Alabama running back Mark Ingram stood at the podium Saturday evening at a packed banquet room before a sea of television lights and cameras and gazed at his joyous tearful mother in the audience.

And he cried.

It was a stirring moment as Ingram, tears streaming down his face, accepted the Heisman Trophy, the most fabled prize in college athletics. And the backstory of Ingram's relationship with his father, a former professional football star who now watches his son's games from behind prison bars, could be the plot of a novel -- if it weren't true.

Ingram's power running blasted the heavily favored and top-ranked Florida from its perch and put Alabama in the position to win the title as college football's top team when it plays Texas in the BCS Championship on Jan. 7.

But that wasn't the first time a member of the Ingram family found glory on a football field.

The Heisman winner's father, Mark Ingram Sr., was a 10-year professional in the NFL and reached the apex of the sport as an important cog on the 1991 Super Bowl Champion New York Giants team.

But Ingram Sr. is far from his football glory days. He was convicted on bank fraud and money laundering charges and faces 10 years in prison.

In accepting his award, Ingram thanked his father. And from his jail cell in New York City, Ingram Sr. told reporters that he was proud of his son's accomplishments and hopes he learns from his own mistakes.

"He has to be his own person, be his own man, take and learn from what I've done by the mistakes that I've made," Ingram Sr. said.

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