The Iowa Hawkeyes Football team was founded as a club team in 1872 and was officially recognized as a varsity team in 1889. They have won 13 conference titles and 5 national titles.
Overview Early history (1889–1978) The State University of Iowa began playing football as a club sport in 1872,Lamb, D. and McGrane, B., p. ix. with intramural games against other colleges played as early as 1882. It was not until 1889 that Iowa challenged Grinnell College, then-known as Iowa College, to a game of football.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 1. On November 16, 1889; the two teams met in Grinnell, Iowa to play the first game of intercollegiate football in the state of Iowa and the first one west of the Mississippi River.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 2. Iowa lost, 24–0, and a rematch between the two teams in Iowa City was canceled due to poor weather.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 3. A stone marker still stands in Grinnell Field marking the event.
The next season, Iowa once again played Grinnell, this time in Iowa City in its first home game on Iowa Field. Playing in rain and strong winds, the Hawkeyes lost 14–6, but scored the first touchdown in school history when Martin Sampson blocked a Grinnell kick and returned it 70 yards for the score. However, much displeasure was expressed with this second loss to the Pioneers. The S.U.I. Medics, angry with two straight losses to a "small academy", challenged the varsity team to a game in an attempt to prove that Iowa's team was not composed of the best players available. Confident of their victory, the varsity team accepted, but lost 22–10. The loss brought in multiple changes in personnel and strategy, but it did not deter Iowa from challenging Iowa Wesleyan College to a game. In Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the Hawkeyes scored 19 touchdowns, and rolled to the first victory in school history by score of 91–0.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 4.
In 1891, Iowa won three of its five games to finish with the first winning season in school history. In the following years, Iowa began hiring head coaches to assemble and prepare the team before the season, the first being E. A. Dalton of Princeton University, who was hired for ten days before the 1892 season.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 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.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 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.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 10. For the last time in school history, the Hawkeyes had gone without a head coach. The following year, Iowa hired Alfred E. Bull of Penn as the next coach of the Hawkeyes. Under the leadership of one of the greatest centers to date, the Hawkeyes finished with a 7–1–1 record and won the conference championship in the Western Interstate University Football Association (WIUFA).Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 11. Controversy, however, sparked in Iowa's game against the Missouri Tigers. Missouri alumni demanded that the Hawkeyes play the game without Frank Holbrook, Iowa's star black athlete. Iowa refused, and won the game 12–0, amid a hostile crowd in Columbia, Missouri. Holbrook was one of the two players to score a touchdown during the game. 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.
Alden Knipe coached the team in 1898, and Knipe was the first Iowa football coach ever rehired for a second season in 1899. The 1899 Hawkeyes posted an 8–0–1 record, tying only 1899 Western Conference champion Chicago. The one field goal allowed to Chicago were the only points scored on Iowa all year. Iowa's success that season led to an invitation for membership in the Western Conference, now known as the Big Ten Conference, beginning in 1900.
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. For the second straight season, Iowa did not yield a touchdown. From 1898 to 1901, Iowa would establish a streak of 23 straight games both without a defeat and without allowing a touchdown. Alden Knipe, who was also Iowa's first director of athletics, retired from coaching after the 1902 season, and Iowa would struggle in the Western Conference for the rest of the decade. 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. Hawley was a brilliant offensive coach, and some of Iowa's wins under Hawley are among the most lopsided in school history. The 1913 Hawkeyes led the nation in scoring by a wide margin, averaging over 44 points per game. Iowa's only conference loss that year was to Western Conference champion Chicago; it was the first time since 1900 that Iowa seriously challenged for the league title. In 1914, the Hawkeyes defeated Northern Iowa 95–0, the largest margin of victory in school history. When Iowa lost its last four games in 1915, criticism of Hawley mounted. In particular, many talented native Iowans were star players elsewhere. Eleven of the best players in the Western Conference were native Iowans playing for other league schools. Further, Hawley only lived in Iowa City during the season, and Iowa wanted a full-time coach. 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. Athletic Director Nelson A. Kellogg left Iowa to join the service, so Howard Jones was appointed athletic director. Iowa nearly won the Big Ten Conference, in 1918 and 1919. Losses to league champ Illinois cost the Hawkeyes the title both seasons. The 1921 Hawkeye team was one of the nation's best that year and one of the greatest in school history. The team, whose 11 starters were all native Iowans, finished with a perfect 7–0 record. Iowa defeated Notre Dame, 10–7, in their first meeting with the Irish; Notre Dame and Coach Knute Rockne had won 20 consecutive games. Iowa had a 5–0 record in Big Ten play and won its second Big Ten title. Despite the graduations of many key players, Iowa again posted a perfect 7–0 final record in the 1922 season. Iowa again went 5–0 in the Big Ten, capturing its second straight Big Ten crown. Iowa's winning streak from 1920 to 1923 lasted 20 games and almost three full years. Howard Jones' wife was not fond of Iowa City, and Jones demanded a new contract, which would allow him to coach and live in Iowa City only during football season. A conflict between Coach Jones and the chairman of the Athletics Board at Iowa contributed to the tension, and Jones eventually resigned as head coach and athletic director at Iowa. Jones went on to have a legendary career at Southern California, leading the Trojans to 7 conference titles, 5 Rose Bowls (all victories), and 3 mythical national titles. Newly hired athletic director Paul Belting needed to replace a legend, and after an attempt to lure Knute Rockne from Notre Dame failed, Belting quickly hired Burt Ingwersen, an assistant coach at Illinois. Many Iowa fans disliked Ingwersen, both because he was an Illini, and because he wasn't a famous coach like Rockne. Iowa performed very well in 1924, falling just one game short of another Big Ten title. But the detractors noted that the one league loss was to conference champion Illinois, Ingwersen's former school. Iowa soon struggled, and fan discontent with Ingwersen grew. Paul Belting shocked Hawkeye fans during the 1928 season when he announced that within the year, Iowa would be playing in a new football stadium designed to seat sixty to eighty thousand fans. Belting's promise was indeed fulfilled; the Hawkeyes left Iowa Field behind in 1929 and played most of their games that year in a new facility named Iowa Stadium.
Two incidents rocked Iowa's athletic program in 1929, the repercussions of which were felt throughout the 1930s. First, Iowa was suspended from athletic participation in the Big Ten Conference for the month of January 1930. In 1929, athletic director Paul Belting abruptly resigned and was succeeded by Edward Lauer. The Big Ten Commissioner, John L. Griffith, was concerned about widespread illegal recruiting by alumni at Big Ten schools. Belting's sudden resignation caused Griffith to call for a university investigation of the athletic department, which uncovered a slush fund totaling $4,000 existed through which athletes were given scholarships and illegal bank loans. Iowa was suspended from the Big Ten for lack of faculty control of the athletic department. Griffith also accused Iowa officials of illegal recruiting practices. The Big Ten Conference demanded that Iowa declare 14 athletes ineligible due to illegal recruiting. Iowa initially refused, claiming that the athletes accused had done nothing wrong, and stating that the blame for the situation lay with Belting and that the 14 athletes accused did not know their loans and scholarships were illegal. School officials eventually relented, suspended the players, and Iowa was reinstated. The scandal and suspension made Iowa the conference pariah for years. Iowa played just one Big Ten team, Purdue, in 1930 due to the suspension. The second incident in 1929, which had perhaps a more profound effect on Hawkeye football and certainly on the nation, was the onset of the Great Depression. Iowa, a predominantly agricultural state, was hit particularly hard by the Depression, and it hurt Iowa's athletic revenues badly. Iowa Stadium, which cost tens of thousands of dollars to build, appeared to be a monument to bad timing. With so many players gone, Iowa fell so fast and so hard that in 1931 the team scored just seven points all season long, and Coach Burt Ingwersen soon resigned, his overall record at Iowa standing at 33–27–4 (.547) despite all the difficulties caused by the athletic scandals. Lauer hired Ossie Solem of Drake University to replace Ingwersen. Iowa finished with one win overall and none in the Big Ten in both 1931 and 1932. After a fine year in 1933, Solem took over for Lauer as athletic director. The next five years were miserable for Iowa fans, as Iowa compiled a record of 11–24–5 from 1934 to 1938 under Solem and Irl Tubbs.