The Younger generation ... you are blessed

D

DOCB

Banned
19 consecutive losing seasons ...

Iowa losing by 50 pts to Michigan ... we expected it fellas


WE FLAT *** SUCKED .....


enjoy what ya have as KF / HF are fellas we should all worship


I remember the "thrill" when we played OU tight down in Norman under
one of Hayden's 1st few years
 
you don't let us by constantly being negative about the arizona game.

enjoy what ya have and have a little OPTIMISM
 
Blessed in terms of Football success, maybe. Although you have to be really young not to remember the down years of 1998-2002. I know there are people who don't remember these years, but I do.

In terms of basketball, however, the seventies, eighties and early nineties were practically the golden age of modern era Hawkeye success. Even if Coach Fran rights the ship, and I think he will, I doubt we'll see that type of winning here again for a long time, and that was before I was old enough to really appreciate it. So everything is relative.
 
The twenty consecutive losing seasons were brutal (I lived through every one of them!).

The euphoria of the 1981 season (winning season; Big Ten Title; Rose Bowl) is impossible to describe.

I think the only thing that could top it would be to play in, and win, the Rose Bowl. That would be the ultimate in my opinion.

The National Championship game is so political and so dependent on the biased polls that I don't get very excited about it. Obviously, it would be great if we could somehow get into that game, but the cards are stacked against Iowa (look at last year; 9-0 and rated no higher that 6th in the BCS).
 
Hawksel said:
Blessed in terms of Football success, maybe. Although you have to be really young not to remember the down years of 1998-2002. I know there are people who don't remember these years, but I do.

In terms of basketball, however, the seventies, eighties and early nineties were practically the golden age of modern era Hawkeye success. Even if Coach Fran rights the ship, and I think he will, I doubt we'll see that type of winning here again for a long time, and that was before I was old enough to really appreciate it. So everything is relative.
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hawksel - those years you reference are great years compared to some the OP referenced. My Dad had season tickets one year in the 70s when Iowa didn't score a point all season (or at home games), or something like that.

Also, there was a period in the early 90s (93-94 or so) when Iowa was pretty bad reletively - around the time Burmeister was QB. Lots of 3rd and long draw plays......
 
Yes, that 93 Hayden team was pretty lousy.

We squeaked out some wins at the end of the season against 3 poor teams and played in the Alamo Bowl, where California absolutely annihilated us, 37-3 (and it wasn't that close).

Hayden came back with three good teams (95, 96 and 97).

It would be hard for anyone to understand how bad we were in the 1970s unless you were attending the games. It was kinda like being a Cubs fan (lovable losers; no hope; bronx cheers for a first down; lots of turnovers; poor tackling; lousy Scottish Highlanders; etc.).

The band was always good at halftime. That was about it.

And yet we always had at least 50,000 people in the stands. Amazing.
 
I remember beating Wisky at Kinnick in 1975...it was glorious. We ran onto the field and celebrated like we had won the NC. One of my last days as a student and resident of Iowa City I attended the Hayden Fry intro presser...I was so excited to have a new coach who threw the ball 68 times in a single game at SMU...I felt a corner was going to be turned...and I was right.
But, the preceding 19 seasons were very thin gruel...celebrating a win here and there, like Eddie Podolaks era..with a 68-34 win over NW..few and far between,but each win was a huge deal.
 
Hawksel said:
Blessed in terms of Football success, maybe. Although you have to be really young not to remember the down years of 1998-2002. I know there are people who don't remember these years, but I do.

In terms of basketball, however, the seventies, eighties and early nineties were practically the golden age of modern era Hawkeye success. Even if Coach Fran rights the ship, and I think he will, I doubt we'll see that type of winning here again for a long time, and that was before I was old enough to really appreciate it. So everything is relative.
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It was really only 1998-2000 that were down years. The Hawks won the Alamo Bowl in '01 and were in the BCS in '02. That's just 3 bad years, and it was also a transitional period from Fry to Ferentz. I'm too young to remember it, but I've heard about how bad we were in football for a LONG stretch in the 1970's and maybe even before that (without having looked it up). We were about like ISU was during the Jim Walden years. In a word, pathetic.

There's a big difference between a few down years, and a bad ERA. My fear is that we're on the verge of calling it a bad ERA of Hawkeye basketball though, if Fran can't turn it around.

You're right about the 70's through the 90's in basketball though. Those were good times for the program, and Fran's got a lot of work to do to get things back on track. I have no doubt that the right coach will totally change the culture within just a few years (like 2-3). It won't happen overnight, but I think it'll be obvious to us all when it happens.
 
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I think if anything, stability has been a huge part of our success at Iowa. I still think it's good for a program like Iowa to have a 1998 - 2000 once every 15 years or so though. It resets expectations. It is kind of like the market correcting itself. Best if our 1998-2000 type years come at the end of the long tenured coaches career so that the new coach gets a nice fresh start with manageable expectations.

Half of the turnover in college football right now is because of unrealistic expectations. I'd hate to be a coach in the SEC right now. They have like 7 programs who all think they should win the conference every single year.
 
Hey, my brother was in the Hawkeye Marching Band in the late 70's. They played the Iowa Fight Song for first downs then.... because if they didn't play it then, they'd NEVER play it. Depressing. Thank God for Hayden Fry!
 
1977Hawkeye said:
It was really only 1998-2000 that were down years. The Hawks won the Alamo Bowl in '01 and were in the BCS in '02. That's just 3 bad years, and it was also a transitional period from Fry to Ferentz. I'm too young to remember it, but I've heard about how bad we were in football for a LONG stretch in the 1970's and maybe even before that (without having looked it up). We were about like ISU was during the Jim Walden years. In a word, pathetic.

There's a big difference between a few down years, and a bad ERA. My fear is that we're on the verge of calling it a bad ERA of Hawkeye basketball though, if Fran can't turn it around.

You're right about the 70's through the 90's in basketball though. Those were good times for the program, and Fran's got a lot of work to do to get things back on track. I have no doubt that the right coach will totally change the culture within just a few years (like 2-3). It won't happen overnight, but I think it'll be obvious to us all when it happens.
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I was going to say the same thing - blessed in football, not so much in basketball. It happens and goes in cycles. Let's hope basketball is on its way back and football can stay there.
 
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