As another football season nears liftoff at Iowa this week and optimism is free to soar, imagine the unimaginable for a moment.
The Hawkeyes go winless. None of their games are televised. Their average home attendance is 43,569 (with 31,119 at Kinnick Stadium for the season-finale), not the capacity 69,250.
They get outscored by an average of 37-13. They open the season by playing Michigan at home, followed by UCLA and Penn State on the road.
What seems preposterous now was reality 50 years ago. This marks the “golden” anniversary of Iowa’s only team not to win a game other than the 1889 club that went 0-1.
“Quite frankly,” Ohio State assistant coach George Chaump said before the Buckeyes played Iowa in 1973, “they do not appear to be what we are physically. If we play the way we should, this should not be much of a threat — but there is always that possibility.”
There wasn’t. Ohio State won, 55-13.
The Hawkeyes’ 0-11 season of ‘73 was dismal, to put it gently. But it wasn’t fatal. So many members of that team went on to greatly successful, productive lives in and out of football.
Offensive lineman Rod Walters was an NFL first-round draft pick. Fellow lineman Joe Devlin was a second-rounder who started 179 games for the Buffalo Bills. Jim Caldwell, still working in the NFL, was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions as well as Wake Forest.
Bob Elliott and Dan McCarney of Iowa City were coaching lifers. McCarney was the head coach at Iowa State for 12 years after being an assistant at Iowa and Wisconsin.
Hawk off the Press Newsletter Signup
Delivered once a week, each Friday
Elliott was an Iowa assistant coach at Iowa for 11 years and worked for three different head coaches at Iowa State, including McCarney.
Overall, though, the ’73 Hawkeyes didn’t have enough talent or depth. Then, the NCAA scholarship limit was 105 instead of today’s 85, and heavyweights like Ohio State were well-positioned to replace injured players. Iowa, not so much.
“Back in those games we didn’t have enough good players,” McCarney said last week from his home in Sarasota, Fla. “There were some really good players during that time and there were some really good people. But nothing was sustained at all with any consistency.”
It was the third and last season of Frank Lauterbur’s tenure as Iowa’s coach. The Hawkeyes started the year 11 seasons removed from their last winning season and nine away from their next one.
“Definitely not fun,” said Rick Penney, an Iowa sophomore defensive back in 1973. “We always wanted to win and thought we could win, and then it never panned out that way and it was disappointing.”
Penney also lives in Sarasota, where he owns a trucking company.
“Each of us says ‘Boy, it would have been nice to play for Hayden Fry or Kirk Ferentz when you had a chance to win,’” Penney said.
“There’s not much to write about,” said Dan LaFleur, a Hawkeye linebacker in 1973.
“When you’re not a very good team, you’re prone to giving up big plays. We’d give up one or two big plays and you could just see kids quit in the huddle, and that didn’t go well with me.
“Dan McCarney and I were kind of cut out of the same cloth. If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down and fight and I’m not going to lay down. I was brought up that way. You step foot in the arena and you better be ready to perform.”
LaFleur has spent his post-college life in his Jefferson, S.D., hometown, where he helped run LaFleur Brothers Livestock. His son, Jon, was a defensive tackle for the Hawkeyes in the 1990s and is the head football coach at Sioux City Heelan.
Don’t mistake LaFleur’s comments for bitterness.
“I played against a couple of Heisman winners,” LaFleur said. “I played in the L.A. Coliseum twice.
“There’s nothing better than college football.”
LaFleur called his time at Iowa “a great experience” and still makes the 300-mile drives to Iowa City for Hawkeye home games. Kyle Skogman doesn’t have as far to travel to see his former team play.
Skogman is retired as president/CEO of Skogman Homes in Cedar Rapids. He also has been on the boards of directors of several Cedar Rapids-Marion civic organizations and institutions. He was the quarterback of the ’73 Hawkeyes.
Consider being the quarterback of a winless Iowa team in 2023.
“Oh my gosh, the social media would be horrible,” Skogman said. “In fairness, most of the negativity back then was toward the coaches. It wasn’t like we didn’t want to go to class or show up anywhere in public. We weren’t treated that poorly.”
But only teammates know how hard it is to never taste victory in an entire season.
“When you go through a very difficult season you tend to grow together as a group because there’s a lot of outside noise about how bad things are,” Skogman said. “You kind of go to your closest people, your teammates.
“Last year there was a reunion down at the university, a bunch of players that were in that class and also guys that played a year or two behind us. There were a lot of successful people. Those relationships and respect we had for one another has carried for 50 years.”
There’s a world of difference between losing and being losers.
“The camaraderie, the hard-work ethic, even when you lose,” Penney said, “you’re picking yourself back up and figuring out a way to make it work.
“As horrible as it was not winning, it was still a great experience. I met great friends, lifelong friends.”
A lot of those players on the ’73 team got some positive attention early in the next season when the 24-point underdog Hawkeyes stunned 12th-ranked UCLA, 21-10, in Iowa City.
“IOWA WINS! IOWA WINS! IOWA WINS!” was the headline on the following day’s Gazette sports section cover, with a photo of jubilant fans who had charged the field in the game’s final seconds and toppled the north goal posts. Gov. Robert Ray went into the Hawkeyes’ locker room to praise the team.
Several years ago when McCarney was the head coach at North Texas, he decided to call himself and six of his Iowa football teammates “The Magnificent Seven” and hold reunions with them.
“Seven of us played together at Iowa and went through extremely tough times on and off the field,” McCarney said. “We were never part of a winning season, never part of a bowl game.
“That revolving door was just rolling non-stop, players and coaches coming and going. I call us the Magnificent Seven not because we were magnificent players, but because we had magnificent loyalty and pride and a bond, and we hung together all those years.”
Three of the seven — Elliott, Jim McNulty and Dave Butler — have since died. The others are McCarney, Penney, Brandt Yocum and John Speaker.
“I had T-shirts made that first year that said ‘Magnificent Seven,’ and had a Hawk logo on the front. All three of those guys had that T-shirt on when they passed away. It speaks so well, I think, of the bond we had through the toughest of times.”
www.thegazette.com
The Hawkeyes go winless. None of their games are televised. Their average home attendance is 43,569 (with 31,119 at Kinnick Stadium for the season-finale), not the capacity 69,250.
They get outscored by an average of 37-13. They open the season by playing Michigan at home, followed by UCLA and Penn State on the road.
What seems preposterous now was reality 50 years ago. This marks the “golden” anniversary of Iowa’s only team not to win a game other than the 1889 club that went 0-1.
“Quite frankly,” Ohio State assistant coach George Chaump said before the Buckeyes played Iowa in 1973, “they do not appear to be what we are physically. If we play the way we should, this should not be much of a threat — but there is always that possibility.”
There wasn’t. Ohio State won, 55-13.
The Hawkeyes’ 0-11 season of ‘73 was dismal, to put it gently. But it wasn’t fatal. So many members of that team went on to greatly successful, productive lives in and out of football.
Offensive lineman Rod Walters was an NFL first-round draft pick. Fellow lineman Joe Devlin was a second-rounder who started 179 games for the Buffalo Bills. Jim Caldwell, still working in the NFL, was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions as well as Wake Forest.
Bob Elliott and Dan McCarney of Iowa City were coaching lifers. McCarney was the head coach at Iowa State for 12 years after being an assistant at Iowa and Wisconsin.
Get exclusive Hawkeye insights in your inbox
Hawk off the Press Newsletter Signup
Elliott was an Iowa assistant coach at Iowa for 11 years and worked for three different head coaches at Iowa State, including McCarney.
Overall, though, the ’73 Hawkeyes didn’t have enough talent or depth. Then, the NCAA scholarship limit was 105 instead of today’s 85, and heavyweights like Ohio State were well-positioned to replace injured players. Iowa, not so much.
“Back in those games we didn’t have enough good players,” McCarney said last week from his home in Sarasota, Fla. “There were some really good players during that time and there were some really good people. But nothing was sustained at all with any consistency.”
It was the third and last season of Frank Lauterbur’s tenure as Iowa’s coach. The Hawkeyes started the year 11 seasons removed from their last winning season and nine away from their next one.
“Definitely not fun,” said Rick Penney, an Iowa sophomore defensive back in 1973. “We always wanted to win and thought we could win, and then it never panned out that way and it was disappointing.”
Penney also lives in Sarasota, where he owns a trucking company.
“Each of us says ‘Boy, it would have been nice to play for Hayden Fry or Kirk Ferentz when you had a chance to win,’” Penney said.
“There’s not much to write about,” said Dan LaFleur, a Hawkeye linebacker in 1973.
“When you’re not a very good team, you’re prone to giving up big plays. We’d give up one or two big plays and you could just see kids quit in the huddle, and that didn’t go well with me.
“Dan McCarney and I were kind of cut out of the same cloth. If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down and fight and I’m not going to lay down. I was brought up that way. You step foot in the arena and you better be ready to perform.”
LaFleur has spent his post-college life in his Jefferson, S.D., hometown, where he helped run LaFleur Brothers Livestock. His son, Jon, was a defensive tackle for the Hawkeyes in the 1990s and is the head football coach at Sioux City Heelan.
Don’t mistake LaFleur’s comments for bitterness.
“I played against a couple of Heisman winners,” LaFleur said. “I played in the L.A. Coliseum twice.
“There’s nothing better than college football.”
LaFleur called his time at Iowa “a great experience” and still makes the 300-mile drives to Iowa City for Hawkeye home games. Kyle Skogman doesn’t have as far to travel to see his former team play.
Skogman is retired as president/CEO of Skogman Homes in Cedar Rapids. He also has been on the boards of directors of several Cedar Rapids-Marion civic organizations and institutions. He was the quarterback of the ’73 Hawkeyes.
Consider being the quarterback of a winless Iowa team in 2023.
“Oh my gosh, the social media would be horrible,” Skogman said. “In fairness, most of the negativity back then was toward the coaches. It wasn’t like we didn’t want to go to class or show up anywhere in public. We weren’t treated that poorly.”
But only teammates know how hard it is to never taste victory in an entire season.
“When you go through a very difficult season you tend to grow together as a group because there’s a lot of outside noise about how bad things are,” Skogman said. “You kind of go to your closest people, your teammates.
“Last year there was a reunion down at the university, a bunch of players that were in that class and also guys that played a year or two behind us. There were a lot of successful people. Those relationships and respect we had for one another has carried for 50 years.”
There’s a world of difference between losing and being losers.
“The camaraderie, the hard-work ethic, even when you lose,” Penney said, “you’re picking yourself back up and figuring out a way to make it work.
“As horrible as it was not winning, it was still a great experience. I met great friends, lifelong friends.”
A lot of those players on the ’73 team got some positive attention early in the next season when the 24-point underdog Hawkeyes stunned 12th-ranked UCLA, 21-10, in Iowa City.
“IOWA WINS! IOWA WINS! IOWA WINS!” was the headline on the following day’s Gazette sports section cover, with a photo of jubilant fans who had charged the field in the game’s final seconds and toppled the north goal posts. Gov. Robert Ray went into the Hawkeyes’ locker room to praise the team.
Several years ago when McCarney was the head coach at North Texas, he decided to call himself and six of his Iowa football teammates “The Magnificent Seven” and hold reunions with them.
“Seven of us played together at Iowa and went through extremely tough times on and off the field,” McCarney said. “We were never part of a winning season, never part of a bowl game.
“That revolving door was just rolling non-stop, players and coaches coming and going. I call us the Magnificent Seven not because we were magnificent players, but because we had magnificent loyalty and pride and a bond, and we hung together all those years.”
Three of the seven — Elliott, Jim McNulty and Dave Butler — have since died. The others are McCarney, Penney, Brandt Yocum and John Speaker.
“I had T-shirts made that first year that said ‘Magnificent Seven,’ and had a Hawk logo on the front. All three of those guys had that T-shirt on when they passed away. It speaks so well, I think, of the bond we had through the toughest of times.”
The ‘73 football Hawkeyes: Winless, yet winners
The 0-11 Hawkeyes of 1973 had many players who went on to be substantial figures in football, and many others who fared extremely well in business.
www.thegazette.com
