If You Build It, They Will Come

  Canadian Football League HOF The Canadian Football League Hall of Fame is located in Hamilton, Ontario and is home to just over 300 members.  Here's the best list I can come up with of Iowa Connections in this HOF. Iowa Hawkeyes Ken Ploan (QB) Willie Fleming (RB) Frank Rigney (OT) Drake Bulldogs Johnny Bright (RB) Iowa Barnstormers Bobby Jurasin (DL) Born in Iowa Leo Lewis (RB born in Des Moines) Tom Wilkinson (QB born in Ottumwa)

Profile Mike Sample was a defensive lineman for the Drake Bulldogs, become a Kodak All American* his senior year.  He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the 1973 Draft**, but ended up playing his career in the CFL, become a multi-time All-Star. * I don't know where Kodak All-American falls in the line of All-American honors, but none the less its pretty good ** 13th round he was selected, out of 15 rounds!  Personal Notes When reading about defensive players from 1970s and earlier, you don't get a ton of information as they just didn't keep stats.  Today we can track the number of feet a soccer plays runs for a game, but in the 70s we don't even know if Jack Lambert had a tackle!  The only stat tracked was interceptions.  For Mike Samples career, only the last three years were stats collected, so while his official CFL records have him with 13.5 sacks, he definitely had more. Collection Notes I have 1/3 (33%) cards in my collection.

The Grey Cup is played every year (well, not 2020...), and every year there is a winner.  The right team doesn't always win though.  No, sometimes the universe makes a mistake and the wrong team wins.  But how do we know who these "Misplaced Winners" are?   Well, this blog circles around one thing, and that's the Iowa Connection.  So, obviously every Grey Cup champion should have at least one Iowa Connection, but not every one does.  Either I've missed the connection (possible!), or the universe messed up.  Thanos snapped his fingers and the Toronto Argonauts won.  So lets look at those Iowa-less Grey Cup champions and see who it should have been. If this universe happened, here are number of titles these Iowa Connections would have gained (2+): 5 - Bill Briggs, Iowa 2 - Jeff Braswell, Iowa State 2 - D.J. Johnson, Iowa 2 - Jovon Johnson, Iowa 2 - Wayne Sheley, Lone Tree Note : Of the 82 Grey Cup Championships covered here, 23 have been I...

   CFL Draft Iowa Connections I'll be filling these in as I post in the blog.  I'll link to the players as they each get a post.   2021 Alaric Jackson, 2nd, Iowa 2021 - Global Matt Leo, 4th, ISU Niklas Gustav, 4th, Morningside 2017 Faith Ekakitie, 1st, Iowa 2016 Tavau Smith, 1st, Iowa 2013 Nolan MacMillan, 1st, Iowa 2012 Cleyon Laing, 1st, ISU 2005 Anthony Posteraro, 4th, Graceland 2002 Reid Seitz, 3rd, UNI 1999 Trevor Bollers, 1st, Iowa 1996 Sheldon Napastuk, 3rd, ISU 1995 John Murphy, 1st, Morningside 1978 Dan Taylor, 1st, Iowa Central