Is Ed Podolak the most underappreciated Iowa football icon?



This article was really well written. I was a grad student when Ed was playing at Iowa and he was one of the most popular Iowa players with fans I have ever seen. Did not hurt that he came from small town southwest Iowa (Atlantic). He will get selected for more honors down the road, or someone is deaf dumb blind.
 


This article was really well written. I was a grad student when Ed was playing at Iowa and he was one of the most popular Iowa players with fans I have ever seen. Did not hurt that he came from small town southwest Iowa (Atlantic). He will get selected for more honors down the road, or someone is deaf dumb blind.

i love listening to him on the radio.

and this is a good example of 'timing is everything'. had he been a part of an iowa team when they were winning, his name would carry much more clout, no doubt about it. i'm guessing if he was great on a bad team, he'd have been ever 'greater' on a good team. it is what it is, unfortunately. would emmitt smith be who is is now had he not been on the cowboys? we'll not ever know that answer -

time to get some of these people to vote for him while he is still a part of the iowa organization.
 


People have a tendency to only know about players who played once they were old enough to be a fan. I admit most of the players I know about have come from the early seventies until today. I do remember several of the stars of the 's and 's but that's about it.
 


Hard to find anyone that knows the Iowa program like Ed does. Since he has been rehabbing after his accident he has attended Most of Iowa practices. He knows the roster as well as anyone. If you can ever get him to speak his mind off the record you will learn a lot. Black & Gold to the core
 




He is up there. If there were a list of under appreciated Iowa football players, I would argue it would start with Drew Tate.
 


About 5 or 6 years ago I had the chance to give Dolph and Podolak a ride to a restaurant after an Iowa event in DSM. Best car ride ever ... Tried to detour as much as I could without being too obvious ... Ed deserves the formal recognition ... No doubt about it ...
 


He is up there. If there were a list of under appreciated Iowa football players, I would argue it would start with Drew Tate.

Tate was certainly maligned for the 2005 and 2006 seasons, although his 2005 season was actually quite good, and both 2005 and 2006 saw him fighting injuries.

Hard to say in Ed's case. Would you rank him with a Fred Russell, Ladell Betts, Sedrick Shaw, Tavian Banks? How would you rank him with a Nate Chandler?

Football has definitely changed since the 1966-1967-1968 seasons in which Ed played. Just look at the Al Grady book, where you will see multiple QBs throwing and passing every game, single-wing, wing-T vs. what we might call "modern" offenses, and the fact that Ed played as a QB AND a HB/RB (halfback, NOT "H-Back").

But Ladell Betts gets much of his mention exactly because of the fact he also played on absolutely CRAPPY teams in 1998-1999-2000.

Personally, I only saw Ed as a pro, for the KC Chiefs. He was definitely a top-notch guy for them. But, again, looking at the Al Grady book, I would say he is under-appreciated by "modern day" fans. Just not sure he is an "icon" on the level of Kinnick or Long, Ploen or Duncan. How would he have fared on those Evy teams? Would he have been a top player under Hayden? The overriding factor that makes me say he would probably succeed in any era is the fact he was tough, versatile, competitive and very much a "team-first" player. He should certainly be a BTN "icon" above anyone of his era that played for PSU, Nebraska, et. al.
 




Eddie is under-appreciated as an analyst....he is fabulous. Great player as well.

Part of what makes him a great analyst is his knowledge of the program, both recent and less-recent. Very few of folks I have heard here in Florida are anywhere near as good.
 


Heck, Podolak was a fabulous player in the NFL. He deserves every possible recognition at Iowa, including his work as a sportscaster.
 




He is up there. If there were a list of under appreciated Iowa football players, I would argue it would start with Drew Tate.

This. He took WAY too much flak for the failures of the 2005 and 2006 teams. People criticized him for losing his cool at OSU, but that was the exact same kind of fire that worked pretty nicely for us in 2004. I always got the feeling he was probably very demanding of his teammates, but he was at least equally demanding of himself.
 


This. He took WAY too much flak for the failures of the 2005 and 2006 teams. People criticized him for losing his cool at OSU, but that was the exact same kind of fire that worked pretty nicely for us in 2004. I always got the feeling he was probably very demanding of his teammates, but he was at least equally demanding of himself.

People absolutely hated the "fat cats" team but also couldn't stand Tate and his fire to win, it never made sense to me.

There was actually an ovation in 2006 when JC started against NIU in Kinnick in 2006. You could argue that it was because KF chose to go with JC over Manson but there were yells for Tate to go to the bench for much of that year after things went south after Iowa pounded Purdue in early October.

Tate got pulled for a series up in the Metrodome at the end of 2006 and you would have thought Willis Reed was coming back in after an injury with the cheer that JC got.
 


People absolutely hated the "fat cats" team but also couldn't stand Tate and his fire to win, it never made sense to me.

There was actually an ovation in 2006 when JC started against NIU in Kinnick in 2006. You could argue that it was because KF chose to go with JC over Manson but there were yells for Tate to go to the bench for much of that year after things went south after Iowa pounded Purdue in early October.

Tate got pulled for a series up in the Metrodome at the end of 2006 and you would have thought Willis Reed was coming back in after an injury with the cheer that JC got.

A healthy Drew Tate is probably the best Hawkeye QB of the 2000s, along with Stanzi. JC is easily the most disappointing.
 




Top