If you could change one Iowa loss in the history of sports to a win...

02 Iowa State (I am too young to really appreciate the early 80 stuff). We are undefeated in the regular season. Do we play Miami for the National Title?

No, I don't think we would have jumped an undefeated Ohio State team.

My choice would be this season's Ohio State game.
 
I'm not going to assume that no other games afterwards wouldn't change. The whole point of changing the outcome of a game would be the down the road effect. Changing any game would most likely have some down the road effect.

Going along with this philosphy I would take the 2006 "Gold Bowl" vs. OSU.

I think that loss did more to shape the next two years of Iowa football than any other.
 
I'm not a wrestling guy but I appreciate the sport and I watched that match. Caldwell wrestled well and he beat Metcalf....but I absolutely LOVED Metcalf taking him out in mid backflip. There was still time on the clock. 'Nuff said. His coaches were outraged but had NOTHING to be ****** about. Sure it was probably a little out of frustration but he made a statement. Beat me fine. Be a DB about it, you'll pay for it.
Just watched the video on you tube - Metcaff barely put a hand on him, I would have preferred Goldberg spear move to really take him down.
 
either 2002 vs Iowa State or 2009 vs Northwestern. or maybe even 2006 vs northwestern just because i happened to be sitting right behind the northwestern bench that day for some odd reason and it made it just that more painful to see patty fitz so pumped up.
 
My top 2 have already been mentioned. First of all, #1 (and there NO debate about it):

1956 Iowa vs. USF for the national championship in basketball. We win, Iowa is National Champ.

#2 I gotta go with 1970 Iowa vs Jacksonville. I honestly think we would have been champs that year.
 
Basketball-1970 loss to J'ville and 1987 loss to UNLV in are first to come to mind. Both teams could have been N' Champs. 1970 loss to J'ville should have prepared me for all the close NCAA tourney losses Iowa has suffered.

Football-1986 Rose Bowl. If Iowa had won that game I believe they would have been N'Champs.
1990 loss to OSU and this years loss to NW rank right up there.
 
If you are over 50 years old and watched Iowa play Jacksonville in person or on TV that winter night in 1970, there is no way you could pick any other contest to change in the history of Iowa athletics.

The Hawks got two free throws from Freddie Brown to give them the lead with less than a minute to go. They played awesome defense on Jacksonville's last possession forcing the Jacksonville guard, Rex (somebody), to put up a 30 footer with about 4 seconds on the game clock only to have Pembrooke Burrows III tip it in at the buzzer.

As a high school senior that year, I don't mind saying I shed a few tears over that loss. I felt as many others, that Iowa was the only team that could have given UCLA & Sidney Wicks a run for the championship.

40 years later...... it still hurts to think about that game. A little known fact is that Artis Gilmore visited Iowa out of Junior College and almost became a Hawkeye. We could build a Hall of Fame on the basketball players that we have come in second on their recruitment.
 
1970 Basketball loss against jACKSONVILLE 104-103. That team would have won the National Championship.

1990 Football loss to Ohio State 27-26
 
The Elite Eight game vs. UNLV. The only coaching mistake Mr. Davis made all year was to slow the tempo down in the 2nd half, that just wasn't Iowa's style of play.

There are a lot of other good candidates mentioned on this thread. Interesting topic.
 
Last edited:
1970 last second bb loss to Jacksonville and Artis Gilmore. Could have been national champs. A better team than 80 or 87. 14-0 and averaged over 100 points per game in B10.

I will respectfully disagree with your stating, "better team than the 80 or 87".

The game changed a lot from 69 to 87. Heck, it has changed a lot(especially in Iowa) in the last 22 years).

In 1969, there were probably a handful of teams (at best) that could have been considered a contender.

Now, you can say 10-15 teams. Recruiting has changed it. AAU circuits have changed it.

Iowa's 87 team had (7), count 'em, SEVEN future NBA players on the roster.

Would be a fun game, but I will take the 87 Iowa team against any Iowa team in the 100+ year history.


As for the answer to the original question: duh. 87 UNLV loss. Worst coaching job I have ever seen. No offense to UNLV, they were good.

Football: ISU 2002 is popular. But, I do not see us winning the title that year even if we made it. Look at how USC absolutely demoralized us in the bowl game.
 
My top 2 have already been mentioned. First of all, #1 (and there NO debate about it):

1956 Iowa vs. USF for the national championship in basketball. We win, Iowa is National Champ.

#2 I gotta go with 1970 Iowa vs Jacksonville. I honestly think we would have been champs that year.

My basketball choice would be the 1970 Iowa vs. Jacksonville. Period. It is the most demoralized I've ever been after a game. To this day it still hurts.
My football choice is much harder. Perhaps the Iowa State game in 2002 or maybe the Northwestern game this year.
 
I will respectfully disagree with your stating, "better team than the 80 or 87".

The game changed a lot from 69 to 87. Heck, it has changed a lot(especially in Iowa) in the last 22 years).

In 1969, there were probably a handful of teams (at best) that could have been considered a contender.

Now, you can say 10-15 teams. Recruiting has changed it. AAU circuits have changed it.

Iowa's 87 team had (7), count 'em, SEVEN future NBA players on the roster.

Would be a fun game, but I will take the 87 Iowa team against any Iowa team in the 100+ year history.


As for the answer to the original question: duh. 87 UNLV loss. Worst coaching job I have ever seen. No offense to UNLV, they were good.

Football: ISU 2002 is popular. But, I do not see us winning the title that year even if we made it. Look at how USC absolutely demoralized us in the bowl game.

Did someone pee in your Cheerios? You disagree with anyone that says anything positive. ISU 2002 was huge because of how close we would have been to playing in the NC. People also seem to forget the game was tied at half and we really should have been ahead had we not shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times.

'87 loss to UNLV is what I listed too, but you say its the worst coaching job you've ever seen. Elaborate.

And the 69-70 team HAS to be the best team in Iowa history. You can't deny the numbers. You say college basketball changed a lot but using that logic, our '05-'06 team would be better than the '86-'87 team and we all know that's not the case. The 69-70 team had 2 future NBA players (John Johnson and Downtown Freddy Brown).
________
Park Royal 2 Condos
 
Last edited:
a) 'The logic' -- Our 05-06 team could have been better than the 87 team. The game changed; Iowa's game has not changed with it.

b) ISU loss is large -- nobody peed in my cheerios, I am just a realist. And, the realist sees that USC was the #1 team in the country that year no matter what the polls say. So, perhaps we may have fared better in the NC game.

c) TD's worst coaching job -- When you slow your team down, even when you see the other team not slowing with them, you are making an adjustment. And when you are not adjusting for the other team, that is poor coaching. Some teams cannot adjust because they lack the ability/talent to compete with another team. Iowa didn't adjust because TD was trying to take the air out of the ball. That team was not a 1/2 court, sit down kind of club. Make sense?
 
The 2002 ISU loss was not as demoralizing when it happened because of the time of year. It hurt worse at the end of year. Most of the other losses fans have talked about hurt at the moment Iowa loss.
 
'85' RoseBowl. Iowa still had a shot at the national title before all the fumbles. That one still hurts me!
 
1985 doesn't matter as it was pre-BCS and we still would have played UCLA who kicked our butt. Now 2002 ISU most likely puts us in the championship game vs Miami who I think we have a shot at. Would OSU have beaten USC in the Orange is a good question. I say no.
 

Latest posts

Top