December 31, 2005: A photo I didn’t use so long ago of a fan-made sign at the ISU-TCU Houston Bowl. Remember the chaos at the end of the Nebraska-Michigan Alamo Bowl? Remember when instant replay in college football wasn’t a thing? Remember when Nebraska and Michigan were in different conferences? Remember when ISU and TCU were in different conferences?
The 2005 season was a barrel of what-ifs for Iowa State football. If the Cyclones had won any one of the three games lost in overtime, Dan McCarney would’ve given ISU its second eight-win regular season since Earle Bruce and the sacrificial-lamb position against Texas in the Big 12 Championship. Unlike certain other fanbases with seven-win seasons, though, ISU fans were enthusiastic about a bowl game in warm weather.
I wrote a blog of sorts for the Register on the trip, and talked about visiting the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, Dealey Plaza, Texas’ and Texas A&M’s football stadiums, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and Galveston.
The Houston Bowl pitted the Cyclones against the one-loss TCU Horned Frogs, champions of the Mountain West Conference. ISU trailed much of the game and lost 27-24. The following year, McCarney was fired in a 4-8 season and ISU AD Jamie Pollard went after the defensive coordinator of an undefeated Texas team that won what turned out to be the last non-SEC national title for nearly a decade.
Back then, the Big 12 had 12 teams, the Pac-10 had 10, the Big Ten had 11, and we could make fun of a conference that couldn’t count. Things were simpler back then. In the decade since, ISU has hired three football coaches, undergone a total logo redesign/rebranding, gone 1-2 in bowl games, hasn’t had another seven-win regular season, and nearly got tossed into the Sarlacc pit relegated in the college athletics universe twice. TCU is now a fellow member of the Big 12.
But I’m still mostly taking the same-size pictures. The ones that aren’t blurry make the Houston Bowl trip seem like yesterday, even if it was (already) a decade ago.