Heisman's First Trophy is a sports novel based on a historically significant football game played 100 years ago in which tiny Cumberland University, led by a bunch of Kappa Sig fraternity brothers, squared off in Atlanta against a Georgia Tech team destined for a national championship and coached by the legendary John Heisman. The final score 222 – 0, remains the most lopsided victory in the annals of Collegiate Football.

The game saved Cumberland from financial demise; placed Georgia Tech on a path to a national championship; and changed the perception of a nation about the quality of football being played in the South. In many respects this one game was the birth of southern football champions to follow.