Top 10 Iowa Games
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Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
JMO 1985 Michigan State has to be on there. 1991 Ohio State the day after the campus shooting deserves strong consideration. Perhaps the 1995 Sun Bowl. And 2009 Michigan State. Obviously you can only have ten so what do you take out?
1983 Ohio State and 2015 Nebraska would be the first ones I would cut.
Here's one that will never come near anyone's list but may be Hayden's most important game: 1982 Indiana. True freshman Devon Mitchell made a game saving tackle on the one yard line as time expired and Iowa went on to finish 7-4 and win their first bowl game in a quarter century. But what if Mitchell misses that tackle. Iowa finishes 6-5, probably misses a bowl, fails to capitalize on the 1981 momentum, and casts a shadow of "one year wonder" doubt on future recruiting efforts. One yard made all the difference.
1983 Ohio State and 2015 Nebraska would be the first ones I would cut.
Here's one that will never come near anyone's list but may be Hayden's most important game: 1982 Indiana. True freshman Devon Mitchell made a game saving tackle on the one yard line as time expired and Iowa went on to finish 7-4 and win their first bowl game in a quarter century. But what if Mitchell misses that tackle. Iowa finishes 6-5, probably misses a bowl, fails to capitalize on the 1981 momentum, and casts a shadow of "one year wonder" doubt on future recruiting efforts. One yard made all the difference.
200,000 in attendance at 1985 Michigan game.
remember watching that Indiana game on the tv and how close that was.
hawkeyes87
Well-Known Member
Well, based on the 1st line of his post I'm thinking he meant the list as games seen in person. Probably leaves 1982 Bloomington off almost all lists.
NC's list is much more HF / KF balanced than mine, and more impressive. I haven't been to a game for a long time.
And I definitely had to use wiki for this, as my memories of most of these are pretty minimal- due to the passing years and the fact that in my college days Saturday's events were usually already blurry at best by the time I managed to roll out of bed Sunday afternoon..
1981 UCLA- the earliest Hawk game I remember attending was pretty significant
1983 OSU- likewise my 1st game as a student (1st win over them in 20+ years)
1983 @WIS- my 1st Hawk road game, CR was great
1984 PSU- they'd end up barely .500, but coming to Kinnick they were #12 to the Hawks #5.
And they were Penn freakin State. Cool to have them there.
1985 MSU- nuf said
1985 @WIS- 1st road game as #1
1985 MICH- other than the end, the main thing I remember is it WAS crowded.
In the section I was in, we all had to stand, & angle toward one end or the other.
To angle toward the other end took a group effort.
1985 ILL- I had lots of friends from the Chi area, and they had lots of visitors for that game,
so to bounce back (post-OSU) w/ a beatdown like that was awesome.
35-0 after 1, 49-0 at half! Man I miss stomping teams!
1986 PUR- notably only for the early lead PU got when some DB went 100+ w/ a pick.
Poholsky danced w/ my gf once that year, so I had a bit of a grudge.
That DB, Rod Woodson, was pretty good though!
1991 @OSU- my only post-grad game was a good one.
My 3 buddies and I scalped tickets at the game, so we weren't in any Iowa section.
And we ended up w/ 2 sets of 2.
So we were veeery careful about how we cheered! No problems though.
Casey388
Well-Known Member
For me it was the 2016 Michigan game. For the sole fact it was the first game my father (at 72 years young) and my daughters got to see in Kinnick Stadium. It was a moment they will never forget, even if my Dad had to listen to it from the tunnel by the bathrooms. He said he thought the stands would come crashing down with all the jumping from above.
Ree4
Well-Known Member
2010 vs PSU was #1 for me. My wife had our 1st child 5 weeks early at UIHC and that was the first game after the event. We had been in the hospital all week and this was the first time I had really left - to go have a few beers with friends and momentarily escape what had been an incredibly stressful several days.
hawkeyebob62
Well-Known Member
I remember almost NOT watching it, as networks were pre-empting with MLB playoffs. I think we got the whole fourth quarter, and part of the third. Before that, it was bouncing back and forth for highlights.
Fryowa
Administrator
You graduated from Iowa and haven't been back for a game since '91?
You must have moved a helluva long ways away.
Or did you do your post grad at Ohio State?
hawkeyebob62
Well-Known Member
CR is "great" for freezing when the wind comes off those lakes and you don't have warm clothes. Beyond that, it was awful until they adopted the "Jump Around"
Madison IS fun as hell, though.hawkeyes87
Well-Known Member
What can I say?
Been in KC since '90. For a while after that I get my live football fix at Arrowhead. Saw Montana play when he was a Chef. Elway.
But in '96 I went to the last regular season home game. Sat shivering in freezing rain 'til the bitter end- a loss to the Harbaugh Colts that would keep the Chiefs out of the playoffs (Harbaugh had already knocked the top-seed Chiefs out of the playoffs the year before). I was sick a bunch of days following that. That's the last Chiefs game I went to....
Of course, the Chiefs hit a pretty long skid starting in '98 (Marty left), so I wasn't missing much.
hawkeyes87
Well-Known Member
Why would you go to CR in football season w/o warm clothes?CR is "great" for freezing when the wind comes off those lakes and you don't have warm clothes. Beyond that, it was awful until they adopted the "Jump Around"
In '83 it was nice and sunny. And, that was my 1st non-Kinnick cfb game. I was with family so didn't really experience Madison.
'85 wasn't as nice, but I was with friends so the pre-game experience had us pretty immune to the weather.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
Remember who broadcast that game?
Oh My! It was none other than Bob Hogue for a rare football crossover. If I have any memory from that game, we turned it over when we were one first down from salting it away, leading to Mitchell's heroics. Ferentz obviously took notes; he's petrified to have his offense out there in that situation.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
I remember it snowed the night before the Purdue game. The Delta Tau Delta's on our floor vowed to wear shorts for every home game that year. By the fourth quarter of Purdue they paid for it-temps were around freezing and windy.
Whipping Illinois 59-0 was a hoot, especially since they got us 33-0 a couple years earlier. Illinois loudmouth defensive backs didn't have much to say after that game. They probably couldn't hear each other anyway over the rushing wind of Robert Smith sprinting past them.
Speaking of Purdue, 2002 could make this list. They dominated a lot stats that day. But Kirkball was born that day too. And we somehow kept it close enough for Banks/Clark heroics at the end. That's a great example of how Kirkball can steal a win.
hawkeyes87
Well-Known Member
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
With the exception of Michigan State 1985 I was only offering suggestions. And I said Indiana 1982 would not come close to anyone's list but brought up the historical significance in regards of time and place in Hayden's program.
I'll give this a shot based on 40 years of watching Hawkeye Football
1981 Nebraska
1983 Penn State
1984 Texas (Freedom Bowl)
1985 Michigan State
1985 Michigan
1987 Ohio State
1991 Ohio State
2004 LSU (Outback Bowl)
2008 Penn State
2016 Michigan
WinOneThisCentury
Well-Known Member
Hayden Fry's first big win. That Nebraska team was expected to play for the National Championship. They came into Iowa and expected to beat the crap out of us. Our defense had other ideas. This wasn't a lucky win...we outplayed Nebraska which was absolutely shocking.
They lost at ISU the next week, which was disappointing, then came back and beat UCLA at home. That confirmed that the Iowa Program would never be the same.
Thank you Hayden Fry.
Agree, it was a huge win and set the tone for getting us to the Rose Bowl that year. I was a student then and had season tickets. Being from the western side of the state, this was probably one of my favorite games ever.
