Just two retired football numbers at Iowa, and that’s OK

I don't listen to coaches' call-in radio shows for a simmple reason: Life is way too short.

But The Gazette's Marc Morehouse does when Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz has his Wednesday show, because Morehouse is a faithful beat writer and there sometimes are nuggets of news and interesting opinion sprinkled in with ... well, with the rest of the show.

During Wednesday's program, Morehouse tweeted this:

This week will be Ed Podolak's 400th broadcast in the Iowa radio booth. Retire his No. 14. Great player, a great broadcaster, all Iowa.

I understand the emotional pull behind the sentiment. Podolak wasn't just a standout player in the 1960s. His 400 games of broadcasting on top of his playing days adds up to a genuine one-of-a-kind Hawkeye.

But they don't retire numbers in college football at the same drop of a hat they seemingly do for lots of pro teams. The NBA's Utah Jazz, for instance, have nine retired numbers. They've only been in Salt Lake City since 1979. One of the numbers belongs to Mark Eaton. who never averaged 10 points a season in any of his 11 years with the Jazz.

Iowa has retired two football numbers: Nile Kinnick's 24 and Calvin Jones' 62. That's quite the contrast to Hawkeye basketball, which has nine numbers retired. They are B.J. Armstrong (10), Ronnie Lester (12), Carl Cain (21), Bill Seaberg (22), Bill Logan (31), Bill Schoof (33), Chris Street (40), Greg Stokes (41) and Sharm Scheurman (46).

You know all about Kinnick, I'm sure. Jones was twice a consensus All-American, and won the Outland Trophy in 1955.

Curious if Iowa was just stingy when it came to football, I looked at the rest of the Big Ten. The other players whose numbers have been retired:

Illinois:

Dick Butkus (50), Red Grange (77)

Michigan:

Tom Harmon (98), Ron Kramer (87), Bernie Oosterbaan (47), Gerald Ford (48), Francis, Albert and Alvin Wistert (11)

Penn State:

John Cappelletti (11)

Indiana:

Anthony Thompson (32)

Ohio State:

Les Horvath (22), Eddie George (27), Vic Janowicz (31), Howard 'Hopalong” Cassady (40), Archie Griffin (45), Chic Harley (47), Bill Willis (99)

Wisconsin:

Ron Dayne (33), Alan Ameche (35), Elroy Hirsch (40), Dave Schreiner (80), Allan Shafer (83), Pat Richter (88)

Michigan State:

John Hannah (46), Don Coleman (78), George Webster (90), Bubba Smith (95)

Minnesota:

Paul Giel (10), Sandy Stephens (15), Bruce Smith (54), Bronko Nagurski (72), Bobby Bell (78)

Nebraska:

Johnny Rodgers (20), Tom Novak (60), Bob Brown (64)

Rutgers:

Eric LeGrand (52)

Maryland:

Randy White (94), Bob Ward (28), Jack Scarbath (62)

Northwestern and Purdue:

None

So that's not a lot, and that's not a bad thing.

Troy Smith, Charles Woodson, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch won Heismans and don't have their numbers retired. There's no retired number for Bob Griese or Desmond Howard or Otto Graham or Dave Rimington. Maybe someday for one or all of them.

Last year, Iowa put nine names with their jersey numbers on the press box for all in Kinnick Stadium to see as a Wall of Fame, but those numbers aren't retired except for those of Kinnick and Jones. The other seven players are Aubrey Devine, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras, Gordon Locke, Chuck Long, Duke Slater and Larry Station.

To be included, players had to be either in the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame and the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame, or a member of one of the two Halls of Fame and a consensus All-American, or a two-time consensus All-American.

That's a pretty reasonable cutoff.

By the way, Iowa's Andre Tippett and Tim Dwight are on the 75-player ballot for the 2015 College Football Foundation Hall of Fame. Here's a story Morehouse wrote earlier this year about Tippett.