1897

Scoring values changed for the first time. The value of a touchdown increased from four to five points, while a successful goal or point after touchdown was reduced to one point from two. Field goals continued to count for five points and safeties were worth two.

Though many spectators gloried in a rowdy game of football, the violence of the game came under attack. An alumnus asked to share reminiscences for the 1897 edition of the Hawkeye referred to the game as “that barbarism of the ages—foot ball.”

And a Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial included this comment about the game: “The Iowa University football captain is against any changes in the rules, declaring the game is not brutal as played now. That fellow ought to be pulled out of college and used as a bumping post in some railway yard.”

Nonetheless, the Hawkeye noted that “this is without a doubt the most popular branch of our sports. Everyone likes a foot ball game. The faculty go to show their patriotism; the students find an extra fifty cents in some corner of their pocket and every one attends the game.”