USC goes to Big Ten media days this week in Indianapolis. Let’s get to know our new Big Ten football neighbors. Next up: the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Iowa has been a solid and nationally relevant program for most of the past 40 years. Hayden Fry revived the program in the early 1980s after two decades of irrelevance. Kirk Ferentz took the baton from Fry and has kept Iowa relevant the past 25 years, with a BCS bowl win nearly 15 years ago and a few other BCS/New Year’s Six bowl appearances. However, what matters most at Iowa and other Big Ten schools is a Rose Bowl win. Iowa won twice. One was in 1959 against Cal, but the first Granddaddy victory came in the 1957 game versus Oregon State. Iowa capped a one-loss season in the top two of the Associated Press Poll. Coach Forest Evashevski guided the Hawkeyes to the top tier of college football. The late 1950s was the historical high point for Iowa, even though Fry and Ferentz delivered the Hawkeyes a few elite seasons.
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