1913

January 30
The Iowa Athletic Board rescinded the two-sport rule. “This means that Iowa will be able to compete with other universities in the conference on practically an even basis,” reported The Iowa Alumnus. “No other university in the west has adopted this ‘limitation policy’, and under these conditions Iowa has been handicapped.”

September 10
The Iowa Alumni Athletic Association was incorporated to advance clean and successful athletics. Another goal was to encourage more Iowa athletes to stay within the state and attend S.U.I.

September 18
Coach Jesse Hawley, fresh from Chicago, where he managed a bond department in a large investment firm during the off-season, returned to town at the wheel of “a little red racing car”—“sputtering, hurtling along the River to River Road—a cloud of dust in its wake…. Thus the Iowa football season was ushered in.”

1913
A rule change removed more of the “foot” from football. Legislation that formerly allowed the ball to be passed from center “by one quick continuous motion of the hands or of the foot” was amended. Henceforth, only the hand could be used.

November
Trying to explain “Why We Like Football,” Iowa Professor G.T.W. Patrick wrote that “the peculiar attractiveness of football is due in some measure to the joy of rude personal encounter, face to face opposition of two hostile forces, swift flight and pursuit, tackling and dodging, kicking and catching the ball, and that the explanation of these unique pleasures must rest upon anthropological grounds. The game is more sport because the activities are more primitive.”

November 15
SHOWTIME!
At Iowa’s second Homecoming celebration, festivities included “a moving picture operator and a special photographer with a Cirkut camera” who took “views of the gridiron and the crowded stands surrounding the field.” The crowd that day numbered 8,300.

Although “Ames outweighed Iowa almost ten pounds to a man,” the alumni magazine proudly noted that “the Old Gold crushed the Cardinal with a display of the fierce, deadly, shifty attack…and there is no question of the supremacy of Iowa.” Final score: 45-7.

That night, at the university talent show produced at the Englert Theatre, the crowd enjoyed a Spanish sword dance performed by four coeds, dramatic sketches, a quartet performing a collection of Iowa-Ames songs, and the presentation of fancy ballroom steps—judged the hit of the evening.

At the end of the program, “pictures showing plays in the afternoon game were thrown on the screen.” One of the photographers responsible for the remarkable slide show was Fred Kent.

Iowa fans were encouraged to revel in their team’s victory yet a little longer. The week after the game, the public was invited to see 1,000 feet of “moving pictures” of the game. It was the first time such technology had recorded an Iowa athletic event.

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