Almost gone, not forgotten: Iowa’s Ironmen

IOWA CITY - Few teams in Iowa's 125 years of football have attained legendary status without a Rose Bowl appearance.

But before the Big Ten sent its champion to Pasadena, one Iowa team stands tall. In 1939 - 75 years ago - Iowa produced one of its greatest teams, complete with Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and epic victories immortalized in bronze. The players were close, they were thrifty and they were tough. So durable, in fact, they earned the nickname 'Ironmen.”

Hank Vollenweider was there for every snap. As Iowa's lone surviving member from that season, Vollenweider, now 93, recalls the bond his teammates formed in their playing days and then later in life. Vollenweider, who plans to attend Saturday game against Ball State, was a sophomore reserve fullback who had one sterling moment in that season. But his memories linger well beyond the playing field.

'It was a team: all in one, everybody together,” said Vollenweider, who now lives in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Little was expected from the 1939 Hawkeyes, one year removed from a 1-6-1 record. The 1938 version totaled just three points in its final five games. Then Dr. Eddie Anderson took over in 1939 and whipped the team into shape.

In the opener against South Dakota, Nile Kinnick scored the game's first three touchdowns on runs of 65, 4 and 13 yards, respectively. Kinnick then completed a 63-yard touchdown pass to halfback Russell Busk for a 28-0 lead.

In the second half, Vollenweider, then a sophomore who ran track as a freshman, was inserted on kickoff return. Vollenweider received the kickoff and raced up the field 92 yards for another touchdown.

'I, of course, was at the bottom of the barrel,” Vollenweider said. 'The first game with South Dakota, coach put me in to receive the kickoff and I was scared. I didn't know what to do but run, and I did. That was my big dance that I had with the '39 team.”

By game's end, Kinnick had rushed for three touchdowns, thrown for two and drop-kicked five extra points in a 41-0 victory. The following week against Indiana, Iowa rallied from a 29-20 fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Hoosiers 32-29. Kinnick passed for three scores to All-American end Erwin Prasse, including the final touchdown with five minutes left. Kinnick also rushed for a touchdown and set a still-standing Big Ten record that day with 201 punt return yards.

Iowa suffered its only loss that season, 27-7, at Michigan, then rallied to beat Wisconsin 19-13 in Madison. The Hawkeyes registered two safeties - both of which came on blocked punts from Mike Enich - in a 4-0 win at Purdue. Iowa improved to 4-1, the most wins in an Iowa season since 1935, and the Hawkeyes did it with few substitutions.

Eleven players played the entire game at least once. Kinnick and Enich both played every minute of six games. Four others played every snap of at least three games. Iowa archives note the team used between 14 and 17 players a game, far fewer than the 26 to 31 most opponents shuffled in the lineup.

'If a player left the game, he couldn't go back in the same quarter,” Vollenweider said. 'So they stayed in the game because they wanted to play. I don't blame them. I was one of the subs, and unless they called up the benchwarmers, those days you had to sit on the bench. You couldn't wander around, you couldn't stand up. You had to sit on the bench if we weren't playing.”

Kinnick's theatrics were superb, and the Ironmen became a story nationally. But the Hawkeyes' next two games would either derail their status or enhance it. Iowa faced Notre Dame and Minnesota back-to-back at home. Unbeaten Notre Dame carried a high profile, and Minnesota was the nation's dominant team of the 1930s and early 1940s.

'A win over Minnesota was the season in those days,” said longtime Iowa broadcaster Bob Brooks, who watched games 1939 from the Iowa Stadium knothole section. 'Boy there weren't many of them.”

Iowa met Notre Dame on Nov. 11, 1939. In the second quarter, Kinnick intercepted a pass and returned it 23 yards. On the next play, Notre Dame's Steve Sitko picked off Kinnick in his end zone and returned the ball to the 5-yard line. Sitko fumbled, and Iowa recovered. Three plays later, Kinnick blasted in over the left side from the 4-yard line to take the lead. Kinnick provided the drop kick for an extra point, and Iowa led 7-0.

Notre Dame rallied with a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but Iowa held on for a 7-6 win. Kinnick set the Iowa record for punts (16) and punt yardage (731) that day. That mark remains intact.

'That was fantastic,” Vollenweider said. 'We won. Notre Dame changed the color of their jerseys of the second half (from blue to green), but it didn't do them any good.”

One week later the Hawkeyes then battled their rival Minnesota before a sellout crowd at Iowa Stadium. Iowa trailed the Gophers, who had won nine straight in the series, 9-0 in the fourth quarter. Kinnick moved the Hawkeyes down the field 80 yards in four plays, culminating in a 45-yard touchdown pass to Prasse to bring Iowa within 9-7. With four minutes left, Iowa took over at its 21. A 17-yard pass, a 15-yard penalty and runs of 7 and 10 yards moved the ball to Minnesota's 28. Then Kinnick dropped back and lofted a pass to fullback Bill Green - past Minnesota defensive back and Davenport native Sonny Franck - for a score to put Iowa ahead 13-9. Green was mobbed in the end zone by Iowa fans.

The Gophers rallied near midfield but Kinnick secured the win with an interception inside of a minute. According to the Iowa archive, one Chicago writer's story began, 'Nile Kinnick 13, Minnesota 9; tersely that tells the story of the most spectacular football game in modern Big Ten history.”

Minnesota lineman Ed Lechner was a sophomore and played that day.

'Nile Kinnick was an All-American and Heisman Trophy winner,” said Lechner, who still lives in the Twin Cities. 'We made him that day.”

Kinnick became a household name. By year's end, he led the nation in interceptions (eight) and kickoff return yardage (377). In conference play, Kinnick paced the Big Ten with 619 yards and completed the season's longest pass of 71 yards. Along with his passing and punting prowess, Kinnick led Iowa in rushing yards (374) and extra points.

'The most amazing thing about that game and the Notre Dame game was they came up back-to-back,” Brooks said. 'In a 10-day period, with none of today's communication, that Kinnick's name was good enough to go across the country to get him the Heisman Trophy was absolutely remarkable.”

Kinnick, who also was the student body president, claimed the Heisman and delivered perhaps the most eloquent acceptance speech in trophy history. Iowa replays that speech on its video board before the 'Star-Spangled Bannner” at every home game.

'Nile was a person who was above everybody,” Vollenweider said. 'He was gentleman. He was smart, intelligent, and, of course, two years older than I was.

'I can't say anything bad about Nile. He was a gentleman all the way through, and on the football field, when I was with him playing, every weekend he'd make the plays that they called.”

Iowa ended that year tying Northwestern 7-7. The teams' statistics belied the 6-1-1 record. Iowa registered fewer first downs (69-82) and points (82-85) that its Big Ten opponents. Outside of the South Dakota win, Iowa's average victory margin was 3.6 points.

The team remained close after the season. Every coach and letterwinner but one (physical disability) fought in World War II. Kinnick, of course, died in a Naval plane crash off the coast of Venezuela on June 2, 1943. Reserve end Jens Norgaard was a Lt. Colonel in the Army Air Force and was among the first to bomb Normandy beachheads on D-Day. Green was a Navy lieutenant torpedo bomber in the Pacific. Anderson became a major in the Army Medical Corps in England. Counting the coaching staff, 21 of the 26 veterans were officers.

Vollenweider graduated from Iowa in 1942 and eight days later entered the Coast Guard. He served four years, then returned to Iowa and worked for Lenox Industries until his retirement. Members of the ‘39 team met every five years to attend games in Iowa City.

'I remember the fellas that did play,” Vollenweider said. 'We were really a bunch of fellas that went through the Depression trying to get an education. In the summertime we worked for our tuition on campus, I think it was 35 cents an hour. It got us an education, and that's what we were more interested in.”

Saturday at Kinnick Stadium, Iowa celebrates its letterwinners and recognizes the 75th anniversary of one of its greatest teams. Vollenweider shrugged at the notion his group was special. His modesty suggests otherwise.

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com