The last time Iowa played in a winner-take-all game for the Rose Bowl ...

It was at Ohio State. The winner went on to meet Oregon in the Rose Bowl, just as the winner of Saturday's Iowa-Ohio State game may do.

El_Simbolo, who has posted here at the Hlog, led me to the details. He wrote:

The last time Iowa entered a game where the winner of that game would clinch the Rose Bowl was Nov 16, 1957.

Going into the game OSU was 5-0 in conference, Iowa was 4-0-1, and MSU was 4-1. If Iowa won the game they'd finish 5-0-1 and the best OSU could finish would be 6-1 and best MSU could finish would be 5-1. If OSU won the worst they could finish would have been 6-1, Iowa would finish 4-1-1, and the best MSU could finish would be 5-1.

I don't know details of the game, but OSU won in Columbus 17-13 (then beat Michigan in a game that "didn't matter") then beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Whoa, spooky. So like I said, let's reverse history and have Iowa beat the Ducks this year!

Iowa's Rose Bowl clinchers in 1958, 1981 and 1985 weren't winner-take-all affairs. The Hawkeyes locked up their Rose Bowl entry in 1990 on the final day of the regular-season despite losing at Minnesota. And they haven't been to Pasadena since.

Their Big Ten tie with Ohio State in 2002 came when both won all eight league games. They didn't face each other. In 2004, Iowa secured a tie for the title with Michigan when it beat Wisconsin in the final game.

Oh, one more thing about Nov. 16, 1957:

It was the day I was born, right here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Hmmm, I hope this doesn't mean I come to some sort of untimely end on Saturday. Great. Now I've got that to worry about on top of making deadline.

If you want to see a video about Iowa's 1956 Big Ten-title season and its subsequent Rose Bowl win over Oregon State, this is long and kind of fascinating. The quality of the film is surprisingly good. To go straight to the Rose Bowl, fast-forward to the 25:45 mark.