If You Build It, They Will Come

 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

  This 2007 Upper Deck Scott Chandler shows Chandler with his home uniform, and Hawk fans in the background. There is an opposing player behind him that is either a New Orleans Saint (ha!) or a Purdue Boilermaker. Chandler played for the Hawks in 2004, 05, and 06. Purdue visited Iowa in both 04 and 06.  In 2004, Chandler had 4 catches for 122 yards.  2006, he had just 2 catches for 9 yard and a touchdown.   In 2004 Purdue had linebacker Stanford Keglar, #59 ... who also played in the 2006 matchup. However, I think I figured it out.  If you watch this video of the 2004 game, you will see the moment Chandler catches the ball and is chased by Keglar. (about 1:18 mark) 2004 vs Purdue, November 6th, 23-21 victory Hawkeye FB 2004 Update: 1 / 12 Games

 I've been playing around with the open version of Chat GPT, and it strikes me that this tool is going to be super helpful and also super dangerous at the same time. Nothing you probably haven't read a million times already, but the vast amounts of knowledge that is available through that interface, and its ability to condense it and spit it back to us in a way that process information better is going to help out many people across many spectrums of work. Of course, I'm going to use it for dumb little ideas.  My favorite prompt so far has been "I want to create a board game based off the movie Die Hard With a Vengeance. Can you create set of rules for gameplay for this?".  Which it did, and with a few tweaks would be a fun game.  But, more specific to this blog, I've begun querying it for new Iowa Connections, because having thousands of collections doesn't mean I can't add a few more names. Here's the problem, Chat GPT lies to me often and with su...

 For loyal readers of this blog (really mostly myself), you know that I have a fast and loose interpretation of what qualifies as an Iowa Connection.  There are the obvious categories: Born in Iowa (i.e. Joe Burrow) Went to an Iowa College (i.e. Tyrese Haliburton) Lived in Iowa (i.e. Jim Harbaugh) Those categories are pretty impeachable.  Then there are the categories that stretch the rules a bit Coached in Iowa (i.e. Ryne Sandberg) Fictional Character from Iowa (i.e. Captain James T. Kirk) Played semi-pro ball in Iowa (i.e. Ozzie Smith) Played pro ball in a 2nd tier league like the CBA (i.e. John Starks) Played for a youth league in Iowa (i.e. Alec Bohm) Named for the state of Iowa (i.e. U.S.S. Iowa) Today I look to see if I want to stretch the rules even further.  

 Let's dig into the next four cards including one I'm unsure about. 2003 Press Pass Brad Banks has Banks in the away jersey.  Our only other clue is that there is a lot of red in the stands behind him.  The railings, padding, and fan apparel.  There is also yellow in those shirts, which could mean Iowa fans mixed in, or Iowa State.   The away games with red teams are as follows: 2001 Nov. 3 at Wisconsin 2001 Nov. 24 at Iowa State 2002 Sep. 7 at Miami (OH) 2002 Oct. 19 at Indiana I lean Iowa State on this one, but can't claim it yet. STATUS : Unknown

 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 se...

Little late getting this out, but we are still in the first round.   In determining who to root for in the 2022-23 NBA Playoffs, we need to review who the Iowa Connections are for the playoff teams.  Congrats to Milwaukee!  You are this blog's choice to win it all! 1 - Denver - Ryan Bowen, Coach (Fort Madison) 1 - Minnesota - Luka Garza (Iowa) 2 - Sacramento - Keegan Murray (Iowa), Harrison Barnes (Ames) 1 - Golden State - Klint Carlson, Coach (Waverly) 0 - Los Angeles Lakers 1 - Memphis - Brad Jones, Coach (Iowa Wolves) 0 - Los Angeles Clippers 2 - Phoenix - Al McCoy, Announcer (Williams), Kevin Young, Coach (Iowa Energy) 3 - Milwaukee - Mike Dunlap, Coach (Iowa), A.J. Green (Northern Iowa), Lindell Wigginton (Iowa State) 0 - Miami 0 - Boston 2 - Atlanta - Paul Jesperson, Coach (Northern Iowa), Kyle Korver, Front Office (Pella) 2 - Philadelphia - Dave Joerger, Coach (Cedar Rapids), Georges Niang (Iowa State) 0 - Brooklyn 1 - Cleveland - Josh Broghamer, Coach (Iowa C...

 What wonders a collector's brain can come up with when left with boxes of commons and nothing but time.  That's what happened to me during the years of Covid home work time and boxes of commons that I went through over and over again. I grew up rooting for the Vikings since my dad grew up in Minnesota, and my brother started collecting Buffalo Bills because Thurman Thomas was awesome when we were kids.  We still collect these teams today, maybe a little less so, but still have decent collections.   Decent collections lead to lots of duplicates.  Decent collections lead to look at weird things like other players on cards.  Even on other team cards.  This Mike Singletary card seems to have him tackling Darrin Nelson, do I add this card to the Darrin Nelson collection? Then one day, you look at a card and think, "I wonder what game this was?"  Then the trouble question crosses your mind.  "I wonder if I can a card with a photo from EVERY g...

 Its been a few weeks now, but 2023 Topps Series I is out and its time to find the Iowa Connections.  Connections include players born in Iowa, played semi-pro ball in Iowa, played for a club team in Iowa, or played in the Field of Dreams game.  #95 Jonah Bride - Waterloo Bucks #97 Brandon Hughes - Field of Dreams Game #128 Alec Bohm - Iowa Select Black #T88-92 Ryne Sandberg - Iowa Cubs Manager BSA-AP A.J. Puk - Cedar Rapids BSA-DD Dane Dunning - Waterloo Bucks #97 SSP Brandon Hughes - Field of Dreams Game #120 SSP Patrick Wisdom - Field of Dreams Game #54 SSP Marcus Stroman - Field of Dreams Game #183 SSP Seiya Suzuki - Field of Dreams Game #308 SSP Christopher Morel - Field of Dreams Game #33 SSP Kyle Farmer - Field of Dreams Game

 I sat down today ready to dive into 2022-23 Bowman University.  I wanted to review last years set, look into the numbers and see if I could guess who might be on the checklist this year.  But the more I dug, the more I realized it just isn't feasible.   This is what I'm thinking.  Since the checklists are comprised of college students not being represented by a single entity, each player has to make their own deal with Topps.  I think that some NIL groups make it easier to get a team as a whole, but don't quote me on that.  Regardless, it does shape how Topps can build their checklist. Last years set was interesting to review as it had future NBA players such as Chet Holmgren, Keegan Murray and Walker Kessler, but missed out on 4 of the top 6 draft picks (Paulo Banchero, Jabari Smith, Jaden Ivey and Bennedict Mathurin).   I don't know the reasons, so I can only speculate.  Topps was not owned by Fanatics at the time, thus was not t...