Collecting a Schedule: Iowa Hawkeye Football

 I made a post recently about one of my non-Iowa collections.  It was my Minnesota Vikings Schedule collection, where I try to find a card with a photo from each game of the season.  It's probably never going to be a complete collection for reasons, but fun to collect non the less.

I've been mildly working on that collection since Covid, and it took until today for me to have the most obvious of epiphanies.  "I can also collect the Iowa teams schedules!"  

Probably I didn't think about this is because it is much harder to collect.  I'll use Iowa Hawkeyes Football for reference.  Each year there are about 0-4 players drafted which make up a majority of the college cards.  Each set does not use college uniforms, mostly early release sets or the SAGE types.  So the pool I have to pull from is much smaller.

Who cares!  I'm going to see what I have!

I'll start with Iowa Hawkeyes football, and rummage through my duplicates.  Let's see what we can find.

Our first card is Ricky Stanzi, 2011 Upper Deck World of Sports.  He played in the 2008-10 seasons with Iowa.  Stanzi is wearing the Iowa white (away) jersey.  We see a red jersey behind him which would indicate Ohio State, Indiana or Wisconsin.  Ohio State jersey has a Nike swoosh in the upper right part of the jersey, and Indiana has HOOSIERS written on the front so we are looking at a Wisconsin player.  Plus I'm pretty sure the blurred person on the left has a Wisconsin coat.

These clues make this pretty easy.  Stanzi played Wisconsin three times, only one of the three being at Wisconsin.  That would be October 17th, 2009 at Wisconsin, a 20-10 Iowa victory.  

Note: That also appears to be O'Brien Schofield chasing down Stanzi.

Hawkeye FB 2009 Update: 1 / 13 Games

Nate Stanley started for Iowa from 2017 - 2019.  Here on this 2020 Panini Prestige card, we have the home jersey with a red and yellow team in the background.  Also incredibly relevant is the Holiday Bowl logo on his right sleeve.  

In 2017 season they played in the Pinstripe Bowl, 2018 in the Outback.  2019 saw them playing USC in the Holiday Bowl (bingo!)  Sorry USC, cardinal and gold.  So this is from the December 27th Holiday Game vs. USC which Iowa won 49-24.

Hawkeye FB 2019 Update: 1 / 13 Games

Brad Banks played in two seasons of games with the Hawkeyes in 2001 and 2002.  This 2003 Press Pass Big Numbers insert has Banks scrambling past a Minnesota defender in a home game.  

While my assumption would have been 2002 since he only played in 5 games in 2001, I would be wrong.  Minnesota came to Iowa City on November 17th, 2001 in a game that Iowa won 42-24.  

Hawkeye FB 2001 Update: 1 / 12 Games

2003 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects Brad Banks card shows Banks in the away jersey with what looks like Northwestern players on the sideline behind him.  

Once again, this is from 2001.  On November 10th, Iowa beat Northwestern 59-16 in Evanston.  

Note: It appears that Sam Simmons (WR, #32) is the player on the left.  The player on the right is either Zak Kustok (QB, #10) or whomever was #13.  

Hawkeye FB 2001 Update: 2 / 12 Games

Well, that is a good start for today.  I'll continue this series throughout the year as I gather cards for the collection.