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Nile Kinnick and Nile Kinnick Sr. letters to William C. Stuart, 1941-1983
1982-11-28: Page 03
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- 2 - First of all, I think it is important that you have some familiarity with the background from which Nile emerged so successfully. In the spring of 1939, the University of Iowa hired a new football coach. Dr. Eddie Anderson. Iowa's football fortunes had been quite low, similar to the several years preceding Hayden Fry's tenure. The 1937 University of Iowa football record was 1-7-0 and the 1938 record was 1-6-1. The unlimited substitution rule had not been enacted at that time and a handful of athletes became the famed Iowa Ironmen. In some games in the fall of 1939 as many as 8 starters played the entire 60 minutes without relief. Nile was the athletic and spirtual leader of that team, not because he sought to be a leader, but because he was just naturally a leader. He rewrote the Iowa record books that year. After the 1939 season was over he held 15 school records for running, passing, kicking, returning punts and kickoffs, and intercepting passes. Prior to that time no one man had held more than 3 of such records. At least 5 of his records still stand. After the first warmup game, he played 402 consecutive minutes of big time college football. He missed the last 18 minutes of the Northwestern game, the last game of the season because of a shoulder separation. He was an all around athlete and was catcher on the freshman baseball team and was a starter on Iowa's basketball team, his sophomore year the only year he played.
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- 2 - First of all, I think it is important that you have some familiarity with the background from which Nile emerged so successfully. In the spring of 1939, the University of Iowa hired a new football coach. Dr. Eddie Anderson. Iowa's football fortunes had been quite low, similar to the several years preceding Hayden Fry's tenure. The 1937 University of Iowa football record was 1-7-0 and the 1938 record was 1-6-1. The unlimited substitution rule had not been enacted at that time and a handful of athletes became the famed Iowa Ironmen. In some games in the fall of 1939 as many as 8 starters played the entire 60 minutes without relief. Nile was the athletic and spirtual leader of that team, not because he sought to be a leader, but because he was just naturally a leader. He rewrote the Iowa record books that year. After the 1939 season was over he held 15 school records for running, passing, kicking, returning punts and kickoffs, and intercepting passes. Prior to that time no one man had held more than 3 of such records. At least 5 of his records still stand. After the first warmup game, he played 402 consecutive minutes of big time college football. He missed the last 18 minutes of the Northwestern game, the last game of the season because of a shoulder separation. He was an all around athlete and was catcher on the freshman baseball team and was a starter on Iowa's basketball team, his sophomore year the only year he played.
Nile Kinnick Collection
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