NEW YORK — USC running back Reggie Bush has used his speed and array of deceptive moves on the football field all season to run away from would-be tacklers and leave them in his wake.
Saturday night, Bush again left the competition far behind and became the 71st winner of the Heisman Trophy, college football's most prestigious individual honor, in one of the largest runaway victories in history.
Bush is the seventh USC player, and the third Trojan in four years, to be recognized as the best college football player in the country.
He was announced as the winner over Texas quarterback Vince Young and USC quarterback Matt Leinart during a nationally televised ceremony from the Nokia Theatre in Times Square.
Bush bowed his head, hugged Leinart, the 2004 Heisman winner, before he stood and embraced his mother, stepfather and brother.
"Oh man, this is amazing," Bush said after he stepped onto a stage full of former Heisman winners.
Bush won the Heisman by sweeping all six regions and securing the largest percentage of first-place votes in history. Bush received 784 first-place votes from 892 media members and former Heisman winners. Bush's name appeared on a record 99% of the ballots.
Simpson's 855 first-place votes in 1968 remain a Heisman record.
Bush finished with 2,541 points, Young 1,608. Leinart had 797 and lost his bid to become the second two-time Heisman winner. Ohio State running back Archie Griffin won in 1974 and 1975.
Bush, a 20-year-old junior from San Diego, delivered an emotional speech. He fought back tears when acknowledging his stepfather, LaMar Griffin.
"You took me in at the age of 2," Bush said, pausing to collect his emotions. "It takes a man to do something like that."
USC is tied with Notre Dame for the most winners in the history of an award that has been presented by New York's Downtown Athletic Club since 1935.
Bush helped restore USC's proud tradition of producing outstanding running backs. The school earned the nickname "Tailback U," with four Heisman-winning tailbacks and two others who finished as runners-up between 1965 and 1981.
Running back Mike Garrett was USC's first Heisman winner in 1965. O.J. Simpson won in 1968, Charles White in 1979 and Marcus Allen in 1981.
USC went two decades without another Heisman winner until Carson Palmer became the first USC quarterback to win in 2002. Leinart took home the 25-pound bronze statuette last year -- Bush was fifth in the balloting -- and he finished third behind Bush and Young this year.
