Top 20 Most Dramatic Iowa Football Plays of All-Time

You can add Merton Hanks' blocked FG in the Holiday Bowl also. And Adolphus Shelton's INT to seal with win vs. Purdue in '02.

Not necessarily Top 20 plays (there are just too many) but good ones nonetheless.
 
Ha I was thinking about doing something just like this. Probably saved a lot of time and space (this moreso as I write a-friggin-lot).

However this will not deter me. I'm still gonna put together my own comprehensive list. Would be cool to incorporate some of the actual game highlights. Some, if not a lot of plays, will be harder to come by than others.

It'd be nice if there were more individual highlights of some of those classic games from the 80s against Michigan and Ohio State and others.

I only remember Iowa football back to 1990 but I've spent plenty of time watching highlights. I don't think I've ever seen any highlights of Iowa's games against Ohio State in 1983 or Michigan in 1981, among other games.

I'm sure it'd be hard to find good highlights or particular plays for games back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and of course there's only a few highlights of the 1939 Ironmen that I know of.
 
Cannot disagree with any of these. Perhaps it should be a "Top 100" list.

I'm leaving tons of plays from the Evashevski era out because I was awfully young when those teams played ---

Iowa football has an incredible history of close, exciting games and big plays.
 
I would like to add a few plays.

1921 Gordon Locke touchdown against Notre Dame to put Iowa ahead, and leading to the victory. That ended Notre Dame's 20 game winning streak. Duke slater blocked 3 guys on that play, but Locke still had to run over Eddie Anderson, and he did. This was the greatest game ever to be played at Iowa Field.

1977 Dennis Mosley long touchdown run to put Iowa ahead of ISU for good in the teams first match up in 42 years.

1940 Mike Enich returned a Notre Dame Fumble to set up Iowa's winning touchdown to beat Notre Dame 7-0

1991 Allen Cross 61 yard touchdown reception to defeat Ohio State.

1993 Scott Slutzker reception on the 2 point conversion to defeat Talsa after Iowa drove the ball down the field with only 51 seconds remaining on the clock.

2000 Ryan Hansen's interception to secure the victory over Penn State in double overtime 26-23.

2008 Tyler Sash interception that set up the field gold to beat Penn State.
 
Hawknick said:
I would like to add a few plays.

1921 Gordon Locke touchdown against Notre Dame to put Iowa ahead, and leading to the victory. That ended Notre Dame's 20 game winning streak. Duke slater blocked 3 guys on that play, but Locke still had to run over Eddie Anderson, and he did. This was the greatest game ever to be played at Iowa Field.

1977 Dennis Mosley long touchdown run to put Iowa ahead of ISU for good in the teams first match up in 42 years.

1940 Mike Enich returned a Notre Dame Fumble to set up Iowa's winning touchdown to beat Notre Dame 7-0

1991 Allen Cross 61 yard touchdown reception to defeat Ohio State.

1993 Scott Slutzker reception on the 2 point conversion to defeat Talsa after Iowa drove the ball down the field with only 51 seconds remaining on the clock.

2000 Ryan Hansen's interception to secure the victory over Penn State in double overtime 26-23.

2008 Tyler Sash interception that set up the field gold to beat Penn State.
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forgot about the T-sash play. good thinking
 
I know this is one that didn't go our way, and most of you won't like it. But the onside kick in the 2006 Outback Bowl would have to be pretty high on the "DramaScale". I was 15 years old, laying on the floor, and within a split second of the Hawks recovering the ball, I was about to jump through the ceiling. And then it took a huge swing in emotion. You can't get a whole lot more dramatic than that.
 
tm3308 said:
I know this is one that didn't go our way, and most of you won't like it. But the onside kick in the 2006 Outback Bowl would have to be pretty high on the "DramaScale". I was 15 years old, laying on the floor, and within a split second of the Hawks recovering the ball, I was about to jump through the ceiling. And then it took a huge swing in emotion. You can't get a whole lot more dramatic than that.
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They got jipped on that play by the refs so bad. Along with a few other key calls in that game.
 
ChosenChildren said:
For fun I thought I would rank the top 25 most dramatic Iowa football plays of all time (in no particular order):

8. 2009: Stanzi to McNutt to stun MSU crowd, 15-13
9. 2009: Iowa blocks 2nd field goal to defeat Northern Iowa, 17-16

11. 2009: Wegher goes 32 yards late to defeat Ga. Tech, 24-14, clinch Orange Bowl championship
12. 2008: Murray drills it from 31 yards to take down Penn St, 24-23
20. 2009: Clayborn blocks punt, takes down #5 Penn St 21-10

I'm sure I'm leaving a bunch of great plays off of this list. Your thoughts?
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5 of the most dramatic plays are in the last two seasons? It is an opinion but I have been going to Iowa Games since 1976 and there are countless plays that have fallen off the "radar" in the 31 years. I am guessing the age of each respective poster has alot to do with their picks. I am guessing many of the people who agree with your choices are of the MUCH younger crowd.
 
That's awsome!!! Loved that play and that game- the all black helmets were because of the shootings in IC earlier that week.
 
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Wow, so many great memories!!! One of my all-timers was Chuck Long's naked bootleg at Sparty. Ball above his head, Touchdown!!
Game-winning FG's vs Michigan, PSU, etc... are always great to see again.
Marv Cook at OSU.
I screamed for minutes after "The Catch" and McNutt at MSU this past year.
Good stuff! Go Hawks!
 
Hawknick said:
They got jipped on that play by the refs so bad. Along with a few other key calls in that game.
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I'm not denying that. I'm just saying that that play was as dramatic as it gets. It just didn't happen to go our way.
 
I'm in my late 50s so I don't think I'm biased in favoring games from recent years, although it is probably human nature to favor plays that have happened recently because they are fresh in your memory. I wanted to favor dramatic plays that happened in big games that meant something (Big Ten title; win over a ranked foe; bowl games; rivalry games; wins that led to a bowl game; etc.)

I started going to games in 1960.

I will say this: Wow, it was slim pickings from 1961 through 1979. Iowa was the laughing stock of the Big Ten and won about 30% of their games. There really were not that many big plays. Iowa simply was no good: there were no winning seasons!

If you check the history books, Iowa also stunk throughout the 30s and 40s. So that pretty much leaves two seasons in the twenties (1921 and 1922), 1939 (Kinnick year), a great 5 year run with Evy (56 through 60) and the Fry and Ferentz eras. Most of the great plays happened during those years.
 
As far as a general collection of dramatic plays, the 2009 season was perhaps one of the most drama-filled seasons in Iowa FB history.

-2 blocked FGs to win
-won 4 games by less than 4 pts
-trailed at some point in the 4th qtr in 7 games last year
-won a game on the final play
-rallied from 14 down to force OT with Ohio St. for the B10 title and lost on a FG

Not too many other seasons can compete with the amount of heart-stopping moments 2009 had.
 
Just because some of those teams were not great does not mean they did not have their moments. I have a few more get moments from these teams.

1916, John Davis field goal in the final minute to beat Iowa State 6-3.

1942, Tom Farmer touchdown pass to beat #1 Wisconsin.

1974, The Rob Fick touchdown passes to beat UCLA and Illinois.
 
Completely disagree that play #11 shouldn't be on the list....we were only ahead 17-14 and anything could happen. BW's TD run not only sealed the game, it gave Iowa it's first BCS bowl win since the "old" Rose Bowl....and KF's first BCS win as head coach. It was a game changer and program enhancer. It also showed Iowa has 'speed' and isn't just a plodding team.
 
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SDK46 said:
Completely disagree that play #11 shouldn't be on the list....we were only ahead 17-14 and anything could happen. BW's TD run not only sealed the game, it gave Iowa it's first BCS bowl win since the "old" Rose Bowl....and KF's first BCS win as head coach. It was a game changer and program enhancer. It also showed Iowa has 'speed' and isn't just a plodding team.
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For dramatic plays, it's definitely a fringe moment, not one that should be sniffing the top 10. It really wasn't that dramatic. The way the game had been going, it felt more like his TD run against Indiana that put us up 42-24. It seemed more like icing on the cake rather than clutch dramatics. DJK's kickoff return at OSU was MUCH more dramatic of a play, and that's just one from this past season (I won't bother mentioning the obvious choices from 2009).

Remember, the most dramatic play doesn't have to have a positive note to it. Just because it sealed the Orange Bowl doesn't make the play more dramatic than DJK's TD, Stanzi-McNutt, or even the Outback onside kick. Drama involves emotions on an extreme level, whether positive or negative. And emotional swings are what I put the most weight on, regardless of the game's outcome. That's why C.J. Jones' Orange Bowl kickoff return is one of the most dramatic plays I've seen, as well as the Outback onside kick and Tate to Holloway. The huge emotion swings involved on those plays are make them so dramatic.
 
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