If You Build It, They Will Come

 Here's the initial list of players with Iowa Connections in the NFL in 2023. Some teams made aggressive moves to get more Iowa Connections on their team, including the Jets and the Lions.  Others remain happy in their current state of mediocrity, especially the Commanders who after a disappointing season with zero connections...remain at zero connections.  They are the only team this year without one. This blog is official rooting for a Miami / Tampa Bay Super Bowl.   Overall, 117 connections this year (117 last year by the end).  We will add a few as the season progresses.  

 For those who haven't followed my other schedules posts, I'm trying to find cards from each game played for a team.  Today that team is the Iowa State Cyclones football team.  Obviously this is a task that is not reasonable to complete as there are not going to be cards from every game, but it is still fun to see what % of games I can get to.  10%?  20%?  Who knows, but the collecting is always fun! Today I'm going to start with a bunch of Iowa State cameo cards.  A cameo card is when a player (in this case a Cyclone) is in the background of someone else's card. Also, bad run of cards for the Cyclones, all four are losses to some pretty tough competition.  

 Collecting Iowa and Iowa State schedules are tough enough, what about a FCS school with not as many NFL players! Well, doesn't mean we can't try.  Here's the start of the Northern Iowa schedules: 2019 Panini Prizm Draft Picks David Johnson This card shows David Johnson in his away jersey at an outdoor location.  The scan here is difficult to see, but there are football players in the background that are black and gold.  This is from a game at Iowa.  DJ played two games at Iowa, in 2012 and 2014.  Luckily for us, the jersey changed between those years, and the 2014 version has a large purple patch on the sleeve, so this is from the 2012 game. 2012 at Iowa, September 15th, 16-27 loss Panther FB 2012 Update: 1 / 12 Games Hawkeye FB 2012 Update: 1 / 12 Games

 Unlike the Hawkeyes, the top of the list for the Cyclones makes sense.  #1 is Tyrese Haliburton, soon to be all-star dropped into this card era has three times as many cards as anyone else on the list.  Hornacek snuck past Jamal Tinsley for #2 this year, a gap that will probably grow as Hornacek is more likely to be in sets now.   Talen Horton-Tucker is #4, and graced this card count generation like Haliburton, but with less juice.  #5 is Wesley Johnson, who didn't end his college career in Ames but did start there. Marcus Fizer at #7 is probably correct, despite being the #2 draft pick, but his pro career didn't really explode. As for the collection, 74 new additions this year with Haliburton leading the way with 29 new cards and Hornacek with 14.  Monte Morris, Craig Brackins, Justin Hamilton, Bridget Carleton and Dedric Willoughby added their first cards to my collection this year. Player ICDB Rank Have Total ICDB 2022 Have...

  Here's my updated list for Iowa Connections on NBA teams.  Connections are sparser than the NFL, so I will only list teams with connections.  Looks like we are cheering for a Toronto / Denver Finals this year!  (Philly vs. either Lakers or Phoenix would be acceptable as well). Note: Coaches in  italics . Note 2: Terry Stotts parted ways with Portland and did not return this year Note 3: Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza were added Iowa State Cyclones : 7 Iowa Hawkeyes : 4 Ames : 2 Northern Iowa : 1 Buena Vista : 1 Iowa Energy : 1 3 - Toronto :               Nick Nurs e (UNI),  Trevor Gleeson  (Iowa Energy),  Nate Bjorkgren  (Buena Vista) 2 - Chicago :      Tyler Cook  (Iowa)   ,  Matt Thomas (ISU) 2 - San Antonio:        Joe Wieskamp (Iowa),    Doug McDermott (Ames) 2 - Denver :           Monte Morris (IS...

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...