What do Joe Montana, Joe Theismann and Brady Quinn have in common, other than the fact that all three were outstanding quarterbacks at Notre Dame?

Answer: Not one of them won the Heisman Trophy.

Montana, arguably the best quarterback in NFL history, never really came close. In its own way, that defies the history of the award. Since the first Heisman was awarded to Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago in 1935, no school has been better represented in the annual Heisman voting than Notre Dame.

It all started that first year. Right behind Berwanger and Army halfback Monk Mayer in the voting was none other than Irish back Bill Shakespeare, who obviously ran just as well as he wrote.

In the years since, Notre Dame alums are tied with Southern California and Ohio State in the Heisman sweepstakes. Each of the three has produced seven players who won the trophy. No. 4 on the list is Oklahoma, with four winners.

The last Notre Dame player to win it was wideout Tim Brown, who finished ahead of Syracuse quarterback Don McPherson in the 1987 voting.

The most unusual winner was Paul Hornung, in 1956. The Irish finished 2-8 that season, but Hornung beat out Johnny Majors of Tennessee and Oklahoma's Tommy McDonald in the vote. Majors and the Vols finished the season 10-1. McDonald and his Sooners went 10-0.

Hornung's triumph marked the first real outcry in the Heisman voting process. It was called the "Irish conspiracy," and Hornung was quick to acknowledge that he could not have won on a 2-8 team at any other school. To this day, Hornung, who went on to NFL stardom with the Green Bay Packers of the Vince Lombardi era, is still referred to by old-line Notre Dame fans as the "Golden Boy of the Golden Dome."

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