Ohio State at Iowa

November 12, 1960

I'm fortunate to count among my friends, Tom Kirkendall. Tom is a long time Hawkeye fan and observer, who as a child had access to the Iowa program I can only dream about. I asked him to provide some remembrances of the 1960 game against Ohio State, which was Coach Forest Evashevski's last home game and he freely obliged. His work is below. Thank you, Big T. -- Kevin

In 1960, Iowa and Ohio State played an important football game in Iowa City. Although everyone knew it was an important game, few realized at the time that it marked the passing of the greatest era and the beginning of the darkest time in Iowa football history. That game also introduced a seven year old to one of college football's legends. I was that seven year old Hawkeye fan.

For me, the game was a big opportunity. My late father, who was a longtime University of Iowa professor of medicine, was a good friend of Dr. Robert Murphy, who was the Ohio State team physician. Consequently, after each Iowa-Ohio State game in Iowa City, my father routinely went down to the Ohio State locker room to visit Dr. Murphy. The 1960 game marked the first time that my father allowed me to tag along with him. However, for most Hawkeye fans, the 1960 Ohio State game took on far greater implications.

The game marked the final home football game for Iowa coaching legend Forest Evashevski. Evy had revived Iowa football fortunes that, with few exceptions like the 1939 Ironmen, had laid dormant since Howard Jones' great Hawkeye teams of the early 1920's. During the 1959 season, the notoriously difficult to get along with Evashevski had been instrumental in running off Iowa's athletic director Paul Brechler after a feud that caused a public controversy.

Accordingly, before the 1960 season, the Iowa Board in Control of Athletics yielded to Evy in his feud with Brechler, but required him to make a choice, either head football coach or athletic director, but not both. Accordingly, Evy announced that the 1960 season would be his last as football coach and that he would assume the Iowa athletic director position full-time. Evy's top young assistant, Jerry Burns, was his hand-picked successor, and most Iowa fans assumed that Iowa's success on the gridiron would continue under Burns seamlessly.

In many ways, the 1960 team was Evy's finest coaching product. Prior to the season, most fans expected the 1960 season to be a rebuilding one as Evy brought in young players to replace the many stars from his strong Iowa teams of the late 1950's. However, under Evy's tutelage, the young players bloomed quickly. By October, the Hawkeyes were ranked number 1 in both the AP and UPI wire service polls.

During the 1960 season, Iowa, Ohio State, and Minnesota were the dominant teams in the Big Ten, and Iowa faced big games with Minnesota and Ohio State during the first two weeks of November. During this era, the Big Ten only allowed its champion to go to a bowl game, so much was at stake in these games. Since Minnesota and Ohio State had each lost one Big Ten game and undefeated Iowa had been in the 1959 Rose Bowl game, the only way that Iowa could return to the Rose Bowl was to beat both Minnesota and Ohio State on successive weekends. Minnesota would go if it could beat Iowa and win its final game the following week, and Ohio State would go if it could beat Iowa and Minnesota lost either of its final games. Ohio State and Minnesota did not play each other that season.

The week before the Ohio State game, the undefeated Hawkeyes played once beaten Minnesota in Minneapolis. The Hawks did not play particularly well, but trailed only 13-10 midway through the fourth quarter. However, at that point, a Minnesota player recovered a backup Iowa halfback's fumble in the air and returned it 50 yards for a score. Then, Minnesota scored another cheap touchdown after another late Iowa fumble to secure a 27-10 over the No. 1 rated Hawks. The Hawks' Rose Bowl hopes were essentially gone after the Minnesota loss. But Ohio State needed to beat the Hawks the following week in Iowa to remain in the Rose Bowl hunt, so one would have thought that Ohio State had the clear edge in motivation coming into the game.

The Buckeyes came in ranked third in both polls. After the Minnesota loss, the Hawks had fallen to eighth. But Iowa was motivated to beat Ohio State for a very basic reason, Evy hated Woody Hayes and the feeling was quite mutual. Evy and Hayes had quickly become heated rivals when they began their head coaching careers at their respective schools in the early 50's, and the animosity grew steadily throughout the decade. For example, Hayes accused Evy of not mowing the grass on the Iowa Stadium field in order to slow down Ohio State's strong rushing attack. On one occasion at a Big Ten coaches' conference in Chicago, after Hayes and Evy traded insults, Evy climbed over a conference room table to attack Hayes and had to be restrained by the other coaches. The only blemish on the record of Evy's 1958 Big Ten championship team and 1959 Rose Bowl champion (arguably the greatest team in Iowa football history) was Ohio State's 38-28 victory over the Hawks at Iowa Stadium in what was generally considered the greatest display of offensive football in Big Ten history at the time. Evy considered that loss, along with the infamous 1953 Notre Dame game, as one of the most bitter of his coaching career.

The 1960 game started ominously for the Hawks as Ohio State took the opening drive and drove behind Tom Matte and fullback Bob Ferguson to about the Iowa 20, where the drive stalled. After taking over on downs, however, the Hawks served notice that they were ready to play. Behind QB Wilburn Hollis, the Hawks drove quickly to midfield and then fullback Joe Williams burst through the middle of the Ohio State line to score on a 50 yard TD run. Ohio State answered that TD quickly with a touchdown of their own, but then the Hawks literally exploded. In what my father considered to be the greatest 15 minutes he ever saw from a Hawkeye team, the Hawks reeled off 21 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 28-6 halftime lead.

But the game was not over. Ohio State opened the third quarter with a quick TD to close to 28-12, and the teams battled furiously for the rest of the quarter. Then, with Iowa backed up on its own 9-yard line, halfback Larry Ferguson (no relation to OSU's Bob) broke an electrifying 91-yard touchdown run to break the game open.

The Hawkeyes had pummeled the nation's third ranked team, 35-12. Ferguson had averaged over 20 yards per carry in the game. After the game, my dad and I made our way down to the Ohio State locker room to say hello to Dr. Murphy. Little did we know what we would find when the guard let us into the Ohio State locker room. As he let us in, we literally walked into one of Woody Hayes' absolute classic tirades. He was chewing his players up one side and down the other. I heard more profanities from Hayes in that several minute episode than I knew existed. "You pussy footed pipsqueaks let that g-damn s.o.b. Evashevski embarrass me in front of 60,000 people!" was one of the more gentle statements that Coach Hayes uttered to his cowering forces.

My father, who was Evy's physician and good friend, was not pleased that we had walked into this mess. Dr. Murphy came over to greet us. "Coach Hayes is not happy," he whispered in the understatement of the year. Hayes finally cooled off enough to leave the locker room to talk with the press. My father and Dr. Murphy exchanged pleasantries for awhile, I got a couple of chinstraps, and we left to meet the rest of my family for the drive home.

As we were walking, I observed to my father "Coach Hayes sure was angry." "Yes he was," replied my father. "And I'm sure glad the Hawks kicked his (butt)."

Woody Hayes told the press after that game that "Evashevski is the greatest offensive coach in the country." On the trip back to Columbus, Hayes told Dr. Murphy "I'm sure glad I don't have to play that s.o.b. Evashevski ever again."

The following week in Evy's final game, as the Hawkeyes clobbered Notre Dame 28-0 in South Bend. Iowa ended the year ranked second and third in the two wire service polls.

Ohio State finished ranked eighth and Minnesota, which went on to lose in the Rose Bowl to Washington, ended the season ranked No. 1 in both polls, as back in those days, the final polls were done before the bowl games.

During Evy's final five seasons, Iowa won 37 games, lost only 8, tied 2, won two Rose Bowl games and three Big Ten titles. During that span, the Hawks beat and tied Michigan, beat Ohio State three times, and hammered Notre Dame in four out of five games. Along with Bud Wilkinson's great Oklahoma teams, Iowa was one of the most dominant teams in college football during the latter half of the 1950's.

Two deeps:

Iowa starting lineup

LE - Felton Rogers 6-4, 184

LT - Charles Lee, Jr. 6-4, 231

LG - Sherwyn Thorson 6-0, 210

C - Bill Van Buren 6-3, 210

RG - Mark Manders 5-10, 219

RT - Alfred Hinton 6-1, 217

RE - Bill Perkins 6-2, 197

QB - Wilburn Hollis 6-2, 200

LH - Larry Ferguson 5-10, 182

RH - Jerry Mauren 5-10, 164

FB - Joe Williams 5-10, 191

Ohio State starting lineup

LE - Charles Bryant 6-1, 209

LT - Bob Vogel 6-5, 225

LG - Don Young 6-1, 214

C - Bill Armstrong 5-11, 195

RG - Gabe Hartman 5-9, 214

RT - Jim Tyrer 6-5, 248

RE - Bob Middleton 6-3, 214

QB - Tom Matte 6-0, 190

LH - Bill Wentz 5-10, 172

RH - Bob Klein 5-8, 170

FB - Bob Ferguson 6-0, 217