1904

The field goal was reduced in value from five to four points.

Following the season, the Western Conference adopted the “one semester rule,” barring freshmen from athletic participation until they “shall have been a student in the school for at least one semester.”

Given the difficulty some schools has in attracting men to the sport, the rule limiting participation seems odd. When the call went out for players to join Iowa’s team in September 1904, few men returned to the squad. Writing for The Iowa Alumnus later in the fall, John Chalmers bemoaned the disloyalty of students who failed to return to the glory of the gridiron: “Two had graduated, some had not returned, for reasons best known to themselves, while others had been lured away by artifice, and had gone in search of the golden fleece, and, at the same time, greater fame, until at last, we were almost persuaded that of the thirteen faithful who had been the Aarons and Hurs of Iowa’s gridiron glory, all bowed the knee to Baal, save the two who graduated and the faithful four who returned and are doing yeoman service for their alma mater.”

In spite of the report in the alumni magazine, new recruits pulled together with the few returning veterans to end the season with a 7-4 record.