Hayden Fry's "Top 25" - #16

[GVGiant44]

NOVEMBER 2ND, 1991: IOWA 16, (at) Ohio State 9. Iowa's first "black helmet" game after a tragic shooting at the University of Iowa the day before. Not something I like to talk about. Suffice to say that Iowa took their defense to Columbus and dominated the Buckeye offense. But beating Ohio State was (and is) SO rare - and this was the game highlight of one of Hayden's best season, it deserved a high ranking.

Some highlights are here (and thanks for the suggestion):

 

[Xerxes]

Leroy Smith with one of the all time great individual performances and damn every Iowa kick back then was an adventure.

 

[peerok]

Thanks for posting, Giant. I would have ranked this game much higher, but this is all for fun and theres no wrong opinions here. Does anyone remember if this is the first time the Iowa players went into the stands at a road game thanking the fans? They still usually do this, right?

 

[GVGiant44]

Thanks for posting, Giant. I would have ranked this game much higher, but this is all for fun and theres no wrong opinions here. Does anyone remember if this is the first time the Iowa players went into the stands at a road game thanking the fans? They still usually do this, right?

I'll be honest - I didn't rate it higher for two reasons. One is the other 15 games I am yet to release. I must have moved the games from 6-16 around two dozen times, and again, in the grand scheme of looking back in history, this is where it seemed to belong. But as I indicated, this is one game that, due to the circumstances surrounding it, I just didn't want to talk about much. The other 15 I will be writing a lot more about. I just wanted to post this in the face of that tragedy, give it as little cred as possible, be grateful we did beat the Buckeyes that day and move on.

But as you said, there are no rights or wrongs here.

 

[Northside Hawk]

That mass shooting event kicked off a dark time for Iowa athletics. In the next fifteen months offensive line coach John O'Hara and Bill Stringer (spouse of the women's basketball coach) would lose their lives to heart attacks and Chris Street would perish in an automobile accident.

Also note that Ohio State still had a track surrounding the field. Jesse Owens once set four world records in forty five minutes on that track and the stadium itself is on the national historic register, but they finally removed the track for more seating.