Senior quarterback Randy Duncan, who also started in 1957, would be relied on heavily to replace the lost talent.
[2] Iowa's season opener against TCU was played under the shadow of a new press box, which would watch over nearly five decades of Hawkeye football.
TCU, the eventual Southwest Conference champions, would finish in the top ten of the final poll with an 8–2–1 record.
[3] The Air Force Academy had only played two seasons of varsity football when they came to Iowa City on October 4.
17 in the October 6 poll, but Evashevski later said, "If we had beaten the Air Force we never in the world would have won the Big Ten championship."
Air Force won their next nine games and tied TCU in the Cotton Bowl Classic to finish in the top ten of the final poll with a 9–0–2 record.
[4] Iowa recovered from the tie with Air Force by crushing usually weak Indiana in both teams' Big Ten opener, 34–13.
Iowa had little trouble with Wisconsin, winning by a score of 20–9, the Badgers' only Big Ten loss of the season.
8 Northwestern on October 25, the third game in five weeks the Hawkeyes had played against a top ten team.
The highlight of the game was All-American end Curt Merz's one-handed touchdown catch.
[7] Michigan was in the midst of its worst season in twenty-two years when undefeated Iowa came to town on November 1.
Michigan Stadium was only two-thirds full that day, and the Hawkeyes blew out the uninspired Wolverines.
All-Big Ten halfback Willie Fleming opened the scoring, running 72 yards for a touchdown on a punt return on the final play of the first quarter.
Michigan scored another touchdown and completed a two-point conversion to tie the game early in the third quarter.
Fleming also ran 61 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, which was followed by a two-point conversion pass from Randy Duncan to Merz.
[9] Ohio State was the only team to beat Iowa in 1957, so the Hawkeyes had a chip on their shoulder when they hosted the No.
The Hawkeyes finished the season with a 7–1–1 record, as in 1957, but this year they would travel to Pasadena to play the Pacific Coast Conference champion California in the Rose Bowl.
Iowa attempted a Rose Bowl record three two-point conversions and failed on all three, while Bob Prescott made one of two extra points.
The Hawkeyes won the 1958 Big Ten football championship and the 1959 Rose Bowl Game.
Thirty-four Iowa Hawkeyes, including Duncan, Merz and Fleming, won letters in 1958.