A couple of years ago, Jon Miller started a series of articles focusing on Hayden Fry's best-ever games as Iowa's head coach (top 20). Either I missed the final 17, or something happened where he could not complete what he started.
But with sports nation-wide in the cooler for a bit, this might be a good time to post my own (Top 25) and give us something to talk about, especially with the death of coach Fry still stinging in our hearts. And for all I know, a bunch of you already prepared your own list. But Hayden meant SO much both to Iowa and to me personally, that I want to spend as much time as possible remembering him.
In this initial post, I will lay out the perspective which had me choose (and also not choose) the games I did and where they fell. I will also add a second post in which I will give my "honorable mention" to the remaining top games that will not be in my Top 25. My goal is to do one of the Top 25 at least every other day. Hopefully, 50 days will be enough to start getting us back to normal.
My perspective on all these games, as much as anything, looks through the portal of time. The magnitude of some games was obvious, both then and now (you can probably take a pretty good guess at which game will be #1). But for others, looking back, some games grew (MUCH) larger in stature, while others that seemed huge at the time really don't pass muster as the years have gone by, for reasons I will try to make clear. I also look at the games that influenced us as fans, contests that spoke to the change of culture at Iowa, and the Saturdays where Fry, as much as any of the games he coached, showed what it was really like to have J. Hayden Fry as the Iowa coach.
Obviously, you are free to agree or disagree with anything I post. But I had fun going through this, and love the idea of posting something that brings us back to sports again. Hope you enjoy it.
But with sports nation-wide in the cooler for a bit, this might be a good time to post my own (Top 25) and give us something to talk about, especially with the death of coach Fry still stinging in our hearts. And for all I know, a bunch of you already prepared your own list. But Hayden meant SO much both to Iowa and to me personally, that I want to spend as much time as possible remembering him.
In this initial post, I will lay out the perspective which had me choose (and also not choose) the games I did and where they fell. I will also add a second post in which I will give my "honorable mention" to the remaining top games that will not be in my Top 25. My goal is to do one of the Top 25 at least every other day. Hopefully, 50 days will be enough to start getting us back to normal.
My perspective on all these games, as much as anything, looks through the portal of time. The magnitude of some games was obvious, both then and now (you can probably take a pretty good guess at which game will be #1). But for others, looking back, some games grew (MUCH) larger in stature, while others that seemed huge at the time really don't pass muster as the years have gone by, for reasons I will try to make clear. I also look at the games that influenced us as fans, contests that spoke to the change of culture at Iowa, and the Saturdays where Fry, as much as any of the games he coached, showed what it was really like to have J. Hayden Fry as the Iowa coach.
Obviously, you are free to agree or disagree with anything I post. But I had fun going through this, and love the idea of posting something that brings us back to sports again. Hope you enjoy it.
