1924

Coach Howard Jones

February 29
Howard Jones resigned because of unresolvable conflict with the Board in Control of Athletics. The board wanted to combine intercollegiate athletics and physical education in an effort to create a unit with greater academic standing. Jones was opposed.

March 13
Dr. Paul Belting assumed his duties as athletic director. He was charged with consolidating men’s and women’s physical education into one department and he needed to hire a football coach.

March 25
At the end of the month in which Iowa almost succeeded in luring Knute Rockne away from Notre Dame, the news leaked out and Rockne fired off this telegram to Iowa President Walter Jessup:

“BELTING AND FIESLER [medical supervisor in athletics and
a key negotiator in the affair] BOTH PROMISED ABSOLUTELY
NO PUBLICITY. MY DUTY NOW LIES HERE. FURTHER
DISCUSSION IS USELESS. I VOLUNTARILY SIGNED NEW
TEN YEAR AGREEMENT ON SAME TERMS AS PAST AND
WHOLE MATTER IS NOW CLOSED. GOOD LUCK.

K.K. Rockne"

 

In April, Burt Ingwersen, an Iowa native who graduated from the University of Illinois, signed a three-year contract to coach Iowa football. Though alumni weren't happy with the appointment, Ingwersen went on to complete eight seasons at Iowa, recording only two losing seasons.

June 11
Major John Griffith, commissioner of the Big Ten, wrote to Dr. Belting, saying that “alumni in some schools had been unduly active in aiding athletes…. I am convinced that quite a number of the Iowa alumni were asked to subscribe to a fund which was used in helping athletes to make their way through a state university.” The commissioner said he was also convinced that Iowa’s athletic authorities had had nothing to do with such practices, but advised that “most of the directors have sent letters to their alumni requesting that they play the game according to the rules.”

The issue of recruiting, coupled with alumni dissatisfaction with Coach Ingwersen, would eventually lead to Iowa’s suspension from the Big Ten.

Iowa vs Lawrence, October 18, 1924. Iowa won, 13-5.

1924
“Fewer men reported for football at Iowa than at any other school in the Conference,” the Hawkeye noted in its summation of the 1924 season. “The majority of the men had classes until four o’clock and were unable to be on the field until four thirty. Darkness came at about five. Thus, most of the practice was carried on with the ‘ghost ball’ in light supplied by giant arc lamps.”