College Career
Larry Station only started five football games at Iowa in 1982 as a true freshman, yet he led the team with 88 tackles. He was Iowa's defensive player of the game against Michigan and he had 15 tackles against Indiana on Homecoming. He helped Iowa lead the Big Ten in both rushing defense and total defense in 1982, and Station was a second team All-Big Ten selection.
As a sophomore in 1983, Larry Station led Iowa in tackles in seven games. He was Iowa's defensive player of the game against Purdue and Illinois and led Iowa with 138 tackles on the year. Station helped lead Iowa to a 9-3 record and a berth in the Gator Bowl. Station was selected as a consensus first team All-Big Ten linebacker and was a second team All-American.
In 1984, Station again led Iowa in tackles with 137 and recovered fumbles in three Big Ten games. He had 21 tackles against Minnesota and three sacks against Northwestern. He was selected as first team All-Big Ten for the second time and was a consensus first team All-American in 1984. Station was also Iowa's fourth academic All-American.
In Larry Station's senior season in 1985, he helped lead Iowa to its first outright Big Ten title in 27 years. He led Iowa in tackles for the fourth straight season with 129. He was selected as a co-captain and the co-MVP of the 1985 Hawkeyes. Station was a finalist for the Lombardi Award and the Butkus Award, and he was twice selected as Iowa's defensive player of the game in 1985. He was selected as a first team All-Big Ten player for the third consecutive year, and for the second consecutive year, Larry Station was a consensus first team All-American. He was also chosen as an academic All-American for the second straight year and won Iowa's Scholastic Achievement Award.
Station had 492 career tackles, the most in Hawkeye history, but he is best remembered for one: his game-saving tackle of running back Jamie Morris in Iowa's 1985 game against Michigan. The game was one of the most anticipated in school history, as Iowa was ranked #1 in the Associated Press poll, while Michigan was ranked #2. Michigan held a 10-9 lead with just minutes left on the clock at Kinnick Stadium, when the Wolverines faced third down and two yards for a first down. Station anticipated the handoff to Morris and reacted with lightning speed, dropping Morris for a two yard loss. The Wolverines were forced to punt, and Iowa kicker Rob Houghtlin kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired to give Iowa a cherished 12-10 victory.
Read more about this topic: Larry Station
Famous quotes containing the words college and/or career:
“Love begins like a triolet and ends like a college yell.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)