Hayden Fry's "TOP TEN" - #7

[GVGiant44]

NOVEMBER 14TH, 1981 - IOWA 17, (at) Wisconsin 7. The path that led Iowa to break the iron grip of the "Big 2, Little 8" had to go through Madison, Wisconsin that year. But on this day, the second-last week of the 1981 season, it was the Badger fans who had already started to count the miles between their home and Pasadena. And for good reason.

There were two other teams that had shown up on the Big 10 radar that season (besides Iowa), winning HUGE games that turned the top of the standings into an ever-changing jumble. One was Minnesota - one of only two teams that won one of their huge upset wins on the road (winning at Iowa), while also shocking Ohio State the week before this clash.

The other was Wisconsin. On the same day Iowa should have gotten on the national radar by upsetting Nebraska in the season-opener on September 12th, Dave McClain's Bucky-boys, using a strategy that looked a lot like what Hayden Fry used at Iowa that year (ball-control, a nasty defense and effective if only occasional passing) shocked the pre-season #1, Michigan, 21-14. Four weeks later, they would defeat Ohio State (also in Madison), despite only completing two passes (though both were for TD's).

This gave Wisconsin the honor of becoming the first Big 10 team to beat Ohio State and Michigan in the same year since Michigan State accomplished the feat in 1966. Now on this sunny but breezy November day, the Badgers needed only to win on their senior day, then win at Minnesota the next week, and the dream of a Rose Bowl would come true.

But by this time, Iowa's defense had become consistently fearsome and ferocious. So Fry kept his offensive game plan quite conservative - Iowa ended up getting only seven 1st-downs the entire game. But Gordy Bohannon passed just enough to keep Wisconsin off-stride, including a long pass to Dave Moritz that set up one of Iowa's two early TD runs by Phil Blatcher. The Hawkeyes built a 17-0 lead and then turned it over to the defense and the man known as "good ol' Thunderfoot" - their All-American punter, Reggie Roby.

Roby dominated, punting 7 times for nearly 54 yards a punt to keep Wisconsin in the shadow of their own goal-post. By the time the Badgers finally got their only TD, it was too late. Iowa prevailed, and suddenly there were only three teams left to battle for the Rose Bowl in the final week - and two of them were the same names we heard every other year - Michigan and Ohio State.

The headline in the Des Moines Register the next day summarized it best where we now stood: "IOWA TO BOWL, BUT WHERE?" It was a huge accomplishment as Iowa had earned themselves a post-season trip. But did many Hawkeye fans seriously think it would end up the way it did just one week later??

Here are the game highlights: .

 

[Northside Hawk]

NOVEMBER 14TH, 1981 - IOWA 17, (at) Wisconsin 7. The path that led Iowa to break the iron grip of the "Big 2, Little 8" had to go through Madison, Wisconsin that year. But on this day, the second-last week of the 1981 season, it was the Badger fans who had already started to count the miles between their home and Pasadena. And for good reason.

There were two other teams that had shown up on the Big 10 radar that season (besides Iowa), winning HUGE games that turned the top of the standings into an ever-changing jumble. One was Minnesota - one of only two teams that won one of their huge upset wins on the road (winning at Iowa), while also shocking Ohio State the week before this clash.

The other was Wisconsin. On the same day Iowa should have gotten on the national radar by upsetting Nebraska in the season-opener on September 12th, Dave McClain's Bucky-boys, using a strategy that looked a lot like what Hayden Fry used at Iowa that year (ball-control, a nasty defense and effective if only occasional passing) shocked the pre-season #1, Michigan, 21-14. Four weeks later, they would defeat Ohio State (also in Madison), despite only completing two passes (though both were for TD's).

This gave Wisconsin the honor of becoming the first Big 10 team to beat Ohio State and Michigan in the same year since Michigan State accomplished the feat in 1966. Now on this sunny but breezy November day, the Badgers needed only to win on their senior day, then win at Minnesota the next week, and the dream of a Rose Bowl would come true.

But by this time, Iowa's defense had become consistently fearsome and ferocious. So Fry kept his offensive game plan quite conservative - Iowa ended up getting only seven 1st-downs the entire game. But Gordy Bohannon passed just enough to keep Wisconsin off-stride, including a long pass to Dave Moritz that set up one of Iowa's two early TD runs by Phil Blatcher. The Hawkeyes built a 17-0 lead and then turned it over to the defense and the man known as "good ol' Thunderfoot" - their All-American punter, Reggie Roby.

Roby dominated, punting 7 times for nearly 54 yards a punt to keep Wisconsin in the shadow of their own goal-post. By the time the Badgers finally got their only TD, it was too late. Iowa prevailed, and suddenly there were only three teams left to battle for the Rose Bowl in the final week - and two of them were the same names we heard every other year - Michigan and Ohio State.

The headline in the Des Moines Register the next day summarized it best where we now stood: "IOWA TO BOWL, BUT WHERE?" It was a huge accomplishment as Iowa had earned themselves a post-season trip. But did many Hawkeye fans seriously think it would end up the way it did just one week later??

Here are the game highlights: .

The peach colored Sunday sports section in the Des Moines Register was a childhood institution, especially the sequence photos of Iowa touchdown plays. They also had the baseball averages in there every Sunday during the summer which was appointment reading in the days well before the internet.

Wisconsin, which had an even cheaper athletic department pre Barry than they do now, was one of the last schools to still have the H-shaped goal posts. This would cost iowa in 1985 when Scott Helverson collided with the post and had a TD reception dislodged.

 

[Seth53]

Jimmy Frazier played HS ball with Kelly Ellis at Waterloo West. KE was the bigger stud then (and had a very stellar career at UNI), but JF came into his own. JF played his frosh year @ WR, Soph year @ RB, then started his final two years at CB with a Rose Bowl capping off his Iowa career.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Wow, Dave McClain looks pretty young & healthy in these highlights. Less than five years later he would succumb to a heart attack in a sauna at Camp Randall after working out. Of course, B1G COY is named in his honor.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Wow, Dave McClain looks pretty young & healthy in these highlights. Less than five years later he would succumb to a heart attack in a sauna at Camp Randall after working out. Of course, B1G COY is named in his honor.

That was a sad day, and it threw Wisconsin into a tailspin before Barry cleaned up the mess. McClain, like about 6,000 other college and high school coaches back in that day, played at Ohio State for Woody Hayes.

 

[GVGiant44]

Wow, Dave McClain looks pretty young & healthy in these highlights. Less than five years later he would succumb to a heart attack in a sauna at Camp Randall after working out. Of course, B1G COY is named in his honor.

If you saw pictures of Iowa O-line coach John O'Hara, who was the coach behind the magnificent lines of the Hayden teams of 1990 and 1991, you would think the same thing. Then he dies of a heart attack on a cruise - a loss the Hayden-led Hawks never fully recovered from.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

If you saw pictures of Iowa O-line coach John O'Hara, who was the coach behind the magnificent lines of the Hayden teams of 1990 and 1991, you would think the same thing. Then he dies of a heart attack on a cruise - a loss the Hayden-led Hawks never fully recovered from.

Yeah, and he was in the same ballpark, age-wise, as McClain. There had to be family history, or something.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

I was a student in 1981 and road tripped to this game. Decorum prohibits me telling the story here...but it was Hunter S Thompson mixed with Animal House. Amazing that we made it to Madison and back alive.

 

[GVGiant44]

I was a student in 1981 and road tripped to this game. Decorum prohibits me telling the story here...but it was Hunter S Thompson mixed with Animal House. Amazing that we made it to Madison and back alive.

That's double-secret probation for you, pal. And expect to get your charter revoked. And yes, we are going to take the bar - the whole ... never mind.