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The Cinderella Rose Bowl Run Of 1981 Iowa Football

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Iowa was a dead program when Hayden Fry took over in 1979. No Rose Bowl appearances since 1958 and not even a winning season since 1961. Fry didn’t break either streak his first two years, going 9-13.

So when 1981 Iowa football opened the season by upsetting seventh-ranked Nebraska 10-7 it came out of nowhere. When the Hawkeyes lost at Iowa State the following week, it was just Iowa returning to earth. Then Iowa pulled another big non-conference upset, stunning sixth-ranked UCLA 20-7. This upset got Fry’s team into the rankings at #18. But who were these guys?

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There was some good talent on defense, most notably defensive end Andre Tippett. He would make the NFL, convert to outside linebacker and become a Hall of Fame player for the New England Patriots. Iowa defensive back Lou King was a ballhawk, intercepting eight passes.

A balanced running attack, with Phil Blatcher and Eddie Phillips—who ranked fourth and sixth among Big Ten runners respectively—worked in tandem with the defense and with All-American punter Reggie Roby to control field position.

Iowa’s quarterback was Gordy Bohannon, who didn’t throw a lot, but he was reasonably effective. His 51 percent completion rate was acceptable by the standards of the time, and his 7.0 yards-per-attempt was pretty good.

So could this Hawkeye team sustain the magic during Big Ten play? Iowa started by crushing Northwestern 64-0—the Wildcats were awful to be sure, but that sort of beatdown was normally reserved for the Michigans and Ohio States, who had represented this league in Pasadena every year since 1967. Iowa then beat Indiana 42-28 and moved up to #12 in the polls.

A road trip to fifth-ranked Michigan was next and the formula of defense, punting and running the ball was able to get it done. The Wolverines made the game’s biggest error—a fumbled punt that set up a field goal. Iowa’s offense used clock-chewing drives to get two more field goals and they pulled out a 9-7 upset.

That was three wins against Top 10 teams with brand-name pedigrees, but games against Minnesota and Illinois didn’t go quite as well. The Hawks lost 12-10 and 24-7 respectively. The Illini, we should note, were a good team and joined the Hawkeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers as teams challenging Michigan-Ohio State hegemony in the conference. Iowa’s loss to Illinois was also on the road.

Iowa bounced back with a 33-7 home win over Purdue. There were two games left and the Big Ten race was complete chaos. Of the five contenders mentioned above, four were tied in the loss column with two defeats apiece and Illinois had three losses.

The Hawkeyes faced a must-win game in Wisconsin. Blatcher ran for a pair of early touchdowns and Iowa took a 17-0 lead. Fry turned the game over to his defense and Roby.

An ultra-conservative strategy meant the Hawkeyes only got seven first downs for the game. But Roby dominated, airing out seven punts that averaged nearly 54 yards a pop. Fry insisted the game be put in the defense’s hands and they delivered 17-7—with the UW touchdown coming only in the late moments.

Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan all had two losses, but due to unequal scheduling, the Wolverines played one more conference game and thereby had a half-game lead. Iowa needed to beat Michigan State and hope Ohio State beat Michigan.

If that happened, the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes would be co-champs. They had not played head-to-head, and the Big Ten’s next tiebreaker would be to simply send the team that had waited the longest since last going to Pasadena. Iowa owned this tiebreaker.

And they got what they wanted. Ohio State won 14-9, while Iowa easily rolled Michigan State 36-21. The improbable season of the 1981 Iowa Hawkeyes was going to end in the Rose Bowl.

Maybe it was asking too much for Iowa to continue the magic against Washington in Pasadena. The Hawkeye offense never got untracked. The defense kept them in the game through three quarters, at a deficit of 13-0. But a couple fourth-quarter TDs for the Huskies finally blew it open in a 28-0 final.

The dream season might have ended with a Rose Bowl loss, but Iowa wasn’t going anywhere. They continued to be a contender under Fry and got to Pasadena again in both 1985 and 1990.

1985 Iowa Football: A Return To The Rose Bowl

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Iowa had their breakthrough season in 1981 under Hayden Fry, when they cracked the Michigan-Ohio State monopoly on the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl bid and came to Pasadena. In the ensuing three years, Fry’s teams went 25-11-1, establishing they were no one-year wonder. 1985 Iowa football was a team of a great expectation, with a preseason #4 national ranking and the hopes of getting back to the Rose Bowl, and this time, winning it.

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Chuck Long was at the heart of the expectations. Even though he threw 351 times—the most of any New Year’s Day quarterback except Miami’s Vinny Testaverde, who threw 352—Long remained efficient. He completed 66 percent of his passes and though the interceptions were high, at 15, so were the touchdown passes, at 26.

He shared Big Ten MVP honors with Michigan State’s 2,000-yard running back Lorenzo White, and Long finished second to Bo Jackson in one of the closest Heisman Trophy votes in history.

Long’s weapons started with the versatile running back Ronnie Harmon. An NFL future ahead of him, Harmon ran for over 1,100 yards and caught 49 passes for nearly 600 yards. The receiving corps was well-balanced, with wideout Bill Happell and tight end Scott Halverson working secondaries from every angle.

Larry Station was the heart and soul of the defense and a consensus All-American linebacker. The secondary could play the ball, with Jay Norvel and Devon Mitchell combining for five interceptions. Iowa opened the season with three non-descript games against Drake, Northern Illinois and Iowa State and won by a combined 163-23.

When the dust settled, Iowa was #1 in the country going into the Big Ten schedule. They got a big scare at home against Michigan State, needing Long to take in a bootleg touchdown run to secure a 35-31 win. The Hawkeyes followed that up with a 23-13 win over so-so Wisconsin. Now it was time for the game that had the entire Midwest– indeed the entire nation fired up—the #1 vs #2 battle with Michigan in Iowa City.

After a scoreless first quarter, Long appeared to have broken the ice when he hit Helverson in the back of the end zone. The pass was ruled incomplete, although replay showed it was a completed pass. Under today’s rules with replay, Iowa would have had a touchdown. In 1985, they settled for a field goal.

Michigan promptly brought the kickoff back 60 yards, setting up a quick touchdown. Iowa came back with two more field goals, but another special teams mishap allowed a long kickoff return setting up a Wolverine field goal. In spite of controlling the flow of play, the Hawkeyes trailed 10-9 in the closing minutes.

Long came up big when it mattered most. He converted three third-down throws and moved his team to the 12-yard line. Kicker Rob Houghtlin came on and hit the game-winner on the final play. Iowa won 12-10 and national championship talk was flowing freely.

After a 49-10 blasting of Northwestern, the national title talk got squashed—or more accurately, rained on–in Columbus. Playing in the sloppy wet, Iowa lost to Ohio State 22-13. The Hawkeyes were still #6 in the country, but now the Buckeyes controlled the path to Pasadena.

Iowa took care of their end of things against a pretty good Illinois team that was in close pursuit of the Big Ten lead. The Hawkeyes blasted the Illini 59-0. A shootout with Purdue, with NFL-bound Jim Everett at quarterback followed. Everett’s 3,600 passing yards this season were higher than Long’s, but Iowa pulled out a 27-24 win in West Lafayette.

That same day, Wisconsin did Iowa a big solid, and beat Ohio State 12-7. Iowa was back in the driver’s seat. They needed only beat Minnesota in the season finale to wrap up the Pasadena trip. If the Hawkeyes lost, the Michigan-Ohio State winner would go.

This was a competitive Minnesota team, one that was 6-4 coming in and played well enough to get head coach Lou Holtz the Notre Dame job for the following season. The Hawkeyes still dismantled the Gophers 31-9. Iowa was back into the top five, at #4, and headed back to the Rose Bowl.

Even though there was no path to a national championship, Iowa was looking to put the finishing touches on a special season. UCLA, at 8-2-1 had won the Pac-10. The Bruins were looking for their fourth straight major bowl win and third in Pasadena since 1982.

 Much was made coming into the game about how this year’s Iowa team was not there to enjoy the sights and sounds of SoCal the way they presumably were in 1981. This year it was all about winning the program’s first Rose Bowl trophy since 1958. Perhaps it created too much pressure.

Harmon would fumble four times, and was never able to get untracked. Long threw for 319 yards, but without support from his defense or his running game, it wasn’t enough.

UCLA running back Eric Ball had the game of his life with 227 yards and four touchdowns. The Bruins racked up nearly 500 yards in total offense. Iowa lost 45-28.

Iowa had clearly established themselves as a top-tier Big Ten team in 1985. Unfortunately, they also shared the other predominant trait of Big Ten teams from the 1970s and 1980s, and that was an inability to win in Pasadena.

Fry would get Iowa back to this stage one more time, following the 1990 season, but never did get a win. The program did not get a major bowl win until 2009, when they beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. The search for a Rose Bowl victory remains elusive.

1991 Iowa Football: Hayden Fry’s Last Really Good Team

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Life had good for the football fans of Iowa City over the past decade. Hayden Fry led the Iowa program to a breakthrough Rose Bowl trip in 1981. The Hawkeyes went there again in 1985, and then a third time in 1990. The 1991 Iowa football team didn’t quite make Pasadena, but they were still very good. Although their success has a bittersweet taste from the perspective history, because this Hawkeye team proved to be the last really good one that Fry would coach.

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The defense ranked 14th in the country in 1991 and they were led by an outstanding defensive end, All-American Leroy Smith. On the other side of the ball, center Mike Davis got third-team All-American mention and helped lead the way for 1,000-yard rusher Mike Saunders. Lew Montgomery rushed for nearly 500 as an alternative in the backfield.

Matt Rodgers wasn’t as decorated as some of his teammates, but the quarterback still had a 65% completion rate—excellent by the standards of the era, and generated eight yards-per-pass. His 14-11 TD/INT ratio was acceptable per the norms of 1991 and the offense ranked 28th nationally in scoring.

Iowa was ranked #18 to start the season and blasted out of the gate against a soft non-conference schedule. They hammered Hawaii 53-10, beat up woeful in-state rival Iowa State 29-10 and then battered Northern Illinois 58-7. They were ready for Big Ten play to start and there was no time to waste, because Michigan was coming to Iowa City on October 5.

The Wolverines were ranked seventh and were the favorite win the conference championship. They had already played a difficult schedule, beating Notre Dame and losing to Florida State in the biggest games anywhere in the country during the month of September. Michigan had a wide receiver by the name of Desmond Howard, who would end up winning the Heisman Trophy.

Both offenses traded blows in the first half, each scoring three touchdowns. Iowa missed the PAT the first time and Fry made the mistake of futilely chasing points, as his team missed two-point conversions on the subsequent touchdowns. Fortunately, Michigan was having as many problems with their own extra points and the Hawkeyes only trailed 19-18.

Iowa couldn’t run the ball though, while Michigan was pounding away on the ground. The Hawkeyes were outrushed 371-77 and then Howard broke their back with a pair of second-half touchdowns. Iowa lost 43-24.

They were going to need help to make another Rose Bowl run, but the more generic concept of a strong season was still very much in their grasp. And the Hawkeyes went to work. They survived a road trip to Wisconsin, getting a 10-6 win against a program showing its first stirrings of life under second-year coach Barry Alvarez. Iowa won a tough 24-21 decision against an Illinois team that was ranked 13th at the time, although the Illini subsequently faded to mediocrity.

A 31-21 win at Purdue, with this writer in the stands followed (I was a student at Indiana University and made a road trip to the archrival with my dad). The game was not as competitive as the score makes it appear.

Ohio State was up next, and while this wasn’t a vintage Buckeye team, they were still ranked 13th when Iowa went to Columbus to open the month of November. The Hawkeyes were playing in the backdrop of campus tragedy– a shooting rampage had killed six people and Iowa took the field in all black helmets as a tribute to the victims and the people back home.

Then they played a solid football game in their honor. Rodgers threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to tight end Alan Cross and Iowa led 13-9 at the half. Rodgers hit Danan Hughes with a 50-yard strike that set up a field goal. The defense sacked Ohio State quarterback Kent Graham four times and the result was a 16-9 win.

Iowa was now ranked #10 and they kept the momentum going with a 38-21 home win over Indiana. This was a period when Indiana football was pretty good under the leadership of Bill Mallory and 1991 was his best team. The Hawkeyes didn’t get the help they needed for the Rose Bowl—Michigan rolled to a perfect conference season—but Iowa closed out the season with wins over Northwestern and Minnesota and was ranked ninth in the country.

With a Top 10 ranking, a coach with a pedigree and a fan base that would travel in droves, it’s surprising that Iowa didn’t get more love from the major bowls. They still got a nice trip to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl and a credible opponent in BYU. Cougar quarterback Ty Detmer had won the Heisman in 1990 and enjoyed another good year in ‘91.

Saunders ran for two touchdowns in the first half, but Iowa’s extra-point problems again surfaced and the lead was only 13-0. That point proved to be critical. Detmer threw two second half-touchdown passes…fortunately for Iowa, the Cougars also missed an extra point. In the era prior to 1996, there was no overtime and the Holiday Bowl ended in a 13-13 tie.

Iowa still hung on to a #10 final ranking. Even though this wasn’t a Rose Bowl year, this was a better team than the 1981 and 1990 editions and a forgotten piece of Fry’s fine legacy with the program. But it was also the beginning of the end. Fry would never again have a team this good and Iowa began a descent through the 1990s that saw them bottom out with a three-win season in 1998. Kirk Ferentz then came on board and resumed the ways of steady, consistent winning. 1991 was Hayden Fry’s last hurrah.

The Rose Bowl Run Of 1990 Iowa Football

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The 1980s had been good to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Hayden Fry took the program to the Rose Bowl in 1981 and 1985 and went to eight bowls overall in a nine-year stretch. But 1989 had been the outlier year, when the Hawkeyes struggled to a 5-6 finish. The program needed a comeback season and the 1990 Iowa football team provided it, reaching the third Rose Bowl of Fry’s tenure.

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Matt Rodgers was the best quarterback in the Big Ten and he led an offense that averaged over 35ppg, ranking 13th in the nation. The backfield was a two-pronged attack, with 1,000-yard rusher Nick Bell and Tony Stewart, who ran for 844 more.

The defense wasn’t quite as good, ranking 57th in the country, but still had noteworthy talent. Merton Hanks was an All-Conference defensive back and future Pro Bowl player with the San Francisco 49ers. Melvin Foster was one of the Big Ten’s top linebackers, and senior linebacker John Derby provided a stable veteran presence inside.

Iowa was unranked to start the year and the 2-1 record in non-conference did nothing to change minds. The wins over Cincinnati and Iowa State were nothing special, the blowout loss at Miami nothing to be alarmed over. It was when Big Ten games started on the first weekend of October that the Hawkeyes indicated this team might be special.

Michigan State was ranked #18 in the country when Iowa went to East Lansing and pulled out a 12-7 win. Two weeks later they were back in the state, visiting Ann Arbor. Rodgers went 27/37 for 276 yards and saved the best for last, an 85-yard drive that pulled out a 24-23 upset over Michigan. Iowa was 3-0 in the Big Ten with two big road wins over contenders.

By November 3, Iowa and Illinois were both 4-0 and had a two-game lead on the rest of the conference. They were going head-to-head in Champaign with the inside track to the Big Ten title on the line. The Illini were ranked fifth in the country and had aspirations that could reach beyond Pasadena.

The Hawkeyes turned the tables. Illinois fumbled at midfield on their first possession and Bell promptly rumbled 44 yards for a touchdown. It was the start of a day where Bell would roll up 178 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Iowa had a shocking 28-0 lead by the early second quarter. They scored on a halfback option pass by Stewart and off a fake field goal. The final was 54-28.

Iowa moved up to #6 nationally and in a chaotic year for college football, they now had national hopes. Those ended a week later at home against Ohio State when the defensive shortcomings caught up with the Hawkeyes. They led 26-14 in the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes drove into scoring range three times and twice scored touchdowns, the final one a three-yard TD pass with a second to play. Iowa lost 27-26.

The Hawkeyes beat Purdue the following week and entered the final week of the season with a half-game lead on Ohio State. The Buckeyes lost at Michigan and by the time Iowa’s game at Minnesota was in the second quarter, the Hawkeyes knew they were Rose Bowl-bound. They lost 31-24 to a pretty good Gophers team. The loss might not have denied them the Pasadena trip, but it did cost Iowa an outright Big Ten title. They instead shared the crown with Michigan, Michigan State and Illinois.

Iowa had lost both of their previous Rose Bowls under Fry and both of them decisively. The third time did not prove to be the charm. They faced eighth-ranked Washington and the 46-34 loss was not as close as the final score makes it appear.

Even with the Rose Bowl loss, even with the stumbling to the finish line, 1990 was still a fine comeback season for Iowa football. It re-established momentum for Fry and he made five bowl games in the next eight years before retiring at the end of the 1998 season.

The Road To The 1986 Rose Bowl: UCLA & Iowa

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Iowa came to the 1986 Rose Bowl looking to put the finishing touches on what had been a special season. UCLA wanted to put the seal on what had become a great four-year run of winning New Year’s Day bowl games. Here’s a look back at the roads the Hawkeyes and Bruins took through the 1985 college football season and to their January 1 meeting in Pasadena.

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UCLA had won the Rose Bowl following the 1982 and 1983 seasons. They didn’t get here in 1984, but did get an invite to the Fiesta Bowl, where they won. Head coach Terry Donahue had his program on a high.

The Bruins were led by David Norrie at quarterback, who won the job away from Matt Stevens early in the season. Norrie validated Donahue’s confidence, with a 64 percent completion rate that was second in a Pac-10 filled with good passing offenses. UCLA didn’t throw quite as often, but Norrie made his passes count, with an 8.5 yards-per-attempt that was the league’s best and his ten interceptions were the second-lowest among regular starters.

A well-balanced running game made the offense hum, with Gaston Green and Eric Ball each going for over 700 yards and ranking 4th and 5th among conference rushers in yardage. Ball was the league’s most explosive back, getting 5.8 yards-per-attempt. They were supported on the outside by deep threat Mike Sherrard, a future NFL first-round draft pick, and Karl Dorrell, a future head coach here in Westwood.

The defense was anchored by Mark Walen and the versatile player officially listed at defensive tackle, but who lined up most everywhere, was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. In the secondary, James Washington had five interceptions.

Despite the recent pedigree of success, and despite the fact that John Lee, the best kicker in the country, gave UCLA a huge edge in any close game, the Bruins were only ranked #20 to start the 1985 college football season.

It wouldn’t take long for them to make their mark. The opening game was at BYU. The Cougars were the defending national champion and ranked #10 to start this season. The game was a 4:30 PM ET start on ESPN, at a time when the still-young network didn’t have college football televised wall-to-wall.

An opportunistic defense delivered the Bruins in Provo. They got five turnovers, including a 65-yard interception return for a touchdown by Craig Rutledge. UCLA got field goals from Lee off the other four turnovers. They still trailed 24-19, when Sherrard got deep late in the game for a 62-yard catch that set up a short touchdown run. UCLA’s 27-24 win moved them up to #14 in the polls.

No one could accuse Donahue of ducking anyone in non-conference competition. Even though Tennessee didn’t have a strong recent history, this was a year they would rise up and win the Sugar Bowl. UCLA went to Knoxville and came out with a 26-26 tie, one that got them enough respect to be nudged up #12 nationally.

A 34-16 rout of mediocre San Diego State closed out the non-conference schedule and then UCLA opened Pac-10 play with a 21-14 loss at Washington, who had finished #2 in the nation. Unforgiving pollsters dropped the Bruins from the land of the ranked.

UCLA hosted a good Arizona State team that would contend with them to the end of the season and had a talented future NFL strong safety in David Fulcher. The Bruins put a 40-17 beating on the Sun Devils, and then followed it up by blasting bad teams in Stanford, Washington State and Cal by a combined 99-26.

Coming into the games of November 9, UCLA was tied with Washington atop the league standings at 4-1, though the Huskies of course had the tiebreaker. USC, Arizona and Arizona State all had just one league loss themselves, at 3-1 each, so there was a lot to be settled in November.

UCLA started by going to Arizona. The Bruins got an early touchdown when the Wildcats muffed a punt attempt and set up a gift score. UCLA took a 24-7 lead by late in the third quarter, with Green running well and scoring three touchdowns. Arizona rallied and closed to 24-19 with three minutes left, but the Bruins covered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

There was good news elsewhere in the league, as USC and Washington both lost. The only one-loss teams were UCLA and Arizona State and now the Bruins had the tiebreaker advantage.

They blew out lowly Oregon State 41-10 and it set up a dramatic rivalry Saturday. UCLA went crosstown to play USC. The Trojans were 5-5 and playing for a bowl bid. They upset the Bruins 17-13. But that night, Arizona State lost to Arizona 16-13. In the chaos, Washington might have created a three-way tie but they lost to Washington State.

It wasn’t exactly an inspiring finish, but UCLA was still 8-2-1 against a very good schedule, still ranked #13 and still going to the Rose Bowl for the third time in four years.

Iowa had their breakthrough season in 1981 under Hayden Fry, when they cracked the Michigan-Ohio State monopoly on the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl bid and came to Pasadena. In the ensuing three years, Fry’s teams went 25-11-1, establishing they were no one-year wonder. Expectations were high for 1985, with a preseason #4 national ranking and the hopes of getting back to the Rose Bowl, and this time, winning it.

Chuck Long was at the heart of the expectations. Even though he threw 351 times—the most of any New Year’s Day quarterback except Miami’s Vinny Testaverde, who threw 352—Long remained efficient. He completed 66 percent of his passes and though the interceptions were high, at 15, so were the touchdown passes, at 26.

He shared Big Ten MVP honors with Michigan State’s 2,000-yard running back Lorenzo White, and Long finished second to Bo Jackson in one of the closest Heisman Trophy votes in history.

Long’s weapons started with the versatile running back Ronnie Harmon. An NFL future ahead of him, Harmon ran for over 1,100 yards and caught 49 passes for nearly 600 yards. The receiving corps was well-balanced, with wideout Bill Happell and tight end Scott Halverson working secondaries from every angle.

Larry Station was the heart and soul of the defense and a consensus All-American linebacker. The secondary could play the ball, with Jay Norvel and Devon Mitchell combining for five interceptions. Iowa opened the season with three non-descript games against Drake, Northern Illinois and Iowa State and won by a combined 163-23.

When the dust settled, Iowa was #1 in the country going into the Big Ten schedule. They got a big scare at home against Michigan State, needing Long to take in a bootleg touchdown run to secure a 35-31 win. The Hawkeyes followed that up with a 23-13 win over so-so Wisconsin. Now it was time for the game that had the entire Midwest, indeed the entire nation fired up—the #1 vs #2 battle with Michigan in Iowa City.

After a scoreless first quarter, Long appeared to have broken the ice when he hit Helverson in the back of the end zone. The pass was ruled incomplete, although replay showed it was a completed pass. Under today’s rules with replay, Iowa would have had a touchdown. In 1985, they settled for a field goal.

Michigan promptly brought the kickoff back 60 yards, setting up a quick touchdown. Iowa came back with two more field goals, but another special teams mishap allowed a long kickoff return setting up a Wolverine field goal. In spite of controlling the flow of play, the Hawkeyes trailed 10-9 in the closing minutes.

Long came up big when it mattered most. He converted three third-down throws and moved his team to the 12-yard line. Kicker Rob Houghtlin came on and hit the game-winner on the final play. Iowa won 12-10 and national championship talk was flowing freely.

After a 49-10 blasting of Northwestern, the national title talk got squashed—or more accurately, rained on, in Columbus. Playing in the sloppy wet, Iowa lost to Ohio State 22-13. The Hawkeyes were still #6 in the country, but now the Buckeyes controlled the path to Pasadena.

Iowa took care of their end of things against a pretty good Illinois team that was in close pursuit of the Big Ten lead. The Hawkeyes blasted the Illini 59-0. A shootout with Purdue, with NFL-bound Jim Everett at quarterback followed. Everett’s 3,600 passing yards this season were higher than Long’s, but Iowa pulled out a 27-24 win in West Lafayette.

That same day, Wisconsin did Iowa a big solid, and beat Ohio State 12-7. Iowa was back in the driver’s seat. They needed only beat Minnesota in the season finale to wrap up the Pasadena trip. If the Hawkeyes lost, the Michigan-Ohio State winner would go.

This was a competitive Minnesota team, one that was 6-4 coming in and played well enough to get head coach Lou Holtz the Notre Dame job for the following season. The Hawkeyes still dismantled the Gophers 31-9. Iowa was back into the top five, at #4, and headed back to the Rose Bowl.

The game would be a tale of two running backs. Much was made coming into the game about how this year’s Iowa team was not there to enjoy the sights and sounds of SoCal the way they presumably were in 1981. This year it was all about winning. Perhaps it created too much pressure.

Harmon would fumble four times, and was never able to get untracked. Long threw for 319 yards, but without support from his defense or his running game, it wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile, UCLA, even with Norrie out with a thigh injury, was getting all the support it needed. Ball had the game of his life, with 227 yards and four touchdowns. Stevens played efficiently and the offense produced 488 total yards.

With Ball going crazy as Harmon melted down, the result was a 45-28 UCLA win. Fry would get Iowa back to this stage one more time, following the 1990 season, but never did get a win. Just as surprising is that Donahue never won this bowl game again either.

UCLA didn’t disappear and won the Cotton Bowl in 1988 with Troy Aikman at quarterback. They returned to the Rose Bowl under Donahue in 1993, and under Bob Toledo in 1998, but lost to Wisconsin. New Year’s Day 1986 was the last time UCLA won the major bowl game at their home stadium.