4 Cy-Hawk Myths: Legislation forced series renewal

IOWA CITY - From the point of inception through moments of contention, legends die hard in college football.

Like many sports rivalries, the Iowa-Iowa State series has witnessed its share of high-profile squabbles. The most prevalent myth lingers that state legislators forced the schools to play one another. Had the legislature had passed any such law, the Big Ten might have suspended Iowa for lack of faculty control.

While legislators exerted their influence, the reason Iowa and Iowa State restarted their football series is because of arbitrator's ruling in 1971. It ended a two-year impasse between the schools that was palpable and historic.

Iowa's board in control of athletics adopted policies in 1935, 1960, 1964 and 1965 to avoid facing Iowa State in any sporting event. Publicly, Iowa wanted to prevent disharmony among the state institutions. The real basis was high brow.

'They thought it was a mistake,” George Wine, Iowa's former sports information director, told The Gazette in 2007. 'You know the old story, we've got nothing to win and nothing to gain.”

Elected officials wanted the series resumed, and relations thawed between the schools. They scheduled freshman football and basketball games against one another in 1966 and 1967. Then on May 24, 1968, Iowa's athletics board authorized Athletics Director Forest Evashevski to contact Iowa State counterpart Clay Stapleton for a varsity football game in 1977, the first year Iowa had an open date. Stapleton happily accepted the offer.

'It's common knowledge here that we plan to accelerate our program,” Stapleton told The Gazette that day. 'I don't think there really is a great deal of difference between the two of us.

'I have always said that I didn't want to bring Iowa down to our level, but I did want to build our program up to Iowa's level. And I think we've done this.”

The original agreement was for two games in Iowa City in 1977 and 1978. Evashevski and Stapleton announced an extension on Oct. 20, 1969 for games in 1979 through 1982. Iowa would host the games because of stadium size. ISU's Clyde Williams Field seated just 35,000 fans at that time. But Evashevski also said if ISU got a new stadium, some games could shift to Ames.

The togetherness, however, quickly dissipated. Samuel Fahr, chairman of Iowa's athletics board, declared on Nov. 3, 1970, the four-year extension was unauthorized and unsigned. The school would wait until 1978 before authorizing any future meetings with Iowa State.

Before Fahr's announcement and one month after his resignation, Evashevski wrote a letter to ISU Athletic Council Chairman Bob Fellinger. The letter said: 'I feel badly that the contracts were never signed. I wrote Clay (Stapleton) that Sam Fahr held me off and wanted a lawyer to pass upon them.

'I kept telling Clay they were coming but could never get the OK from the board chairman. However, if there is any difficulty, call their hand because they authorized me to schedule all games.

'My word is given to Iowa State that the Iowa board approved all proposed games between the two state schools - and I will attest to this - as well as games in 1971 and 1972 if we didn't get a conference game for the 11th game.”

Fahr denied Evashevski's claim, telling The Gazette, 'At no time did we consent to the scheduling of more games than the 1977 and 1978 contests with Iowa State.”

There were few universal rules among leagues back then, and The Gazette columnist Gus Schrader highlighted some differences for Iowa's reluctance to play. Iowa State granted 45 football scholarships a year while Iowa could give only 30. ISU could red-shirt players; Iowa could not. ISU could offer its athletes $15 a month as a stipend, while Iowa could not. Iowa players needed to have a grade predictability - Schrader's words - of 1.7, while ISU needed only a 1.6. ISU fielded 10 assistant coaches, while Iowa had just seven.

Iowa's board of control turned the situation into a wildfire by announcing a four-game series with Nebraska beginning in 1979. If different rules between the in-state schools were an issue for an annual series, they certainly weren't a problem for Iowa scheduling four games against another Big Eight school. It infuriated ISU officials.

'I feel like these people, meaning the Iowa board in control of athletics, are morally, legally and ethically obligated to honor a six-year series with Iowa State,” Stapleton said in 1970.

Negotiations between the schools reached a stalemate. Instead of rendering a judgment, the state Board of Regents - by a 6-2 vote - hired a professional arbitrator on Feb. 11, 1971. Patrick J. Fisher of Indianapolis, a member of the American Arbitration Association, was tabbed to hear the case.

On April 23, 1971, Fisher ruled Iowa 'is obligated” to play the four-game series. Iowa State officials celebrated the ruling, while Iowa counterparts accepted the judgment.

'We went into arbitration with the thought that we were right,” said Robert Fellinger, president of ISU's athletics council told The Gazette afterward. 'We were not surprised at the outcome.

'Personally, I was very sorry that the situation had to go to arbitration. We would have preferred that the agreement could have been worked out between the two boards. Since it couldn't, we just took it down to the wire.”

Iowa played host to the first four games when the series renewed in 1977. Iowa State's current stadium, now known as Jack Trice Stadium, opened in 1975 with a capacity of 42,500. In 1981, Iowa State played host to the Hawkeyes for the first time since 1934.

Today, the schools celebrate their 38th renewal and have a contract through 2021. No annual state event is as highly anticipated as the Iowa-Iowa State football game.

'Everywhere I go I see ‘House Divided' signs with husband and wife where one's a Hawkeye and the other's a Cyclone fan,” Iowa State linebacker Jevohn Miller said this week. 'Yeah, it's a huge rivalry but it brings the state together.”

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