History of Iowa Hawkeyes football

[6] Following a two-week tenure by Ben Donnelly in 1893, Iowa hired Roger Sherman, who became the first coach to lead the Hawkeyes for the entire season in 1894.

[7] In 1895, however, Iowa decided to forgo hiring a head coach to save money, and limped to a 2–5 record under the volunteer efforts of Bill Larrabee.

[8] Under the leadership of one of the greatest centers to date,[8] the Hawkeyes finished with a 7–1–1 record and won the conference championship in the Western Interstate University Football Association (WIUFA).

Following Bull's tenure, Iowa hired Otto Wagonhurst, the last Hawkeye coach until John G. Griffith in 1909 to lead the team for only one season.

Coach Alden Knipe, back for a third season in 1900, led the Hawks to a 7–0–1 record and a share of the Western Conference title in Iowa's first year in the league.

Before the 1910 season, school officials hired Jesse Hawley of Dartmouth as head football coach and Nelson A. Kellogg as athletic director, separating the job into two different positions for the first time.

Coach Hawley left after the 1915 season, and Iowa offered Howard Jones of Yale a five-year contract to replace him.

The Jones era at Iowa got off to a slow start, in large part due to America's impending involvement in World War I.

Iowa's new coach, Dr. Eddie Anderson, felt the Hawks, lacking depth, could still be a good team in 1939, but only if the starters played all sixty minutes.

Kinnick was an all-Big Ten selection as a sophomore, when he led the nation in punting average, but he struggled through an injury-riddled junior season.

The climax of the season occurred when Nile Kinnick won the 1939 Heisman Trophy, becoming the only Iowa Hawkeye to receive college football's most prestigious honor.

The positive momentum that was generated for the program by the Ironmen of 1939 did not last long, as the nation geared up for World War II.

As the war approached, Iowa City was selected as one of five campuses across the country to host a Naval Pre-Flight school for soldiers in training.

Since Iowa hadn't won a Big Ten title in almost thirty years, Brechler took that chance and hired Evy.

Such a happy occasion was marred, however, by the tragic news that former Hawkeye Cal Jones had just died in a plane crash in Canada.

However, Iowa defeated Ohio State in the last game of the conference season to clinch a share of the league crown with Minnesota.

Evy's nine years as a head coach at Iowa were wildly successful, and Forest Evashevski was eventually inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Many Iowa fans felt that the program had turned a corner and that 1969 would be the year that the Hawks broke through with a winning record and possibly a Rose Bowl bid.

This played a role in motivating 16 black players to ignore Nagel's repeated warnings and boycott spring practice.

The Board of Athletics completed a long investigation of the Iowa football program and decided to fire both Evy and Nagel.

In 1974, Bob Commings became the third Iowa graduate to lead the Hawkeye football team, joining John G. Griffith in 1909 and Leonard Raffensperger in 1950–1951.

The fact that Ferentz had Coach Fry's seal of approval quieted many Hawk fans, though several still loudly bemoaned not hiring Stoops.

On the final day of the season, Iowa defeated the Wisconsin Badgers, 30–7, to clinch the eleventh Big Ten title in school history.

On the game's final play, Iowa's Drew Tate fired a 56-yard, game-winning touchdown pass to Warren Holloway as time expired.

In all, the Hawks won five of their last six conference games to finish the regular season with an 8–4 record and earn a trip to the Outback Bowl, where Iowa defeated South Carolina, 31–10.

However, officials ruled that since the attempt occurred on third down and was recovered by Northern Iowa behind the line of scrimmage, the Panthers retained possession with one more down to play.

Iowa would go on to a school record 9–0 start to the season but fell to Northwestern after quarterback Ricky Stanzi left the game with a leg injury.

The Hawkeyes lost the next week to Ohio State University in overtime but finished the season with the second straight shutout of Minnesota.

The Hawkeyes started out strong and beat a Pittsburgh team with a last second 57-yard field goal by Marshall Koehn.

However, in a de facto CFP play-in game, Iowa lost to #5 Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship, 13–16.