October 14, 1939 – Iowa’s Ironmen Team featuring Nile Kinnick lose their only football game of the season to Michigan in Ann Arbor 27-7.

Coming into the 1939 Big Ten football season, the hapless Iowa Hawkeyes had accumulated a won/loss record of just 2–13–1 over the last two seasons (1937-1938), finishing among the worst three teams in the Big Ten every year during the 1930’s except 1933. Iowa had won just one conference game in the last three years, and the team they beat, Chicago, had just announced that they would be dropping their football program following the 1939 season.

Despite the loss to Michigan and a season-ending tie with Northwestern, the 1939 Iowa Hawkeyes (6-1-1) – under the direction of Coach Eddie Anderson and the on-field leadership of Heisman-winner Nile Kinnick – the Ironmen became one of the most memorable teams in Iowa football history.

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