HomeIowa SportsBest Iowa Hawkeyes Football Bowl Games in History

Best Iowa Hawkeyes Football Bowl Games in History

Robert Bell

Oct 19, 2022

5 min read

With 34 bowl appearances and a 17-16-1 record to date, the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football team has taken part in some memorable games of this type throughout its history.

What are a few of the best bowl games involving Iowa for us to look back over and savor?

1959 – The Rose Bowl, Iowa Hawkeyes 38, California Golden Bears 12

1959 started with this January 1 game at the Rose Bowl venue in Pasadena. This was Iowa’s second Rose Bowl in just 3 years and it featured what was arguably the best Hawkeyes team in the program’s history. An 8-1-1 record won them the national title and this Iowa team was regarded as the best college football team in the US, winning the Grantland Rice Trophy to prove it.

All-American quarterback Randy Duncan led a fast, relentless rushing attack that blew the Golden Bears away from start to finish. Among the highlights that Hawkeyes fans still recall to this day, the spectacular 81-yard touchdown by Bob Jeter during the third quarter put Iowa out of sight and is one of the team’s most fondly recorded plays of all time.

This Iowa performance was so dominant that they set a number of Rose Bowl records on their way to winning this game. These records include the most rushing yards racked up by a team, with 429. They also got the most total yards, with 516. Jeter’s 194 rushing yards was the most achieved by a single player in a Rose Bowl and his 81-yard run was also the longest ever made.

#RoseBowl pic.twitter.com/qQGCiwOcvJ

— The Iowa Hawkeyes (@TheIowaHawkeyes) December 8, 2015

1984 – The Freedom Bowl, Iowa Hawkeyes 55, Texas Longhorns 17

Iowa coach Hayden Fry was delighted with this win which can be called the biggest win of his career, pointing out that as a Texas native it was his most meaningful victory. More importantly, it also seemed to set up the Hawkeyes for the 1985 season where they won the Big Ten title outright but lost the Rose Bowl in a 45-28 defeat to UCLA.

The 1984 Freedom Bowl, was played at Anaheim Stadium in California on December 26. Iowa has finished back in 4th place in the Big Ten Conference, with Ohio State winning the title ahead of Illinois and Purdue, who tied for 2nd place. However, this was their 4^th bowl appearance in a row, and they would go on to compete in 4 more in the rest of the decade.

Chuck Long was the junior quarterback who stole the show with 461 passing yards and six touchdowns in a performance that set a string of new Hawkeyes records. No wonder he opens the list of best Iowa football players of all time.

Iowa was in control for virtually the full game, with a 24-17 halftime lead that was extended in the third quarter where they racked up 31 points without reply.

Owen Gill led the way in the rushing statistics with 17 carries that added up to a total of 61 yards. In terms of the best receivers, Robert Smith got 4 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown, while Bill Happel also scored a TD from 8 catches and 104 yards.

1986 – The Holiday Bowl, Iowa Hawkeyes 39, San Diego State Aztecs 38

This game took place on December 30 and gave us a thrilling end to 1985. Played at the Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, it pitched in the Hawkeyes against the State Aztecs. It started with Iowa taking the lead thanks to a 5-yard touchdown from Rick Bayless before San Diego clawed it back and then took a 14-7 lead.

However, QB Mark Vlasic scored a TD before San Diego again pulled into the lead. When the State Aztecs extended their lead to 28-13, things looked bleak for the Hawkeyes but they fought back and then took the lead as the game swung one way and then the other.

The drama continued right until the very end, with San Diego taking a 38-36 lead in the last minute. However, Iowa returned the kickoff 48 yards through Kevin Harmon and kicker Rob Houghtlin scored a 41-yard field goal on the final play to make the final result 39-38 to the Hawkeyes.

2004 – The Outback Bowl, Iowa Hawkeyes 37, Florida Gators 17

2004 started with a bang, with the Outback Bowl taking place on January 1. This came a year after the Hawkeyes has lost 38-17 to the USC Trojans in the 2003 Orange Bowl, so Iowa fans were looking for a taste of victory. Just the like the previous year’s game, the Outback Bowl took place in Florida, this time at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

This was the 18^th playing of the Outback Bowl and the Gators took the lead early on thanks to a 70-yard TD pass that was thrown from quarterback Chris Leak to wide receiver Kelvin Kight. However, the experienced Hawkeyes team came right back into the game with a 3-yard pass from QB Nathan Chandler to wide receiver Maurice Brown. This took the score to 7-7.

The second quarter saw Iowa move into a commanding lead of 20-7 thanks to a field goal, a rushing touchdown by Chandler, and another field goal from Nate Kaeding. The third quarter saw a Matt Melloy touchdown and which was followed by Fred Russell’s touchdown and another field goal. A TD from Dallas Baker ended the scoring.

The MVP award went to Russell, as he managed 21 carries for a total of 150 yards as well as scoring the TD that virtually ended the game as a contest.

2005 – The Capital One Bowl (Citrus Bowl), Iowa Hawkeyes 30, LSU Tigers 25

January 1, 2005. The date brought us a memorable bowl game that included the famous Hawkeyes play that fans refer to as the ‘The Catch’, which is one of the most fondly remembered Iowa plays in their history. The setting for this postseason game was the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, and the LSU Tigers were widely regarded as favorites going into it.

Before the game, a lot of talks were about the future of the coaches, with some people thinking that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz could be going to the NFL soon although this turned out to not be the case. Over 70,000 fans watched, in what was the first-ever meeting between the Hawkeyes and the Tigers.

Iowa came into this game with a 9-2 record and had finished the regular season as the joint Big Ten champions with the Michigan Wolverines. Iowa QB Drew Tate was the bowl’s MVP and his 57-yard pass to Clinton Solomon started the scoring before LSU hit back with a couple of field goals. Sean Considine and Marques Simmons added TDs, with Kyle Schlicher scoring a field goal too.

LSU attempted to fight back and it looked like they’d snatched the win when they took a 25-24 lead right at the end. With a little more than 10 seconds left in the last quarter, Tate delivered a 56-yard touchdown pass to Warren Holloway, who hadn’t yet scored a touchdown in his Hawkeyes career until that point. Holloway grabbed the ball on the 15-yard line and took it over the line just as the clock hit zero.

2019 – The Outback Bowl, Mississippi State Bulldogs 22, Iowa Hawkeyes 27

The 33^rd Outback Bowl was played in the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa and it was the last bowl won by the Hawkeyes, as they lost the 2022 Citrus Bowl. It was played on January 1, following a season where the Hawkeyes ended with an overall 8-4 record, and was the 6^th time that coach Kirk Ferentz had taken his team to the Outback Bowl.

Iowa had never played the Mississippi State Bulldogs before, and they also had an 8-4 record going into it. Mississippi took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a couple of field goals, but in the second quarter Iowa cut the difference with a Miguel Recinos field goal.

A 75-yard TD pass from Nate Stanley to Nick Easley gave the Hawkeyes the lead for the first time and this was followed by a 15-yard pass to Ihmir Smith-Marsette giving them another touchdown to extend the lead.

The Bulldogs came back with a couple of touchdowns of their own but then the Hawkeyes got another touchdown through an 8-yard pass from Stanley to Nick Easley. Both teams finished the scoring with field goals to give a final score of 27-22.

QB Stanley ended the Outback Bowl with 213 yards and 3 TDs while Toren Young led the rushing stats with 3 carries for 7 yards. Nick Easley was top in terms of receiving, having 8 receptions for a total of 104 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

Last Bowl For The Hawkeyes

The last bowl appearance for Iowa came in the 2022 Citrus Bowl, with their first-ever meeting with the Kentucky Wildcats. Played in December at the Camping World Stadium in Orland, it was Iowa’s second Citrus Bowl following on from the 2005 win we looked at earlier.

They lost 20-17, with Kentucky scoring a late touchdown in the 4^th quarter to seal the victory.