I was in high school and went to some games when my big sister was a student. It was a wonderful atmosphere, especially for a testosterone filled teenager. I couldn't wait to get to Ames.
Johnny Majors has passed away
- Thread starter Styx
- Start date
kcbob79clone
Well-Known Member
I was barely a teenager when Johnny Majors was hired. Reason I am a #LoyalForeverTrue fan. Engineering school is why I am an Iowa State grad.
The New York Times obituary mentions Harvey Lee Yaurey used the stage name Lee Majors in honor of Johnny Majors. (I knew the name Lee Majors, but didn't know what he was in---he was apparently in Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/sports/ncaafootball/johnny-majors-dead.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/sports/ncaafootball/johnny-majors-dead.html
By the informative ratings of this post I am getting it looks like several people don't know about Pop Warner and Iowa State. Warner was the head coach of the Iowa State team that crushed Northwestern 36-0 in 1895 which resulted in the "Iowa Cyclone" headline about the game. Our team became known as the Cyclones from that headline. That was Warner's first year at Iowa State.
Warner won national championships at Pittsburgh in 1915, '16 and '18* and at Stanford in 1926.
*His 1917 Pittsburgh team went 10-0 but the national championship game was postponed due to U.S. participation in World War I until the following season and Georgia Tech was awarded the 1917 national championship. The next season when the two teams finally squared off, Pittsburgh eked out a 32-0 win over the "champions".
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Interesting that both Warner and Majors won at Pitt. And if either had been at Pitt when Matt Campbell was there, he probably would have stayed!
Interesting bit in USA Today:
"I was intrigued by the rebuilding jobs he already had accomplished. He took Pittsburgh from college football’s doldrums to an unbeaten, national championship season in 1976. Before that, he worked wonders at Iowa State, little more than a Big Eight punching bag before Majors made it competitive. I didn’t have to ask many questions because Majors relished the topics. He seemed as proud of what he did at Iowa State as the football revival he pulled off at Pittsburgh. In 1971, the top three teams in the country were all from the Big Eight – No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Colorado. Those were the only three teams to beat Iowa State during the regular season."
"I was intrigued by the rebuilding jobs he already had accomplished. He took Pittsburgh from college football’s doldrums to an unbeaten, national championship season in 1976. Before that, he worked wonders at Iowa State, little more than a Big Eight punching bag before Majors made it competitive. I didn’t have to ask many questions because Majors relished the topics. He seemed as proud of what he did at Iowa State as the football revival he pulled off at Pittsburgh. In 1971, the top three teams in the country were all from the Big Eight – No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Colorado. Those were the only three teams to beat Iowa State during the regular season."
You were at the Peach Bowl.....So was I and it was a great time in Atlanta....close to 25,000 Cyclones showed up for the game......in old Fulton County Stadium....
I saw some games at Clyde Williams Field...a guy I worked with told me that his father took care of the Grass Field at Clyde Williams and Veenker Golf Course.....We used to park in a neighbors back yard close to the Stadium and walk down to campustown and drink beer and eat pizza before the game.....I have been an ISU fan since Oct 1962 when I went to a football game in Lincoln NE....It was all american Dave Hoppmann ISU versus the great Bob Brown NU...the PA kept saying ....Hoppmann tackled by Brown.....Oh it was great to be young.....My family all went to Iowa State...Go Cyclones
I would have loved to see Dave Hoppmann play. He was one of the best players in the country.
On Nebraska's tv 30 minute replay show on sunday, Coach Bob Devaney said that if he could recruit five players like Dave Hoppmann that he could win a big eight championship.....
Our chance encounter with Coach Majors was quite brief. We were with a cluster of strangers, wet and cold, straggling out of the rain trenched stadium, the Liberty Bowl. We were just about out of the fenced area to head down Tiger Lane when a golf cart rolled up with Johnny and his driver. They stopped and we all had a brief discussion regarding the game. Nice of him to take the time.