1923

October 20
All-American halfback “Red” Grange and the Illini defeated Iowa before a crowd of 30,000 Homecomers on Iowa Field. It was the first game Iowa lost in three years.

November 3
Iowa’s loss to Michigan came as a result of a “tainted touchdown.” After a Michigan punt slipped through the fingers of an Iowa player, John Schommer, one of the game officials that day, called “Free Ball! Onside!”

But the Iowa players apparently didn’t hear the call and let the ball roll into the end zone, where a Michigan man pounced on it for the winning touchdown! Final score: 9-3.

Iowa vs Knox, October 16, 1923. Iowa won the game, 44-3.

“I won’t forget leaving that field,” Schommer recalled years later. “Before I could get to the dressing room I was surrounded by a thousand men, most of them, I think, being townsfolk rather than students. Each of them was ready to swing the second punch, but none the first blow and with the protection of the Iowa squad, I got to safety.

“I began wondering if there would not be some way to slip out of town without going to the depot for the usual train, but when I got back to town after the game I found that Coach Howard Jones had sent members of his team to the hotel lobby, cigar stores, drug stores and places of meeting in every part of the city—to inform the crowds that I had made the proper decision and that he stood back of me. That’s the kind of a square shooter and solid sportsman Howard Jones is.”

According to 75 Years with the Fighting Hawkeyes, this freak play led to a change in the football rules.