If You Build It, They Will Come

  The 2023 NBA draft is complete, and we have updates on the Iowa Connections available for this draft.

 We have new champions in both the Men's and Women's tournaments (Congrats Kansas and South Carolina).  What began with such hope and excitement for the Iowa teams led to disappointment...but hope for next year.   Across the Iowa Connections we have 10 potential collections in the future (including 2 that already have cards on TCDB: Caitlin Clark and Keegan Murray)   Before moving on to next year, lets take a moment to celebrate this year.  We have an Iowa Connection on the National Champion Kansas team, and an Iowa Connection on the NIT Champion Xavier.  Let's start with the Women's teams. Iowa State Cyclones 28-7 (14-4) finishing 2nd in the Big 12 #3 Seed in the tournament making it to the Sweet Sixteen Potential Cards in the Future: Ashley Joens (1st Round Mock 2023 Draft) Emily Ryan (1st Round Mock 2024 Draft) Lexi Donarski (1st Round Mock 2024 Draft) Aubrey Joens (3rd Round Mock 2024 Draft) Iowa Hawkeyes 25-7 (14-4) finishing 1st in the B...

Here's the initial list of players with Iowa Connections in the NFL in 2021. Seven teams are starting the year at zero, which I assume they are having discussions about in the background.  Tomorrow I'll list Iowa Connections on the practice squad and we'll declare the Iowa Connection "Who to Root For".  Buffalo, Green Bay and Jacksonville are trying hard to be that team this year. Note: Coaches in  italics Iowa Hawkeyes : 37 Iowa State Cyclones : 14 Northern Iowa Panthers : 9 Drake Bulldogs : 3 Ellsworth Community College : 1 North Iowa Area Community College: 1 Des Moines : 2 Iowa City : 1 Ames : 1 Cedar Rapids: 1 6 - Buffalo : Ike Boettger /  AJ Epenesa  / Micah Hyde (Iowa), AJ Klein (ISU), Spencer Brown (UNI), Matt Haack (W. Des Moines) 5 - Green Bay : Jerry Montgomery, Jack Heflin (Iowa), Allen Lazard (ISU), Ryan Mahaffey (UNI), Dominique Dafney (W. Des Moines ) 5 - Jacksonville :  C.J. Beathard  (Iowa),  Darrell Bevell,  Brian Sc...

  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...

  AFL 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.   1966 Stas Maliszewski, 13th, Davenport Lyle Loebach, 17th, Simpson Frank Fuller, 19th, Drake Randy Schultz, 20th, UNI Tim Van Galder, RS 2nd, ISU Joe Beauchamp, RS 6th, ISU Karl Noonan, UDFA, Iowa Mike Eischeid, UDFA, Upper Iowa 1965 Tom Vaughn, 11th, ISU John Berrington, 12th, ISU Mike Cox, 12th, ISU Rossevelt Ellerbe, RS 8th, ISU 1964 Mike Reilly, 5th, Iowa Pat Batten, 7th, Drake Wally Hilgenberg, 8th, Iowa Cloyd Webb, 11th, Iowa Paul Krause, 12th, Iowa Dick Herzing, 21st, Drake 1963 Keith Kinderman, 3rd, Iowa Chuck Walton, 13th, ISU 1962 Jerry Hillebrand, 2nd, Davenport Sherwyn Thorson, 3rd, Iowa Al Hinton, 6th, Iowa Wilburn Hollis, 13th, Iowa Larry Ferguson, 17th, Iowa Bill Van Buren, 23rd, Iowa Bernie Wyatt, 32nd, Iowa 1961 Tom Watkins, 8th, ISU Charles Lee, 10th, Iowa Jim Morgan, 21st, ISU Wayne Fontes, 22nd, Iowa Don Webb, 24th, ISU...

     NBA 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.  Currently, there eight years out of the 73 years that do not have a relevant Iowa basketball player (1950, 1954, 1955, 1972, 1994, 2005, 2009, 2011). Pre-Draft Era Hal Crisler, ISU 1947 Dick Ives, Iowa Herb Wilkinson, Iowa 1948 Ray Wehde, ISU Murray Wier, Iowa Gordon Flick, Drake 1949 John Pritchard, 7th, Drake Bill Evans, Drake 1951 John Rennicke, 6th, Drake Frank Clasbeek, 6th, Iowa 1952 Chuck Darling, 1st, Iowa Bob Clifton, Iowa 1953 Delmer Diercks, ISU 1956 Bill Logan, 5th, Iowa Carl Cain, Iowa 1957 Gary Thompson, 5th, ISU Phil Murrell, 6th, Drake 1958 Phil Murrell, 4th, Drake John Crawford, 6th, ISU Don Medsker, 12th, ISU 1959 Dave Gunther, 8th, Iowa 1960 Americas John-Lewis, 10th, Iowa 1961 Hank Whitney, 4th, ISU Gus Guydon, 4th, Drake Stacey Arceneaux, UDFA, ISU 1962 Don Nelson , 3rd, Iowa Jerry Foster, 6th, Drake Vince Brewe...

     WNBA 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.  Currently, there 9 years out of the 25 years that do not have a relevant Iowa basketball player (04, 08, 09, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21). 1997 Michelle Edwards, Initial, Iowa Toni Foster, 1st, Iowa Tia Jackson, 2nd, Iowa 1998 Tangela Smith, 2nd, Iowa Nadine Domond, 2nd, Iowa Angela Hamblin, 3rd, Iowa 1999 Amy Herrig, 4th, Iowa 2000 Desiree Francis, 2nd, ISU Stacy Frese, 3rd, ISU 2001 Megan Taylor, 4th, ISU Cara Consuegra, 4th, Iowa 2002 Angie Welle, 2nd, ISU Lindsey Meder, 3rd, Iowa Jerica Watson, 3rd, Iowa Tracy Gahan, 4th ISU 2003 Carla Bennett, 3rd, Drake Lindsey Wilson, 3rd, ISU 2004 None 2005 Anne O'Neil, 3rd, ISU 2006 Crystal Smith, 3rd, Iowa 2007 Lyndsey Medders, 2nd, ISU 2008 None 2009 None 2010 Alison Lacey, 1st, ISU 2011 Kachine Alexander, 3rd, Iowa Kelsey Bolte, 3rd, ISU 2012 None 2013 Chelsea Poppens, 2nd, ISU Anna Prins, 2...

Today we have a new collection of cards for the 2021 ICY set.  These 17 cards honor the achievements of the men and teams from the four major Iowa NCAA teams: Iowa, Iowa State, UNI and Drake.  Two teams had NCAA tournament invites, and each team also had individual awards led by Iowa's Luka Garza. Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa State Cyclones Northern Iowa Panthers Drake Bulldogs

  College Football HOF The College Football Hall of Fame is located in Atlanta, Georgia and is home to just over 1,000 college football players and over 200 coaches.  Here's the best list I can come up with of Iowa Connections in this HOF. Iowa Hawkeyes Players Duke Slater Nile Kinnick Gordan Locke Aubrey Devine Cal Jones Alex Karras Randy Duncan Chuck Long Larry Station Andre Tippett  NEW! Coaches Hayden Fry Forest Evashevski Howard Jones Eddie Anderson Slip Madigan Barry Alvarez Staff and players who made it elsewhere Earl Banks (Morgan State, player at Iowa) Frank Carideo (Notre Dame, asst. coach at Iowa) Lou Holtz (Notre Dame, asst. coach at Iowa) Bill Snyder (Kansas State, asst. coach at Iowa) Bob Stoops (Oklahoma, player/asst. coach at Iowa) NEW! Iowa State Cyclones Players Troy Davis Ed Bock Coaches Earle Bruce (Ohio State, Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Iowa Barnstormers) Pop Warner Alex Agase (Northwestern, Iowa State, Purdue) Edward Mylin (Iowa State, Lebanon Val...

Here's the final list of players with Iowa Connections in the NFL in 2020.  For shame Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta and Carolina.  I mean 3/4 NFC West teams had 0 Iowa Connections (the one team that did won the Super Bowl, think about that!) Note: Coaches in italics Iowa Hawkeyes : 46 Iowa State Cyclones : 15 Northern Iowa Panthers : 8 Iowa Western Community College : 3 Drake Bulldogs : 2 Ellsworth Community College : 2 Des Moines : 3 Iowa City : 1 Ames : 1 Cedar Falls : 1 Marion : 1 Johnston : 1 5 - Green Bay : Christian Kirksey, Josh Jackson , Jerry Montgomery (Iowa), Allen Lazard (ISU), Dominique Dafney (W. Des Moines) 5 - New England :    Carl Davis, James Ferentz, Ross Reynolds (Iowa), Xavier Williams (UNI), Nick Caley (ISU) 5 - Chicago : David Montgomery,  Jay Rodgers  (ISU), James Daniels /  Mark DeLeone  (Iowa),  Mike Furrey  (UNI) 4 - Buffalo : Ike Boettger /  AJ Epenesa  / Micah Hyde (Iowa), AJ Klein (IS...

    CBA 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.  For full draft list visit NBA Hoops Online . 1985 None 1986 None 1987 None 1988 Lafester Rhodes, 1st, ISU Bill Jones , 1st, Iowa Gary Thompkins, 5th, ISU Al Lorenzen, 7th, Iowa Kevin Van Veldhuizen, 7th, Northwestern 1989 Bart Friedrick, 9th, Drake 1990 Matt Bullard, 3rd, Iowa Jason Reese, 4th, UNI Alessandro Donaldson, 6th, Drake 1991 Doug Collins, 8th, ISU 1992 James Moses, 5th, Iowa 1993 Justis Thigpen, 2nd, ISU 1994 James Winters, 6th, Iowa Randy Blocker , 6th, UNI 1995 Fred Hoiberg, 1st, ISU Loren Meyer, 7th, ISU 1996 Russ Millard, 4th, Iowa Chris Kingsbury, 6th, Iowa Kenyon Murray, 6th, Iowa 1997 Andre Woolridge, 2nd, Iowa Kenny Pratt, 6th, ISU C.J. Bruton, 6th, Indian Hills Dedric Willoughby, 7th, ISU 1998 Ryan Bowen, 2nd, Iowa Jess Settles, 10th, Iowa 1999 J.R. Koch, 4th, Iowa 2000 Cory Hightower, 5ht, Indian Hills Ernest Bro...