I was 14 years old in 1968 living in Moville, Iowa and was a freshman at Woodbury Central.
In the early spring of 1968, the Iowa basketball team tied for the Big Ten championship with Ohio State.
The fall of ’68, the Hawkeye football team went 5-5.
That was Ray Nagel’s third season as head coach and he won only three games in his first two years (3-16-1).
We listened to all the football and basketball games on the radio with Jim Zabel doing the play-by-play.
That was a crazy year with assassinations, protests and the Vietnam war going on.
We lost Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy to deranged men, and the war just kept getting worse.
Richard Nixon was voted president and the Democratic convention in Chicago was marked by violence after Chicago Mayor Daley orders to forcefully take out peaceful anti-Vietnam protesters.
Living in Moville it sometimes didn’t seem real that all these protests, violence and the war was going on.
We only had three channels and our only news source was watching ABC, NBC, and CBS at 5:30.
I remember watching Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowing their heads and raising their black covered fists in a salute to a Black Power movement while accepting their medals when the “Star Spangled Banner” was being played during the 1968 Olympics.
They were both kicked off the team but were seen as heroes in the black community.
Their silent protest against racial discrimination is one of the most iconic images in sports history.
Pop Culture
The Big Mac was on sale at McDonald’s costing 49 cents (they are around $5 now) and the sandwich is still my favorite fast food.
The Beatles “White Album” (which I still have) came out in 1968.
The Fab Four also created Apple Records and record “Hey Jude” as their first single.
I still have the 45 and the back side is the song “Revolution”.
“Hey Jude” was the top song in 1968 and the longest single (seven minutes) to top the charts at the time.
Billboard named it the 10th biggest song of all time.
“60 Minutes” was first aired on TV in 1968.
The top TV shows in 1968 were “Red Skelton”, “Gomer Pyle”, and “Bonanza”.
You could go to a movie for $1.50 and gas was 34 cents
Iowa Hawkeyes
In the spring of 1968, the Hawkeye basketball team tied Ohio State for the Big Ten championship.
The Hawks had a 16-9 record, 10-4 in the Big Ten.
Iowa had to play Ohio State to see who would go to the NCAA Tournament and the Buckeyes won 85-81.
The Hawks beat the Bucks 74-72 earlier in the season but only 23 teams were in the “Big Dance” that year.
“Super” Sam Williams was the MVP of the conference, third team All American, and averaged 25.3 points per game.
The year before, Williams averaged 22.6 and Iowa finished 16-8, 9-5 in the Big Ten.
“Super” Sam went to Burlington junior college. That is where “Downtown” Freddie Brown went.
Think about this Hawkeye fans…two of the greatest players ever to play for Iowa went to Burlington JC.
Hawkeye Football 1968
The Iowa football team started 1-2 beating 8th ranked Oregon State 21-20 losing to Texas Christian 28-17 and Notre Dame 51-28.
Indiana 38 Iowa 34
Indiana, who went to the Rose Bowl the year before, came to Iowa City on October 12, which was Iowa’s homecoming.
The Hoosiers were 6-point favorites and knocked off the Hawks 38-34 on a 23 yard field goal with five minutes to go. Each team scored five touchdowns and the score was tied at 14, 21 and 28. Iowa rolled up 531 yards but gave up 527.
Larry Lawrence came off the bench passing for 244 yards and running for 38 more.
Larry would be the starting quarterback for the rest of the season.
Dennis Green, starting halfback, injured his ankle and would be out indefinitely.
Iowa 41 Wisconsin 0
Oh, how the times have changed.
The Badgers had lost 15 straight before coming to Iowa City.
The Hawks snapped a 10 game losing streak in the Big Ten and the victory was only Iowa’s second win in its last 28 Big Ten games.
It was the Hawks biggest scoring margin since beating Notre Dame 42-21 in 1961 and its first shutout in 70 games. This was a turning point in Iowa’s season as Ed Podolak started his first game at halfback and Larry Lawrence at quarterback. Both Larry and Ed scored two touchdowns. Al Bream broke Karl Noonan’s record of 102 pass receptions catching four passes for 105 career receptions. Kevonte Martin-Manley currently owns the record with 174 receptions.
Purdue 44 Iowa 14
The Boilermakers had a six game winning streak against the Hawkeyes going into the 1968 season.
The streak would reach 20 before Iowa won 33-7 in 1981.
Starting quarterback Mike Phipps was hurt so Purdue pounded out 483 yards behind all American running back LeRoy Keyes. Purdue tried only three passes. Podolak ran for 104 yards and Larry Lawrence passed for 90. The year before LeRoy caught four touchdown passes and Purdue won 41-22.
Iowa 35 Minnesota 28
The Gophers not only had a four game winning streak over the Hawkeyes, Iowa scored only three points in the last three games.
Larry Lawrence was the hero for the Hawks scoring a modern day record (beginning in 1939) four touchdowns. There are currently 11 Hawkeyes to match the four TD’s. The last was Akrum Wadley scoring four against Northwestern in 2015
Iowa rolled up 450 yards of total offence. Lawrence, Ed Podolak and Tim Sullivan pounded out 319 yards on the ground. That is the first time Iowa won on the road in 16 tries dating back to the win at Oregon State in 1965 (their only win of the season).
Defensive stars for the game were linebacker Larry Ely, defensive end Dan McDonald and defensive back Coleman Lane.
Next week I’ll look at the last three games including a record breaking performance by Ed Podolak, a comeback that fell short against the No. 1 team in the nation and Iowa’s first win over Illinois since 1941.
I’ll also talk about the greatest offensive team in Big Ten history at the time.
