July 15, 2008: Dedication plaque at one of the many Memorial Stadiums of the Midwest. The stadium was undergoing a massive expansion at the time of this photo. Unfortunately, not even Lovie Smith’s beard has enough magic to make the Illini a good team in the 2010s.
The Iowa Hawkeyes look destined to repeat the familiarity, the humility, the tragedy of yet another eight-win football season. (Eventually, there will be enough people who don’t remember the ’60s and ’70s to declare this isn’t good enough.) Their last two games will be against the bottom-feeders of the Big Ten West, Illinois and Nebraska.*
When Iowa goes to Champaign this weekend, it will be the 100th time the Hawkeyes have played a football game in the Land of Lincoln.
- The great bulk of those are the ones you expect: Illinois (15-20), Northwestern (23-16-3), and Western Conference founding member Chicago (3-9-2).
- Two wins at Soldier Field against Northern Illinois, 2007 and 2012, which are the closest Iowa has ever gotten to a home-and-home with a non-power-conference team in the modern era. (There was a 2-for-1 with Miami of Ohio near the start of the Ferentz years.)
- Losses in 1917 and 1943 against Great Lakes Naval Training Academy
- A 0-0 tie, and 33-0 win, at Knox College in Galesburg in 1898 and 1899
- Another 1898 game, a 15-11 loss at Rush College (now Rush University)
- And, finally, a 50-0 Thanksgiving Day shutout loss in 1901 in Chicago to Michigan, who five weeks later beat Stanford so badly in the first Rose Bowl that the game wasn’t held for years afterward.
- Total going into Saturday: 44-49-6.
Close behind is Indiana (40-54-4). Iowa played its 97th and 98th games in the state this year, but that’s an aberration. Purdue is in the West but Indiana isn’t, so there will not be a trip to the state every year. Third place, for now, is Michigan (57, 18-35-4), but it will lose that position in 2024 when Iowa plays at Minnesota.
*Remember, Nebraska fans: You asked for this. You begged for this. You demanded this.