Part 2: The Restoration of Nile Kinnick's 1939 Walter Camp Trophy

In Part 1 of this story, Iowa Graduate Assistant Josh Larsen found Nile Kinnick's 1939 Walter Camp Trophy in the basement of Carver Hawkeye Arena. After finding the trophy, Josh took it to Dale Arens at the Iowa Hall of Fame to have it restored. That is where Part 1 ended. This is where Part 2 begins:

Once the trophy was given to Dale it was then passed into the hands of Mark Wilson.

One month after retiring from a 30 year teaching career in the Iowa City Community School District, mark received a phone call that would change his retirement plans. The call came from Robert Stein, National Iowa Varsity Club President and Hawkeye Ambassadors' Coordinator. Mark was asked if he was interested in becoming a volunteer ambassador for the Hall of Fame.

“Having grown up and been a part of the Iowa City community my entire life, I was naturally thrilled to accept the position,” Wilson said.

Mark was involved in several projects and activities with the Hall of Fame but to him none was more challenging or exciting than the restoration of the Walter Camp Trophy. Wilson explained, “His (Kinnick) tremendous record-breaking exploits during the Ironmen season were truly remarkable for a student athlete of his size and stature.”

When Mark received the trophy it was in terrible shape. The trophy was 26 inches high and many pieces were broken off but all of the parts were accounted for. Very remarkable considering the 63 years of mishandling, moving, storage and who knows where the trophy had been. The trophy was very discolored and the brass plate was impossible to read.

There were 5 separate statuettes on the trophy but all had been broken off at the ankles. At one time it appeared that someone had attempted to place rods in the trophy to hold the statues up but it looked very cheap and unprofessional. Mark also got it looked at by a trophy shop and the repair estimate was outrageous. Sure enough, Mark decided to take on the project pf restoring the trophy himself.

Nile Kinnick

Now, Mark had no experience with such delicate pieces of history but h knew that something had to be done to restore a piece of Iowa Hawkeye history. So if not anyone else, then why not him.

MArk gathered up all of the pieces and transported them to his home in Iowa City. Mark took a few weeks to determine exactly how he would undertake the grueling process of restoring the trophy. He chose his living room as his workshop, which did not leave his wife too thrilled, but she understood the importance of the task.

Once beginning the project Mark used J-B Weld to bond together the upper and lower pieces of the five statues. This sounds easy enough but where the statues were broken were clean, horizontal breaks.Also, the weld took atleast 24 hours to bond and many times the statues would move. Mark had to constantly watch the statues, so if it did move he could replace them and start the process all over again.

“At one point I sat in a corner of the house, holding the statues tightly, but once my arms started to shake I knew that wouldn't work,” Mark said.

He finally decided to use a compilation of things from around the house to hold the statues in place. A small vice, bookends, magazines, notepads, knick-knacks and even a screwdriver were used to secure the trophy in it's drying stage.

Now that the statue was together and dry Mark started to remove the excess weld from the statues where he had put it back together. Also, he began the antiquing process by using his fingers to rub in a gold leaf metallic finish on each statue. Once all was completed Mark compared the look of the trophy to a photo he had of Nile Kinnick sitting next to his Heisman and Walter Camp trophies. In his opinion, they looked similar.

The day finally came to transport the statue from his home back to the Hall of Fame. While transporting, the statue was leaned against the seat of Mark's car. Due to the pressure and the weight, one of the statues broke off where Mark had welded it. Mark was sick.

After 3 months of painstaking work, Mark had to start all over again for that one statue. Mark used the same process as he did the first time and the statue was again complete. Mark though took every precaution. “I had signs all over the house telling people to not slam doors and to walk gently.” He did not want to start the process over again.

This time, Mark took the trophy back to the Iowa Hall of Fame with the assistance of Dale Arens. They had originally thought of maybe needing a police escort, but they realized that was probably going a little too far.

The 1939 Nile Kinnick Walter Camp Trophy now sits on the 2nd floor of the Iowa Hawkeye Hall of Fame. Right next to several photos of Kinnick, the Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp trophy sits one other name: Mark D. Wilson.

1939 Walter Camp Trophy

Joseph Larsen

Community Contributor