Where I Come From: My Favorite Iowa Football Team

and all I can really remember was the noise, followed by silence, and then all the Hawk fans screaming and watching all the LSU fans just standing their stunned, it was epic.

I’m going with 1985 because I was old enough to know what was going on, but not yet old enough to become cynical. Yes, Iowa had been good for several years now, but going into 1985 there was a lot of excitement. Chuck Long came back to school after finishing 7th in the Heisman voting in 1984, and Larry Station was a returning All-American. Hayden’s staff was basically at their peak—nobody had left for head coaching positions yet.

Iowa burst out of the gate, beating the non-conference foes by 58, 28, and 54. Michigan State gave us the legend of the naked bootleg, and the Michigan game was #1 vs #2—Rob Houghtlin was Daniel Murray before Daniel Murray. Yes, OSU beat Iowa as they almost always do, but it doesn’t really exist in my mind since I couldn’t watch the game. They finished out the season with another three victories and another late Houghtlin winning FG against Purdue.

The Rose Bowl was pretty much a disaster with the Harmon fumbles, but I will always remember the other heroes of my childhood with fondness. I suppose the first time you really fall head over heels for something it just sticks with you forever.

Simply because I was at the Minnesota game. Sitting back trying to soak that win in was amazing.

In addition to all the reasons already stated, it was just a season of full of memorable moments.

• The win over ISU was the first one I’d had the privilege to witness at Kinnick after the disappointment in 2000 and the debacle in 2002.

• The Michigan loss was disappointing, but had the indelible image of Tate still looking downfield and throwing the ball after having his helmet ripped off.

• The OSU win was glorious, even moreso for its rarity.

• 6-4 was certainly unique.

• The Purdue and Minnesota games were really thrilling, if only in “oh dear god, PLEASE let the defense hold on”… Greenway’s tackle behind the line of scrimmage late in the game against Minny still lingers in my memory.

• The Wisco win was the perfect way to cap off the regular season (and led to the special thrill of being able to celebrate a Big Ten title at Kinnick), and the LSU win was the perfect way to cap off the season as a whole.

• Even the Kent State game was memorable for having the throwback unis.

Just a really special, deeply satisfying season. Although the ASU game is still the really nasty turd in the punchbowl.

I just remember losing to Michigan State, falling to 3-3, and saying to myself, “Here we go again…”

But I was wrong. There was triumph after triumph week after week. And even though the loss to Illinois was heartbreaking, the game that followed nearly gave me a heart attack. I loved the 2009 season because it was so up and down, and I was fortunate enough to see the Orange Bowl in person. But I loved 2008 so much because at the end of the year when we were selected to go to the Outback Bowl I just kept on saying something different to myself: “Finally, back to where we belong.”

Now we’re just building on that success. I’m glad that season signaled the turnaround.

1. 2009 — That’s right! Last year’s squad kept finding ways to win despite injuries and never said die. We were always in the game and playing our best in the 4th quarter. What more could you ask for? (Except for a few more blowout against the cream puffs. ;) Winning the Orange Bowl provides Stanzi, Clayborn, and crew with the nod over…

2. 1985 — This was the only time I was around to see the Hawkeyes ranked #1 in the nation. The Horseshoe and Rose Bowl are tough memories, but this team reached heights not to be seen again until…

3. 2002 — Brad Motherfucking Banks, people! (And Bob Sanders, Dallas Clark, Robert Gallery, Nate Kaeding, this squad was loaded.) This was the last year my dad got to watch the Hawkeyes, and the 2002 team will always have a special place in my heart. The Orange Bowl was a disappointment, of course, but apparently also a lesson the coaches never forgot. Speaking of Big Ten co-champions…

4. 2004 — Definitely one of the toughest, grittiest performances of any Hawkeye team. Adam described it well above. Great article. This team shares some interesting characteristics with the Hawkeyes of …

5. 1987 — This was Hayden’s fifth consecutive top-twenty finish and Iowa’s second ten-win season despite a brutal schedule (vs Tennessee in Giants Stadium, at Arizona, at Michigan, at Ohio State). The 2004 Hawkeyes beat Ohio State and had a magical last-second win. The 1987 Hawkeyes had both of those things … in the same game!

Honorable mention: 1958. Too bad I wasn’t around to watch this team, but the Football Writers Association of America (the only major CFB poll that voted after the bowl games) ranked Iowa a solid #1 over unbeaten LSWho after brutalizing Cal 38-12 in the Rose Bowl. As we know, the 1958 squad will be honored by the Hawkeyes wearing throwback unis against Ball State this year.

Hopefully, I’ll have to modify this list in about six months! GO HAWKS!!!

My foreign now-wife was in the States to visit and I told her we had to go to the Sports Column (West) to watch my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes play Arizona State. I assured her it would be a big fucking party where everyone was jumping up and down and singing the fight song and making sweet hawkeye love on top of the bar. Clearly this wasn’t the case and she wasn’t impressed and we ended up going to Swanky’s (which is a great dive bar in it’s own right, but unfortunately also a Badger hangout) and I didn’t get laid and she hasn’t liked the Hawkeyes ever since so now I still have to watch the games by myself and fetch my own beers while she uses the Internet to buy shoes.

04 was the last year the students had their (much better and non-divided) sideline section. That was my freshman year, so I’m biased but I don’t think it could’ve gotten much better.

Anyone else remember Tate’s sprinting reverse windmill after a long touchdown (against Purdue, I think?)?

It was the team that rekindled my passion for the Hawkeyes. I’ll admit it, I didn’t follow Iowa from 1996-2001. I was weak, and I lived in either Wisconsin or Denver and really had nothing to brag about over WI or CU (and I did go to CU for a year). It was the 2002 team and the attention they got, that turned me back on to Iowa.

Background on Iowa-Wisconsin from 1977 to 1996 and further explanation of the import of 2002 – Iowa went 16-1 and managed to avoid Wisconsin during their first Rose Bowl run under Alvarez. It was a good time to be an Iowa fan in Madison. Then came the dark days from 1997-2001, a time period of the rivalry that we don’t like to talk about. So after that dark 5 year time, my parents and I finally broke out of our Alvarez-induced resentment of living in Madison/Milwaukee. They sent out Big Ten Champion shirts in the mail the Monday after the Minnesota game. Then we all got Orange Bowl t-shirts for Christmas, even my brother who is a big Badger fan and traitor. 2005 is also near and dear to my heart for beating Alvarez in his last home game, that little gem doesn’t get old.

That team had low expecttions and ended up playing a classic game in the
Holiday Bowl. As the team was leaving the field Quinn Early gave my son his
game gloves and made him a lifetime Hawkeye fan.

Thanks again guys!

that edges out the others for me. I was a Sophomore in 1981, and the breakthrough of that team was, this sounds touchy-feely but it’s true, absolute joy. We were frankly drunk with joyful surprise, from the Nebraska upset all the way to the end. I still remember the MSU game with roses in the stands, everybody huddling around transistor radios to the OSU-Michigan game, 2000 fans scrambling into the North end zone to do push-ups, then running back off so the game could continue. This may not make sense, but the whole season was too giddy to be really moving.

1985 was supposed to be a great year. It was, and the Michigan game was as big a game as Iowa has ever played. But I was frankly unhappy at how we had to pull it out at the end. We were a better team than that, and a better team than the one which lost to OSU two or three weeks later.

2004 is the grittiest performance, season long, that I have seen. That team, for all its injuries and distractions, could play fundamental ball the way that Ferentz’ best teams have, but it also had the completely off-the wall performances by Drew Tate on top of it. I have never been more proud to be a fan than that year.

I read the opening post to this thread and said, “Damn, that is some damned fine writing. Damn.”

I then read the various comments and said, “Jesus X, there cannot be a group of more articulate and balanced folks who, all fanaticism aside, appreciate the simultaneous power and absurdity of college sports.”

And then I went and read this steaming pile of borderline illiterate horseshit: http://www.obnug.com/2010/7/6/1551257/where-i-come-from-my-all-time

which only confirmed my previous thoughts.

Holy mother of God’s mother, BHGP.

You have done well.

….but the two losses, and the way we lost, just about ruin it for me. So many great games and plays (my favorite part of the season was when we got up 49-0 AT HALF against a decent Illini team in the rain) but the Rose Bowl makes it a bittersweet memory.

Same with 1981. That season was MAGICAL but the poor Rose Bowl performance again takes something off its lustre.

Maybe it’s because of Shon Greene, and beating PSU, and winning handily in the bowl game, but maybe 2008 is the most satisfying season I’ve ever experienced. So many surprises, so many wonderful moments (Mr Greene, meet Mr Duong), and the second greatest Iowa game I’ve seen in person, in the PSU game. It was a season that began with question marks but ended with an exclamation point.

Last season was just too damn stressful to rank as enjoyable!

I also think 2003, when we ended things by beating up on Florida in the Citrus Bowl, is a good one—fantastic victory against UM at home being one big plus.

It’s certainly a good sign for the program that there’s even debate on this subject!