Were any of you at the September 23rd 1972 home game vs Oregon State?

EstronHawkKing

EstronHawkKing

Well-Known Member
Just wondering because that is the day when Iowa Stadium was officially re-named Kinnick Stadium. I read that Nile Kinnick's dad (Nile Kinnick Senior) was there for the pre-game ceremony and was very pleased with the re-naming of the stadium.

From Wikipidia......."The 1972 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa in the 1972 Big Ten Conference football season. This was the first season the Hawkeyes played home games in Nile Kinnick Stadium (named for Iowa's only Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick). The stadium was called "Iowa Stadium" from the 1929-1971 seasons."


Iowa Won the game 19–11 in front of 51,229. I think that would have been a cool experience to have seen in person. Our stadium is the only one in college football named after a Heisman Trophy winner.
 
Neat info. I have seen Oregon St at least once in Kinnick but it might have been the late '60s. I will look at the old schedules and check. I am pretty sure I saw Oregon St with Earthquake Enyart as their big star running back.
From Wikipedia
""
Enyart played college football for the Oregon State Beavers under head coach Dee Andros, who arrived in Corvallis from Idaho in 1965. After spending his freshman year on the mandatory "Rook" team, he played linebacker as a sophomore in 1966, and was the starting fullback for the famed OSU Giant Killers of 1967. Enyart earned first team All-Pac-8 Conference honors in 1967 and 1968 and first team All-American honors in 1968.[2]

In his senior season in 1968, Enyart set a school record with 1,304 yards rushing, while scoring 17 touchdowns, for a total of 102 points.[2] Two of his notable games were on the road against non-conference opponents. Against Utah at Salt Lake City in late September, he carried the ball fifty times for 299 yards and three touchdowns, setting single game school records in both categories;[3][4][5] he also tied a school record with four rushing touchdowns against Kentucky at Lexington.[6][7]"
 
Walked over from Hillcrest. Student tickets were $5 (?)
Stadium about half full. Student section was definitely under the influence of many different intoxicants.
Unexpected win.
One of few wins I attended in the '70's dark age of Iowa football.
I think it may have been the first season with synthetic turf.
 
SCHawkeye2 said:
Walked over from Hillcrest. Student tickets were $5 (?)
Stadium about half full. Student section was definitely under the influence of many different intoxicants.
Unexpected win.
One of few wins I attended in the '70's dark age of Iowa football.
I think it may have been the first season with synthetic turf.
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Yes it was the Dark Ages. Nagle almost got them a couple of winning seasons and I think Evy shoved Nagle out iirc.

But the Lauterber years were a wreck, an 0-fer season, yikes. My freshman year at Iowa was autumn of '70 so I saw those bad teams up close and personal.

And you werent kidding when you said the stadium was half full. The hawks did have some big crowds but it was probably fans wanting to see USC, Mich, Ohio St, Purdue, and other top opponent's teams. Most people dont get to see a reigning Heisman Trophy winner play but about 74-75 I saw Archie Griffin in his senior year just run right thru the hawks.
 
Originally, Nile's dad resisted naming the stadium after Nile, but relented in time.

http://nealrozendaal.com/2012/12/14/hawkeyes-revisited-nile-kinnick/

An excerpt:

Of course, none of these honors can compare to the school making Nile Kinnick the namesake of the team’s football stadium. There was considerable sentiment to honor Kinnick in this way after his death in 1943, but his father, Nile Kinnick Sr., was not comfortable with the idea. Nile Sr. stated that his son was just one of 407,000 Americans who lost their lives in military service during World War II, a tally that included Nile’s younger brother, Ben. As a result, Nile Kinnick, Sr. did not think it was appropriate at that time to single his son out for such an honor. The school reluctantly honored Mr. Kinnick’s wishes.

In the early 1970s, Gus Schrader, sports editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, resurrected the idea. He used his popular column in the paper, Red Peppers, to rally support for the cause. The movement began to gain support, most importantly when Nile Sr. softened his position and indicated he would not stand in the way of putting his son’s name on the stadium. Nile Sr. appeared to be very appreciative that his son was fondly remembered so long after his death, so he gave his endorsement to the movement to name the stadium after Kinnick.
 
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EstronHawkKing said:
How much of the ceremony do you remember? Do you recall seeing Kinnick Sr. down on the field? I saw a black & white photo once of him waving to the crowd during that pre-game
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Not much, I was pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing. First big time sporting event outside of a Cardinals baseball game. I do recall Nile Sr on the field waving to the crowd. Didn’t grasp what it meant at the time. I was 11
 
That was a long time ago and the memory fades but I'm guessing I was there.

Here's what I do remember. The day before was my 21st birthday and I was at Ft Des Moines raising my right hand swearing to uphold the Constitution before leaving for basic training at Ft Leonard Wood about a month later. But I was still living in Iowa City and I went to all the games rain or shine or snow or whatever, I was there.
 
Would’ve been cool as hell to be there for the renaming of the stadium.

When it comes to ‘72 this is the only thing that comes to my mind. ;)

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.
 
M1911A1Hawkeye said:
Would’ve been cool as hell to be there for the renaming of the stadium.

When it comes to ‘72 this is the only thing that comes to my mind. ;)

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.
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And when you see a show like that on tv now and you think oh yah that was a great show and then you actually try to watch it again now and realize WTF this is terrible and terrible acting and stupid plots and realize how GD little one really knew or understood way back as a youngster.
 
EstronHawkKing said:
Just wondering because that is the day when Iowa Stadium was officially re-named Kinnick Stadium. I read that Nile Kinnick's dad (Nile Kinnick Senior) was there for the pre-game ceremony and was very pleased with the re-naming of the stadium.

From Wikipidia......."The 1972 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa in the 1972 Big Ten Conference football season. This was the first season the Hawkeyes played home games in Nile Kinnick Stadium (named for Iowa's only Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick). The stadium was called "Iowa Stadium" from the 1929-1971 seasons."


Iowa Won the game 19–11 in front of 51,229. I think that would have been a cool experience to have seen in person. Our stadium is the only one in college football named after a Heisman Trophy winner.
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I was there in person with my Dad and remember it well. It was a good crowd and a bright, sunny day for football (Kinnick only seated about 60,000 back then). There was a brief ceremony and Mr. Kinnick waved to the crowd. It was certainly a different era....no ads; no piped in loud music; simple scoreboards; just the band and the fans. No TV; no TV timeouts. The Kinnick family was modest and humble and did not want a lot of fanfare for Nile, particularly with our nation at war in Viet Nam. My memory was that Nile's Dad looked a lot like Nile. He seemed like an impressive man, even in his old age.

Iowa played very well that day and pulled off a nice win, one of the few of the Lauterbur era.
 
I recalling being there; we used to go to games as kids on "Knothole" tickets, which cost about $4 at the time. But I don't recall it being a big deal with a lot of fanfare (unlike the first day of artificial turf, when they let the fans run all over the field). Now THAT was fun.

And just to show you how things have changed, every so often me and some friends would meet at Kinnick and have pickup football games ON THE FIELD. The stadium was almost always unlocked, and you could wander around at will, day or night, if you wanted.

Try doing THAT now!
 
I would be interested in reading something about the 60s' and 70s' Hawks. How did the fan base put up winning in the late 50s' (NC) and then letting Evy run the program down? First game I saw at then Iowa Stadium was 1970 against Purdue, I was 9. I certainly did not know of success from 10 years earlier.
 
Hawk90 said:
I would be interested in reading something about the 60s' and 70s' Hawks. How did the fan base put up winning in the late 50s' (NC) and then letting Evy run the program down? First game I saw at then Iowa Stadium was 1970 against Purdue, I was 9. I certainly did not know of success from 10 years earlier.
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What happened with Evy as AD would never happen now with all the internet info (blogs, Twitter, etc.). So much crap was happening behind the scenes. People probably couldn't fathom Evy undermining his successor, including using players, parents, etc., to do it.

If KF became AD and tried it in today's environment, he'd be stuffed under the Burlington Street dam.
 
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