NEW YORK -- The lounge on the second floor of the Yale Club in New York transformed, for one night, into a fraternity even more exclusive than Skull and Bones, the secret society of campus leaders on the New Haven campus.

	Family members react while Carson Palmer, right, seems in a daze as his name is announced as the winner of the Heisman Trophy.

Skull and Bones taps several members a year. The Downtown Athletic Club adds only one every December. When DAC president James Corcoran announced the winner for this year, USC quarterback Carson Palmer became one of 51 living Heisman Trophy winners, one short of a deck of kings.

On the walls of the lounge are paintings of four presidents who attended Yale: William Howard Taft, Gerald Ford, George Bush and Bill Clinton. A fifth painting, of George W. Bush, has been commissioned.

The 200 or so guests in the lounge, which served as the stage for the awarding of the Heisman on Saturday night, took more interest in the dozens of paintings of Heisman winners that hung on temporary hooks around the room.

Many of the men in those paintings sat on the temporary stage at the front of the room. The older ones, anyway -- the younger Heisman winners are still playing in the NFL, with the notable exception of 2001 winner Eric Crouch. He sat across the aisle from Desmond Howard, who won it a decade earlier.

The Heismen greeted one another as long-separated brothers. Johnny Rodgers, the 1971 winner, wearing a suit the color of brown mustard, sat with his arm draped around the back of the chair of the white-haired gentleman to his right, Johnny Lattner, the 1953 winner. On the other side of Lattner sat Archie Griffin, the only two-time winner (1974-75).

Across the aisle from them was 1977 winner Earl Campbell, whose gray beard and hobbled gait have added 10 years to his appearance. Seconds before the show went on the air, with a quiet tension in the room, Campbell looked out among the audience of 200 people, mopped his brow with a yellow handkerchief and said loudly, "Man, they sure are quiet." He got his laugh.

During a commercial 40 minutes into the show, George Rogers, the 1980 winner, leaned forward and said to an older friend, "Is this thing getting longer or are we just getting older?"

"Getting older," replied Joe Bellino, the 1960 winner.

Bellino cherishes this weekend every year.

"These guys," he began. "We look out for each other. We keep in touch with each other. It's kind of a unique bond. I was just telling my son, in any one year, we only have 40 or 50 guys. We lose one. We gain one. This year we lost two, Leon Hart and Jay Berwanger."

Both men died in 2002, Hart only a few weeks ago.

"It's a reunion, an active fellowship," Bellino said.

The five finalists, thrown together from across the country, became instant friends.

Palmer made the group whole Saturday when he arrived from Louisville, where on Friday night he accepted the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Palmer, Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, Penn State tailback Larry Johnson, and tailback Willis McGahee and quarterback Ken Dorsey of Miami sat in a 17th-floor suite Saturday afternoon signing footballs and posters that the DAC auctions for charity.

Before Banks arrived, Palmer pumped Johnson for a scouting report on Iowa, which Southern California will play in the FedEx Orange Bowl. When Banks arrived, Palmer cut Johnson off.

	“	These guys ... We look out for each other. We keep in touch with each other. It's kind of a unique bond. I was just telling my son, in any one year, we only have 40 or 50 guys. We lose one. We gain one. This year we lost two, Leon Hart and Jay Berwanger. ... It's a reunion, an active fellowship. ”
		— Joe Bellino, the 1960 winner of the Heisman Trophy

"We'll talk about that later, Larry," Palmer said.

"What are you talking about?," Banks asked.

"Uh, we're just talking about where we're going tonight," Palmer deadpanned, "and you're not going with us."

Banks put two and two together.

"I don't care what you tell him," Banks said good-naturedly.

The players reveled in each others' company. After eating dinner in a makeshift dining room on the fourth floor, Banks, his sister Bernadette and McGahee posed for a photo. The finalists, too, are an exclusive fraternity, at least for a day. When the announcement came, for the first time in years, no one had any idea who would win.

"Guys were a little nervous," said Dorsey, who finished fifth. "They should be. All of the guys there were very deserving."

Asked if he expected Corcoran to call his name Banks said, "In a way, I was. Why not? I've been getting all this hype all over the place."

Banks looked down, and added. "It went to a great person."

Palmer stood, walked over to his parents and embraced both of them. He walked back to the podium and appeared to introduce himself as he shook hands with Corcoran.

An hour later, Palmer said, "Looking back now, I don't even remember it (the announcement) happening. He opened up the envelope. I was sitting there with four other candidates. I don't know if anybody really expected him to call out their name. I was just enjoying the moment, living in the moment."

It should have been a moment that Palmer will never forget, and he had already forgotten it. When his NFL career ends, he will return to New York every December to join his new brethren. When he returns to USC, he will bring with him a new trophy for the display in the lobby of Heritage Hall, home of the Trojan athletic department.

"Every kid who walks into Heritage Hall sees the four Heisman Trophies, the four retired jerseys." Palmer interrupted himself. "Gah, retired jersey. I didn't think about that."

"Retiring a Heisman Trophy winner's jersey is automatic," USC sports information director Tim Tessalone said. "Ask the athletic director."

The athletic director is Mike Garrett, the first Trojan to win a Heisman (1965). Next to Palmer and his father, he might have been the happiest man in the room Saturday night.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.