyes | Keyes | Gilbert | Keyes |
| 3rd | Kwalick | Hendricks | Hanratty | Keyes | Enyart |
| 4th | Hanratty | Sellers | Johnson | Hanratty | Hanratty |
