Top Games/Plays in Iowa Football History

[LincolnHawkeye]

I am trying to compile a highlight video and I wanted to sort of crowd source the rankings a little bit for some of the top plays and games in Iowa history. If people could fill out the poll that would be great. I know it may seem long at first, but once you understand the format, it doesn't take very long.

https://goo.gl/forms/tRfafNmV9H5tpPIm2

 

[FlickShagwell]

“Page 1 of 59.”

Holy sh*t, you’re lucky I love thinking about Hawkeye football!

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

Sam Brownlee

 

[LincolnHawkeye]

Like I said, it seems long, but once you get started it doesn’t take much time

 

[LincolnHawkeye]

Anyone else?

 

[Wasnt-drunk-didnt-troll]

I really want to fill this out for you and love the idea but I was born in 1985. I started to fill it out but but cant honestly answer. Maybe you could reformat for the last 20 years or so, so you dont have to be 45+ to answer?

 

[Dick Rambone]

Iowa 10 Nebraska 7 has to be one of the top games . Iowas defense fought like Crockett at the Alamo

 

[BlackNGoldBleeder]

I really want to fill this out for you and love the idea but I was born in 1985. I started to fill it out but but cant honestly answer. Maybe you could reformat for the last 20 years or so, so you dont have to be 45+ to answer?

I'm with ya. I was born in 1981, so a little hard for me to rank the level of excitement I felt during the '81 Husker/Iowa game. But I love the idea.

If I had to pick a Top 10 from 1990 to the present, starting with the oldest, I would say:

1. Iowa beat down of Illinois on the road 1990 Rose Bowl season.
2. Matt Rodgers leads Iowa to comeback win over Michigan at the Big House .
3. Tim Dwight punt return at State College for a Hawkeye victory.
4. Sun Bowl beat down of Washington.
5. Iowa beat down of Michigan at the Big House in 2002.
6. Iowa beat down of Ohio State in 2004 (and again in 2017).
7. Tate to Halloway.
8. Murray FG to beat #3 Penn State.
9. Orange Bowl victory.
10. Michigan upset 2016.

 

[bagdropper]

Most the games I remember well.

It's like deciding which child you like the most. There's a handful that will all be really, really close and terribly difficult to choose just one.

If I had to narrow it down (in no particular order), and yes I know I'm leaving out some great games...

1985 Michigan
2017 OSU
2002 at Michigan
2004 OSU
2010 Orange Bowl Ga Tech
1991 at OSU
1981 at Michigan
1983 OSU
1981 Nebraska
1987 at OSU

I grew up in the 70's, when it was inconceivable Iowa would EVER win games like these. Note the heavy slant towards The Big Two allowing for beating Michigan kinda lost it's luster after 2002.

OSU though...they're the Death Star to me.

 

[KuwaitHawk]

Didn’t look at the list but some old timers (older than 65) may chime in with games from the Eva era.

 

[bumpstock]

I'm just getting my voice back from the 2005 Capital One Bowl ending.

 

[anon_i8nzeu2gbf0ba]

1956 -- Iowa 6, Ohio State 0

All-American QB Kenny Ploen fired a long TD pass to left end Jim Gibbons with 10:34 to go in the third quarter in Iowa City to break the scoreless tie. Then Iowa's kicker missed his first extra point kick of the year to give Ohio State hope. But Iowa's defense, led by All-American Alex Karras, dominated the Buckeyes the rest of the way, and the game ended with the Hawkeyes taking over on downs on OSU's one yard line after repeatedly stuffing the desperate boys from Columbus.

Meanwhile, Woody Hayes was going crazy on the sideline as he watched the Hawkeyes break OSU's 17-game Big Ten winning streak, a record at the time.

That late-season win sent Iowa to the Rose Bowl for the first time, and Evy's boys made the most of it by whipping Oregon State 35-19. (Iowa had beaten Oregon State early in the season in Iowa City, 14-13, on a long, late Randy Duncan touchdown pass. Duncan, from Des Moines, was filling in for the injured Ploen and would go on to become an All-American himself in 1958.)

Before the game, Evy hung a sign in the Iowa locker room that read, "You have 60 minutes to beat Ohio State, and a lifetime to remember it." Those Hawkeyes made some memories.