1943
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June 1
FALLEN HEROES
Nile Clarke Kinnick, who was called to active duty in the Naval Air Corps
Reserve three days before the bombing of Pearl harbor, wrote in his diary
for the last time. “How I wish I could sing and play the piano,” he
confided.
The next day, Ensign Kinnick was lost at sea during a routine practice
flight between Trinidad and Venezuela. Neither he nor his plane was ever
found.
Within a few months after Kinnick’s death, President Virgil Hancher
proposed several options as a suitable memorial for the young man who
gained fame as the “Cornbelt Comet.” Though the student opinion
was that the stadium should be named in his honor, Kinnick’s parents
requested that “if the Stadium is rededicated that it be in the
names of all men and women of the University who made the last sacrifice
in the war.”
In 1945, a scholarship memorial in honor of all Iowa men who died during
World War II was established to aid in the education of Iowa’s
scholar-athletes. By the spring of 1946, over $100,000 had been contributed
to what was called the Kinnick fund. To date, 103 young people have been
awarded the Kinnick Scholarship, in memory not only of the famous Iron
Man, but also Sgt. Burdell Gilleard, who died in the Philippines in 1944;
Lt. Bush Lamb, who was killed in North Africa in 1942; and Lt. Robert
Yelton, who lost his life in France in 1945.
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Coach Edward P. “Slip” Madigan
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1943
A RAGTAG TEAM AND “THE LADIES FROM HELL”
Edward P. “Slip” Madigan, coach of the famed Galloping Gaels
of St. Mary’s College of California, took Anderson’s place
as head coach. During his two years with the Hawkeyes, the team won only
two games, the first coming on November 20,1943 against Nebraska—and
on Madigan’s birthday.
Remembering the trails of fielding a team during the war, Tait Cummins,
longtime dean of Iowa sportscasters, noted that “never in history
has a major university fielded teams with more changes in personnel than
Iowa in 1943…. Week by week, in fall practice, players left as
their calls came through. The nucleus of the team was built around men
who were permitted to stay on campus because of medical or dental training.
Otherwise, the rest were vulnerable to service calls.
“The night after the Purdue game [played October 23, 1943], the station
platform was the scene of a lot of good-byes as several of the starting
players left for war service…. Not more than half a dozen players
who had been regulars at the start were still in the lineup at the finish
of the season.”
According to the Hawkeye, Iowa was the only team in the Big Ten
that fielded an entirely civilian team in 1943. “Too many times,”
the yearbook noted, “the Hawkeyes were outclassed by lend-lease
service stars.”
Though Iowa’s football fortunes were low, Iowans had reason to be
proud of the other squad that took to the field on football Saturdays.
“Doubting eyebrows were raised when Col. Zech decided to change
the personnel of the University’s traditional Scottish Highlanders
from men to women because of the shortage of male students,” the
Hawkeye reported, “but the response from the women was
overwhelming.
“Shades of Rob Roy, the women really went to town! They blew the
pipes and beat the drums for one month’s concentrated practice,
at the end of which they performed at the year’s first football
game. Their increase in membership of one-third over last year gave their
62 members undisputed title as the world’s largest bagpipe band.
“Men established the Highlanders as the University’s ‘Black
Watch,’ because they wore the uniform of that famous Scottish regiment.
The women carried on the Highlander tradition, but a more appropriate
title for the Highlanders became ‘The Ladies from Hell.’"
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