I’ve been wanting to flashback to 1968 for two reasons.
First Iowa shared the Big Ten title in basketball in the spring of 1968 and in the fall of 1968 the Hawkeyes football team went 5-5 and broke three all-time scoring records for the Big Ten.
That was a fun team to listen to on the radio.
Also, I get to use Al Grady’s book “25 Years with the Fighting Hawkeyes”.
I was 14 years old living in Moville and was a freshman at Woodbury Central.
1968 was a very tumultuous year with shocking assassinations, the Viet Nam war that most people hated and protests all over the world.
I’ll start with the assassinations.
April 4, one day before my birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King was shot down by James Earl Ray in Memphis after Dr. King supported striking sanitation workers in that city.
Then on Thursday, June 6, I remember waking up in my room and turning on my 9 inch black and white TV.
Bobby Kennedy had been shot the night before after he had won the California primary.
I was in 4th grade when his brother John was assassinated.
What a shame losing two Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King in a matter of four years.
I always wondered what the world would have been like if those three would have lived.
There were riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Richard Nixon was voted in as the 37th president and Apollo 8 was the first space ship to orbit the moon.
The average income in 1968 was $7,850 and gasoline was 34 cents a gallon.
College sports
In college sports Ohio State won the Rose Bowl and the National Championship
O. J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy and UCLA won the NCAA championship beating North Carolina coached by Dean Smith.
UCLA was led by Lew Alcindor who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
There were only 23 teams in the tournament at the time.
Iowa tied with Ohio State for the Big Ten title so they had a playoff to see who went to the “little dance.”
The Buckeyes beat the Hawks 85-81.
Iowa won the regular season game 74-72.
Ohio State had only one player on their roster over 6-7, Dave Sorenson was 6-8.
Joe Bergman was Iowa’s tallest player at 6-9.
Iowa’s starting lineup included “Super” Sam Williams (6-3) who averaged 25.3 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.
“Super” Sam was the Big Ten MVP in 1968 when Iowa finished 16-9, 10-4 in the Big Ten.
Sophomore Chad Calabria (6-1) was one of the starting guards averaging 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds.
Glen Vidnovic (6-5) started at forward averaging 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds.
Dick Jensen (6-8) was the starting center. He averaged 6.6 points and 5.8 rebounds.
Chad, Glen and Dick were all sophomores and would start on the 1970 team that went 14-0 in the Big Ten.
Ron Norman (6-3) was the other starting guard averaging 9.7 points and 3.3 rebounds.
The bench included Houston Breedlove and Rich Agnew.
The Hawks averaged 75 points per game and gave up 71.9 points per game.
1968 Iowa Football
Ray Nagel was in his third season as head coach for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa was 2-8 in 1966, 1-8-1 in 1967.
The Hawks opened the ‘68 season hosting Oregon State, who were rated 8th in the country and 12 point favorites.
The Beavers beat the Hawks 38-18 on the same field the year before.
State led 20-14 at half but Larry Lawrence led the Hawks on a 44 yard game winning drive and Iowa had their first major upset under coach Nagel.
Ed Podolak started at quarterback and scored the first two touchdowns.
Eddie got banged up in the 4th quarter and was replaced by Lawrence.
Dennis Green scored the final touchdown and Marcus Melendez kicked the game winning extra point.
Marcus passed away last year.
I got to know him and he always had a smile and was a really good guy.
Sophomore fullback Tim Sullivan ran for 112 yards.
Eight sophomores who started as freshman weren’t eligible until 1972.
Texas Christian 28 Iowa 17
The Hawks traveled to Fort Worth to take on the Horned Frogs who were favored by six.
Iowa led 17-14 at the start of the 4h quarter but couldn’t hang on.
The Hawks had 399 yards in total offence led by Green, who ran for 175 yards and scored twice on runs of 63 and 25 yards to give Iowa a 14-7 halftime lead.
Lawrence replaced Podolak, who was taken out in the 4th quarter because of a blow to head.
Al Bream caught six passes, three from Lawrence, for 63 yards, and the Hawks were 1-1.
Notre Dame 51 Iowa 28
The Hawks have played the Fighting Irish 24 times throughout the years starting in 1921 and ending in 1968.
Notre Dame leads the series 13-8-3.
Podolak was held out so sophomore Lawrence started his first game, making him one of 11 sophomores to start the game for the Hawkeyes.
The Irish, who were ranked 5th in the nation, finished 7-2-1 that year.
They were led by quarterback Terry Hanratty and split end Jim Seymour.
The sellout crowd at the Iowa stadium (the stadium wasn’t named Kinnick until 1972) saw a great offensive display with Notre Dame racking up 587 yards.
Hanratty passed for one touchdown and ran for two more.
Terry competed 15-23 passes for 242 yards.
Lawrence threw a pair of long touchdown passes, one for 38 yards to Green and one to Bream for 55 yards.
Mike Cilek, former City High QB, replaced Lawrence late in the game and hooked up with Kerry Reardon with a 36 yard touchdown pass.
This is the first part of a look back at 1968 where the Hawkeyes had success in basketball and football.
