Washington and Iowa football share a history: 2 great players who literally gave everything

There was a time when most Americans not only said democracy must be preserved, they backed up their words with actions however they could. …

The University of Washington and University of Iowa meet in football Saturday in Kinnick Stadium. The venue is named for Nile Kinnick, Iowa’s lone Heisman Trophy winner. When many hear the name “Kinnick,” they invariably think of the stadium first and the man second, if at all.

Washington and Iowa are linked by far more than their new cohabitation in the Big Ten Conference. They have met just six times and not since 1995. But their first confrontation had something that far transcended the Huskies’ 14-0 win in Seattle in 1937. Namely, two star players who, just a few years later, made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.

It was the first varsity game for Kinnick, an Iowan who won the Heisman two years later. Washington’s starting quarterback was senior Frank “Fritz” Waskowitz, one of many Chicagoans lured to Seattle to play for the Huskies.

Kinnick and Waskowitz were halfbacks. Both skillfully ran and passed the ball, and both were their teams’ capable punters. Kinnick also was a defensive ace. He is tied with Devon Mitchell for Iowa’s lead in career interceptions with 18.

To tell you about Waskowitz, I’m leaning heavily on a 2015 story by Maureen Donovan on Washington’s athletics website and a 2018 New York Times story about him.

Waskowitz contributed to the 1936 Huskies that went 7-0 in the Pacific Coast Conference and played in the Rose Bowl. The next year, he was a captain on a 7-2-2 team. He played a little pro football after that, then joined the U.S. Army Air Corps.

After his senior season, Kinnick attended the UI’s Law School while he was an Iowa assistant football coach. His speech at the 1939 Heisman ceremony was short, but is widely regarded as the most-eloquent of any given by the award’s 88 different winners.

“I thank God I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest and not on the battlefields of Europe,” Kinnick said. “I can speak confidently and positively that the players of this country would much more, much rather struggle and fight to win a Heisman award than a Croix de Guerre.”

Kinnick registered for the draft in 1940 as required at the time for American males between 21 and 45. He reported for induction in the U.S. Naval Reserve Air Corps three days before the Pearl Harbor attack.

Newspaper accounts reported Waskowitz was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 when it was bombed by a strike force of Japanese aircraft. He was said to have been badly burned, but recovered.

Waskowitz was sent to the South Pacific and flew more than 50 successful bomber missions. On Sept. 29, 1942, his plane was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire near New Guinea. A wing was ripped off. The plane slammed into the ocean.

First Lieutenant Frank Waskowitz’s remains were never recovered.

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Kinnick also trained to be a fighter pilot. In his final letter to his parents, he wrote “The task which lies ahead is adventure as well as duty, and I am anxious to get at it. I feel better in mind and body than I have for ten years and am quite certain I can meet the foe confident and unafraid.”

On June 2, 1943, Kinnick was on a training flight off the coast of Venezuela when his plane developed an oil leak. He couldn’t reach land or the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in the Gulf of Paria. He executed an emergency landing in the sea.

Ensign Nile Kinnick’s remains were never recovered.

Camp Waskowitz, located near North Bend, Wash, is a National Historic Preservation site. It is used for environmental education. It also hosts free summer camps for young people with neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy.

Iowa Stadium was renamed Kinnick Stadium in 1972, and a 16-foot statue of Kinnick was placed in front of the stadium in 2006. The subject isn’t dressed in football attire, but rather street clothes and a letterman’s jacket as he holds textbooks.

It’s over 80 years since the two football heroes from Washington and Iowa heroically gave their lives for their fellow Americans and the world. Let freedom ring, and keep ringing.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com