On November 10, 1917, months after the United States entered World War I, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts hosted Kansas State Agricultural College for a football game. It was Homecoming, and ISU won, 10-7. The following year, 12 days after the Armistice, the two teams played again — one of only three games that year for ISC and one of five for KSAC because of the Spanish Flu epidemic.
Abbreviated or nonexistent 1918 seasons, along with World War II, interrupted many long-term college football series (including Kansas-Missouri). But with that 1918 game, Iowa State and Kansas State kept a nascent streak alive and this year mark their 100th consecutive — and 100th overall — game between each other. With Nebraska, Missouri, and Texas A&M stabbing their mates in the back switching conferences, ISU-KSU is now the sixth-longest consecutive series in Division I-A, ahead of Michigan-Ohio State and Iowa-Minnesota by one year.
Since the formation of the Big 12, Iowa State nearly always played Big 12 South or southern teams for Homecoming (why yes, that does seem suspicious), with the exceptions of Missouri (1998), Kansas (2011), and Toledo (2014). That Kansas game is the last to have a 1 PM kickoff and not be televised.
Here’s a neat timeline that was compiled for Iowa State’s 100th Homecoming in 2011.
Bill Snyder was not there for that first meeting between Midwest land-grant schools in 1917, but he’s been around for a whole lot of them since. Going into Saturday’s game, ISU only leads the series by three games and has only won four times in a quarter-century.