I was only 4 years old the last time Iowa won a Rose Bowl.
The Hawkeyes beat the California Golden Bears, led by quarterback Joe Kapp, 38-12, on Jan. 1, 1959.
Bob Jeter was the MVP after running for 194 yards on only nine carries (21.5 yard average) including an 81-yard touchdown run.
Sophomore Willie Fleming scored twice. That was the fifth straight game that Willie would score two touchdowns.
The Hawkeyes were crowned National Champions by the Football Writers’ Association of America after finishing 8-1-1.
Bob Brooks, legendary sportscaster from Cedar Rapids, told me Fred Russell reminded him of Willie.
Both were about 5-9, weighed 185 pounds and had great moves.
Sadly, that would be Willie’s last game as a Hawkeye.
Willie would go on to play in Canada for eight years for the BC Lions. He was voted into the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame and had his number retired for the Lions.
Ironically, Joe Kapp would become Willie’s teammate in 1961 and help lead the team to the Gray Cup Championship in 1963.
In 1963, Willie had his best season, rushing 127 times for 1,234 yards.
That’s 9.7 yards per carry!
Our family, which was living on a farm outside Rolfe, Iowa, would move to Moville in February of 1960.
Do you realize that on January 1, 1959, there were only 48 states in the United States?
Alaska became the 49th state on Jan. 3 that year and Hawaii would be number 50 on Aug. 21.
Dwight Eisenhower was president and Richard Nixon was vice president.
Average wages were $5,000 per year and gas was 25 cents per gallon.
Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash on Feb. 3 outside of Clear Lake.
Bonanza and Rawhide, staring Clint Eastwood, made their debuts on TV.
Bonanza was the first show to be broadcast in color.
The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants, 32-16, to win the NFL championship.
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series in 1959.
Arnold Palmer won his first Masters golf tournament in 1958.

Back to the future

The Hawkeyes’ latest Rose Bowl loss to the Stanford Cardinals came as a big shock to me.
I thought Iowa could hang with the Cardinals and at least run the ball.
Boy, was I wrong.
The Hawks had only 48 yards on 38 attempts (1.3 per carry).
Iowa also gave up seven sacks, but a lot of those were coverage sacks as Hawkeye receivers couldn’t get open.
There is one major thing I learned about the game I watched with some of my homeboys last Friday at my place? Christian McCaffrey is the real deal.
Christian, who is only a sophomore and runner up in the Heisman, caught a pass on the first play from scrimmage and took it 75 yards for a touchdown.
The Cardinals didn’t look back, as Christian finished with 368 total yards, a Rose Bowl record.
This game reminded me of another blowout Iowa played in? this time the Hawks came out on top.
The year was 1990, the date was Nov. 3 and the 13th-ranked Hawkeyes were playing at Illinois, which was ranked fifth in the nation.
Nick Bell, who checked in at 250 pounds, ran for 168 yards on 22 carries and scored twice as the Hawks blew out the Fighting Illini, 54-28.

How lopsided was it?

Iowa scored on its first five possessions and everything they tried worked, including a halfback option for a score and a fake field goal for a touchdown.
Iowa jumped out to a 28-0 lead and led 35-14 at half.
Tony Stewart also ran the ball 22 times, picking up 101 yards, and passed for a touchdown against the conference’s top-ranked defense.
Howard Griffin, who is now on the Big Ten Network as a football analyst, was a running back for Illinois that day.
“Things like this happen every week,” said Howard, who once scored eight touchdowns in a game for Illinois. “Today it happened to us. We have to bounce back from this massacre.”
Iowa has to wait until next season to bounce back from this loss.
Michigan State, the team that beat Iowa 16-13 to get to the Final Four, got crushed 38-0 by Alabama on New Year’s Eve so it wasn’t a good week for the Big Ten East and Big Ten West champs.
The loss will sting for a while, but it was still a remarkable season with a school record 12 straight wins and during which Iowa was ranked as the fifth best team in America.
It will be interesting to see if Desmond King decides to come back and if Drew Ott gets a medical redshirt.
If they both return, Iowa’s defense could be really special.
The Hawks kickoff next season Sept. 3 at home against Miami (Ohio).
I think Kirk Ferentz will have them ready.

Men’s basketball

Iowa opened the Big Ten season with two wins over ranked opponents.
The basketball team started the week with an 83-70 upset over Michigan State.
The men beating the Spartans last week in basketball was important in more than one way.
First of all, the Spartans were ranked No. 1 in the nation. That’s the first time Iowa has beaten a No. 1 team since 1999.
Also, that’s the first time Iowa has beaten Michigan State in the last 10 games.
The Spartans had the Hawks’ number, even though last season Iowa led 39-28 at half, but eventually lost, 75-61.
I don’t remember ever seeing Mike Gesell attack the basket like he did against the Spartans.
Mike had a career-high 25 points on 7-10 shooting from the floor and 11-13 from the free throw line. He had three assists and only one turnover in 33 minutes.
Peter Jok was 3-5 from 3-point range finishing with 19 while Nicholas Baer had 11 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Jarrod Uthoff, who was in foul trouble early, came through with 10 points and six blocked shots.
The Hawks followed that up with a 70-63 road win over Purdue, which was ranked 13th in the nation.
What a great victory!
First of all, Iowa hadn’t won at Purdue since 2006.
Secondly, the Hawks trailed by as many 19 in the first half.
How did they do it?
“We did a lot of things,” said head coach Fran McCaffery. “Number one, we had better bench play.
“Dom Uhl and Nicholas Baer were spectacular. (Anthony) Clemmons and Jok got going,” McCaffery said. “Those guys played really hard. We did a much better job in the second half on defense. The half-court trap created some offense.”
Throw in Uthoff, who had 25 points, five blocks, four rebounds, two steals and Iowa has its second straight win over a top-20 team.
The Hawkeyes opened up Big Ten play with a nice 74-68 road win over Nebraska last Thursday.
That’s the fourth straight win over the Huskers.
Can you believe that Nebraska had beaten Iowa seven straight times before that?
Iowa won the rebound battle (51-29) and bench points (18-2), had three players in double-figures and six blocked shots (Megan Gustafson had three).

Wrestler crown three

Thomas Gilman (125), Brandon Sorensen (149) and Nathan Burak (197) brought home trophies as the Hawks won the 53rd annual Midlands Championships with 152 points.
Sam Stoll (285) picked up a third place trophy and Sammy Brooks (184) placed fourth.
Head coach Tom Brands summed up the tournament.
“We’ve got to do a better job of scoring takedowns,” said Tom. “We’ve got to score takedowns. The positive is that we had three in the finals and we went three for three. That’s important to me. Winning finals is important.”
Like I said, the Rose Bowl loss will be tough to deal with for a while but the men’s and women’s basketball teams’ wins, plus the wrestlers’ showing at the Midlands, helps ease the pain.