Two decades later, Iowa fans still captivated by Bob Sanders
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The first time I ever heard mention of Bob Sanders was the summer of 1999.
His name came up during a phone conversation with veteran recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who referred to Sanders by his real first name of Demond.
There was no Iowa connection at the time with Sanders entering his senior year of high school in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Lemming was mentioning some of the top recruits in Pennsylvania, and to his credit, he included Sanders in his annual preseason magazine as a player to watch in his state. And to this day, I still remember Lemming saying that he felt Sanders had a chance to play college football at the highest level, and that he might be a good fit for Iowa, which was just starting to rebuild under Kirk Ferentz.
The next time I spoke with Lemming about Sanders, about three months later, Iowa had offered Sanders a scholarship, which Sanders accepted over his only other offer from Ohio.
Kirk Ferentz listened to the advice of his close friend and mentor Joe Moore, who knew Sanders and felt that he was worth offering a scholarship.
Sanders would then go on to prove Moore and Lemming right by becoming not only one of the greatest Iowa football players of all time, but also one of the most respected and admired Hawkeye student-athletes of all time regardless of sport.
There will never be another Nile Kinnick, nor will there ever be another Demond “Bob” Sanders.
I was reminded of that while ranking the top 10 Iowa defensive backs of all time. It came down to Sanders and Kinnick for the top spot, and I chose Sanders, and not one Hawkeye fan complained about it.
That’s the power and mystique of Bob Sanders.

Two decades later, Iowa fans still are captivated by him, how he helped lead the resurgence under Kirk Ferentz as a terrorizing strong safety, and with how he changed the tempo of Hawkeye football with his toughness, competitiveness and moxie.
Nile Kinnick will always have his place at the top of Iowa’s list of star athletes, and deservedly so because of how he lived and how he played, and because of how died serving his country at the age of 24.
Kinnick is a sports hero whose legend continues to grow over time.
Kinnick Stadium is named after him, and his inspiring Heisman Trophy-acceptance speech from 1939 is played before every home game.
There is also a statue of Kinnick that stands in the plaza entrance just south of Kinnick Stadium.
For the seven home games, the Iowa players walk past the statue and pay their respects on the way to the locker room.
Nile Kinnick is everywhere, as he should be because he stood for everything that is right about college athletics.
Bob Sanders, on the other hand, has sort of disappeared after having retired from the NFL in 2011.
I’m told that he lives in Arizona and is focused on raising his kids and just being a dad.
Sanders was an honorary guest at FryFest in 2018 and he spent most of his time signing autographs and posing for photos with fans.
He was very gracious with his time and he met with reporters and talked about how Kirk Ferentz changed his life by offering him a scholarship.
“He didn’t have to do it,” Sanders said “I was going to walk-on, actually. But he offered to give me a scholarship and he gave me a chance. He put me on the field.
“So that changed my life and changed my whole career. So I am forever indebted to him, and that’s what I want him to know.”
Sanders never sought the spotlight as a player, but he also couldn’t avoid it because of who he was as a player.
As good as he was at Iowa, he was just as good in the NFL where he was named the Defensive Player of the Year in 2007.

The way it’s been described to me, Sanders made everybody better at Iowa because you had to be better to keep up with his relentless approach to playing football.
Kirk Ferentz once told me that the tempo just changed when Sanders stepped on the field for practice.
He led more with his actions, and with his actions came a level of violence that probably wouldn’t work in today’s game.
No matter the size of his opponent, Bob Sanders always seemed to win the collisions, and he always played down hill.
Iowa fans love Sanders partly because he defied the odds in so many ways as an undersized and unheralded recruit. He also helped to rebuild the Iowa program, and he played with a level of violence that energized the fans.
Sanders wasn’t a dirty player. But he also showed no mercy on the playing field.
That I could justify ranking him ahead of Nile Kinnick, who intercepted 18 passes in 24 games as a Hawkeye, and that Iowa fans would accept that ranking says so much about Sanders’ legend.
I’ll never forget his first game as a Hawkeye against Kansas State in the 2000 Kickoff Classic in Kansas City, and not just because it was hotter than the surface of the sun that day.
What I remember most about that game, which Iowa lost 27-7, was the spark provided by Sanders on special teams.
He pursued the person carrying the football like nobody I had seen before.
And though, he was known mostly for his bone-crunching hits, Sanders also thrived in the Iowa strength and conditioning program and that helped him become faster and more agile.
If Iowa fans were asked to rank their top five favorite players of all time, I’m guessing a majority of them would have Kinnick and Sanders in the top five, but as for the other three, that’s harder to say.
I’ve spent the past couple weeks ranking the top 10 Iowa players at each position as part of a series, and it has helped to remind me that Bob Sanders might be the second most popular and impactful Hawkeye of all time behind Nile Kinnick.
So yes, Tom Lemming was right about Sanders being a good fit for Iowa.