Iowa Head Coach
Burns served seven total years as an assistant coach to Evashevski. As part of a deal with Iowa Athletic Board, Evy was appointed as Iowa's athletic director and agreed to appoint his successor as head football coach at Iowa. Evy appointed Burns to succeed him, and Burns became Iowa's 20th head football coach beginning with the 1961 season. He was just 34 years old.
Burns was placed in a very difficult situation. He was replacing a legend in Evashevski, who compiled a 52–27–4 record in nine years at Iowa. Furthermore, Burns was extremely young to be a head football coach at a Big Ten Conference university. Before his first game as a college head coach, his 1961 Hawkeye team was named as the preseason number one team in the nation in the AP Poll.
Iowa defended their lofty ranking by winning their first four games in 1961, but then the Hawks hit a disappointing slide, losing their next four. In their final game of the year, the Hawkeyes defeated Notre Dame, 42–21. It was Iowa's fifth win in six years over the Irish. Iowa finished the season 5–4, their last winning record until 1981.
In 1962, for the only time in school history, Iowa defeated both Michigan and Ohio State in the same year. Unfortunately, the Hawkeyes won only two other games and posted a 4–5 final record. Iowa might have posted a winning record in 1963, but the school's final game of the season against Notre Dame was canceled on account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The Hawkeyes finished 1963 with a 3–3–2 record.
A 3–0 start in the 1964 season quickly turned sour, as the Hawkeyes lost their final six games. Burns was now in real danger of being fired, but Iowa had several players returning in 1965, and the Hawkeyes were expected to be very good. Burns was allowed to return in 1965. Before the 1965 season, Playboy Magazine picked Iowa as their preseason number one team in the nation and predicted a 9–1 record for the Hawks. Instead, Iowa finished the year 1–9, and before Iowa's final game that season, it was announced that Burns would not be retained in 1966.
At least publicly, Burns took the firing with a great deal of class. He said, "I want to be emphatic. I hold no ill feelings toward anyone. I hope, I sincerely hope, Iowa has great success in football in the future. If I can contribute to that future, I will." After his final game, his players hoisted him on their shoulders and carried him off the field, despite the loss.
There were those who insisted that Forest Evashevski wanted to be called back as football coach and that rather than helping Burns to succeed, Evy hampered him with rules and regulations that were not in force when Evy was the coach. But Burns ultimately said, "If we have failed, and we have, I'll take the responsibility for that. It is not the players' fault. They have done the best they can." He had a 16–27–2 record at Iowa.
Read more about this topic: Jerry Burns
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