My first-ever college football game was sitting in the wooden end zone bleachers of Kinnick Stadium in 1977, watching Bob Commings lead the Hawkeyes to a 27-6 loss to Ohio State. That was also the year Commings was trying to make a starting QB out of his son, Bobby, a tactic now used repeatedly by the Hawkeye basketball program.
Don’t forget Jerry Burns, who had a 5-4 record in his first season at Iowa in 1961 then kicked off that record non-winning-season streak by going 11-23-2 over the next four years. He won just 8 conference games in five seasons … then used that college success to go on to coach the freakin’ Minnesota Vikings from 1986 to 1991, making the playoffs three straight years but failing to win a playoff game (EDIT: I’m wrong, I messed that up, he won three playoff games and made the NFC championship in 1988) - even with players like Anthony Carter, Cris Carter, Chris Doleman, and Joey Browner.
For Iowa, after the glory years of Forest Evashevski, it went:
Jerry Burns, 16-27-2
Ray Nagel, 16-32-1
Lauterbur, 4-28-1
Commings, 18-37
Then Hayden Fry, who had two losing seasons to extend the streak through 1980 before finally getting a winning record in 1981 … the first since Burns’ 1961 season.