50 free Iowa Hawkeyes Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Iowa football has a Heisman winner who died in World War II, a coach who painted the visitors' locker room pink, uniforms borrowed from the Pittsburgh Steelers and a bronze pig that two states fight over every autumn. This quiz covers the whole program: the 1920s national titles under Howard Jones, the 1929 expulsion from the Big Ten, Forest Evashevski's Rose Bowl teams, the Forgotten Season of 1960, Hayden Fry's rebuild and Tiger Hawk, Kirk Ferentz's record tenure, the trophy games against Minnesota, Iowa State, Nebraska and Wisconsin, the famous upsets at Kinnick and the Wave to the children's hospital. ANF stickers and In Heaven There Is No Beer included.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which town do the Hawkeyes play their home games?
Iowa City
Kinnick Stadium holds 69,250, the 25th-largest college football venue in the country.
Q 02Kinnick Stadium is named after the school's only winner of which award?
Heisman Trophy
Nile Kinnick won it in 1939 and died in a 1943 training flight. The stadium was renamed for him in 1972.
Q 03Kinnick Stadium was renamed in honour of Nile Kinnick in which year?
1972
It had opened as Iowa Stadium in 1929; before that the team played at Iowa Field.
Q 04Who has been Iowa's head coach since 1999, the longest current tenure in FBS?
Kirk Ferentz
He took over from Hayden Fry, for whom he had been an assistant, and is in his 28th season.
Q 05Nicknamed the 'Ironmen', Iowa's surprise 1939 team was coached by whom?
Eddie Anderson
A handful of players took nearly every snap. Anderson missed 1943–45 to serve in World War II.
Q 06Which Hall of Fame coach led Iowa to 20 straight wins and national titles in 1921 and 1922?
Howard Jones
He soon left to build a powerhouse at Southern California, and Iowa was dismal for most of the 1930s.
Q 07What happened to Iowa's Big Ten membership on May 25, 1929?
The school was expelled
The reasons were never stated officially, but player compensation was suspected. Iowa was reinstated in February 1930.
Q 08Calvin Jones became the first Hawkeye, and first African-American, to win which award in 1955?
Outland Trophy
Coach Forest Evashevski recruited him. Jones and Larry Station are the only two-time consensus All-Americans in school history.
Q 09Iowa's Rose Bowl wins under its 1950s coach came in 1957 and which other year?
1959
Iowa beat California 38–12 and was named 1958 national champion by the Football Writers Association after the bowls.
Q 10Who was MVP of the 1957 Rose Bowl, Iowa's first win in the game?
Ken Ploen
The quarterback ran for one touchdown and threw for another in a 35–19 win over Oregon State.
Q 11Why is the 1960 Hawkeye season known as the 'Forgotten Season'?
The team missed the bowls despite a No. 2 ranking
The Big Ten allowed only a Rose Bowl trip, and co-champion Minnesota was picked instead.
Q 12Which coach went 0–11 in 1973, the low point of Iowa's two-decade slump?
Frank Lauterbur
His three-year record was 4–28–1. Iowa did not have a winning season between 1961 and 1981.
Q 13Which Hall of Fame coach was hired after the 1978 season to revive the program?
Hayden Fry
He vowed to resign if Iowa did not reach a bowl within four years. It took three.
Q 21Who caught the 56-yard game-winning touchdown known as 'The Catch' in the 2005 Capital One Bowl?
Warren Holloway
It was his first and only career touchdown, beating Nick Saban's defending champion LSU 30–25.
Q 22Which quarterback threw 'The Catch' to beat LSU in January 2005?
Drew Tate
Iowa had led all game before falling behind 25–24 with 46 seconds left.
Q 23Whose interception set up the last-second field goal that beat No. 3 Penn State in 2008?
Tyler Sash
Daniel Murray kicked the 31-yarder with one second left. Iowa later honoured Sash with a gold '#9' helmet decal after his death in 2015.
Q 14What color did the coach hired in 1979 have the visitors' locker room painted?
Pink
The stated idea was to 'calm' opponents. It remains widely reviled by visiting teams.
Q 15Iowa's uniforms were modelled, with permission, on which NFL team's?
Pittsburgh Steelers
Fry asked 'Mean' Joe Greene for a replica; the owners sent copies of Terry Bradshaw's home and away kits three days later.
Q 16What is the name of the helmet logo created in 1979 with the new coach's help?
Tiger Hawk
It has been removed from the helmets five times as a symbol of mourning, including after a 1991 campus shooting.
Q 17What do the letters on Iowa's 'ANF' helmet sticker stand for?
America Needs Farmers
First worn in 1985 during the farm crisis, it came off in 1992 under NCAA decal rules and Kirk Ferentz restored it in 2009.
Q 18Iowa's 1985 team spent most of October ranked where in both major polls?
No. 1
Fry's best team won a then-record 10 games and Iowa's first outright Big Ten title in 27 years.
Q 19Which kicker beat No. 2 Michigan 12–10 with a field goal as time expired in 1985?
Rob Houghtlin
Quarterback Chuck Long drove Iowa from its own 22 with 5:27 left in what many call the greatest game at Kinnick.
Q 20Iowa's 1981 upset of No. 7 Nebraska avenged what scoreline from the year before in Lincoln?
57–0
Iowa won 10–7, held the Huskers to 234 yards and went on to its first winning season since 1961 and a Rose Bowl.
Q 24Iowa's first BCS bowl win came in the 2010 Orange Bowl against which team?
Georgia Tech
Ricky Stanzi threw for two first-quarter touchdowns. Iowa is one of only five Big Ten teams to win an Orange Bowl.
Q 25Which freshman kicker's 33-yard field goal beat No. 2 Michigan in 2016?
Keith Duncan
A 5–4 Iowa team beat the 9–0 Wolverines on a day when Nos. 2, 3 and 4 all lost, something last seen on October 19, 1985.
Q 26By what score did Iowa stun No. 3 Ohio State at Kinnick in 2017?
55–24
Ohio State was a 21-point favourite. Tight end Noah Fant caught two touchdowns from Nate Stanley in the last three minutes of the half.
Q 27Iowa plays Minnesota each year for a bronze statue of what animal?
A pig
Floyd of Rosedale dates to a 1935 bet by Minnesota's governor. It is Iowa's oldest trophy game.
Q 28Iowa and Iowa State play annually for which prize?
Cy-Hawk Trophy
The Des Moines Athletic Club donated it when the series resumed in 1977 after a 43-year gap. Iowa leads the trophy series 31–17.
Q 29Iowa and Nebraska have played for the Heroes Trophy on which day since 2011?
The Friday after Thanksgiving
The series became a conference game when Nebraska joined the Big Ten. Iowa leads the trophy series 11–4.
Q 30Which prize have Iowa and Wisconsin played for since 2004?
Heartland Trophy
The trophy series is tied 10–10, while Wisconsin leads the overall series 49–48–2.