He developed a genetically strong line of maize known as Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic.
[2] Leaving Iowa State for the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in 1958, Sprague led the Corn and Sorghum Investigations Unit.
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and he later chaired the organization's section on applied biology.
[1] Sprague shared the 1978 Wolf Prize in Agriculture with plant pathologist John Charles Walker.
[5] In 2007, Iowa State University Department of Agronomy established the George F. Sprague Endowed Chair.