Iowa Hawkeyes Football From 1889 To 1897

Iowa Hawkeyes Football From 1889 To 1897

The State University of Iowa began playing American football as a club sport in 1872, but it was not until 1889 that Iowa challenged Grinnell College, then-known as Iowa College, to a game of football. On November 16, 1889; the two teams met in Grinnell to play the first game of intercollegiate football west of the Mississippi River. Iowa lost, 24–0, and a rematch between the two teams in Iowa City was canceled due to poor weather.

The next season, Iowa once again played Grinnell, this time in Iowa City. Playing in rain and strong winds, the Hawkeyes lost 14–6, but scored the first touchdown in school history when Martin Sampson blocked a Grinnell kick and returned it 70 yards for the score. However, much displeasure was expressed with this second loss to the Pioneers. The S.U.I. Medics, angry with two straight losses to a "small academy", challenged the varsity team to a game in an attempt to prove that Iowa's team was not composed of the best players available. Confident of their victory, the varsity team accepted, but lost 22–10. The loss brought in multiple changes in personnel and strategy, but it did not deter Iowa from challenging Iowa Wesleyan to a game. In Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the Hawkeyes scored 19 touchdowns, and rolled to the first victory in school history by score of 91–0.

In the following years, Iowa began hiring head coaches to assemble and prepare the team before the season, the first being E. A. Dalton of Princeton University, who was hired for ten days before the 1892 season. Following a two-week tenure by Ben Donnelly in 1893, Iowa hired Roger Sherman, who became the first coach to lead the Hawkeyes for the entire season in 1894. In 1895, however, Iowa decided to forgo hiring a head coach, and limped to a 2-5 record under the volunteer efforts of Bill Larrabee. For the last time in school history, the Hawkeyes had gone without a head coach.

The following year, Iowa hired Alfred E. Bull of Penn as the next coach of the Hawkeyes. Under the leadership of one of the greatest centers to date, the Hawkeyes finished with a 7-1-1 record and won the conference championship in the Western Interstate University Football Association. Controversy, however, sparked in Iowa's game against the Missouri Tigers. Missouri alumni demanded that the Hawkeyes play the game without Frank Holbrook, Iowa's star black athlete. Iowa refused, and won the game 12–0, amid a hostile crowd in Columbia, Missouri. Holbrook was one of the two players to score a touchdown during the game. Following Bull's tenure, Iowa hired Otto Wagonhurst, the last Hawkeye coach until John G. Griffith in 1909 to lead the team for only one season.