By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 1981 Iowa football team will always have a special place in history because that is when hope finally turned into more than just hope.

That’s when nearly two decades of misery finally ended for Hawkeye football fans as Hayden Fry’s 1981 squad shocked the college football world by winning a share of the 1981 Big Ten title, by playing in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 23 years, and by ending 19 years of non-winning seasons.

What seemed impossible suddenly became possible, thanks to the 1981 squad, and that will forever put it on a pedestal.

But as important as the 1981 squad was from a historical standpoint, it wasn’t Hayden Fry’s best Iowa team.

That distinction belongs to the 1985 Iowa squad, which was ranked No. 1 in the polls for five weeks, was the first Iowa team to win at least 10 games in a season, finishing 10-2 overall, and the last Iowa team to win the Big Ten title outright.

Iowa Athletics will honor the 1985 team, marking its 40th anniversary, during Saturday’s game against No. 11 Indiana at Kinnick Stadium.

Fry’s greatness at Iowa reached its peak during the 1985 season, but to the dismay and shock of Hawkeye fans, the season ended with a 45-28 loss to UCLA in the 1986 Rose Bowl. It was one of the most deflating losses in program history, partly because nobody could have envisioned  the game unfolding the way it did.

Turnovers and the inability to stop UCLA’s rushing attack, which was led by led by Eric Ball’s 227 rushing yards and four touchdowns, was a recipe for disaster.

Iowa’s other loss in 1985 came at Ohio State by a score of 22-13 on a rain-soaked Saturday in early November.

Iowa was 7-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation heading into the Ohio State game.

The loss to Ohio State cost Iowa its No. 1 ranking, but it also seems to have lit a spark as Iowa bounced back in dominating fashion by crushing Illinois 59-0 a week later at Kinnick Stadium.

Hayden Fry’s 1985 squad was solid in all three phases of the game, and it stayed healthy for the most part.

The offense featured fifth-year quarterback Chuck Long, who finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy that season; multi-talented senior running back Ronnie Harmon, who finished with over 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards in 1985, and senior left tackle Mike Haight.

All three would go on to be selected in the first round of the 1986 NFL Draft.

Iowa’s defense in 1985 was led by three-time All-America senior linebacker Larry Station, junior tackle Jeff Drost, senior nose guard Hap Peterson, and senior defensive backs Jay Norvell and Devon Mitchell.

The 1985 squad was loaded with veteran players in key roles.

And just imagine if tight end Jonathan Hayes had chosen to stay at Iowa for his senior season instead of declaring for the 1985 NFL Draft as junior.

Hayes was selected in the second round by the Kansas City Chief and would go on to have a successful NFL career.

The amount of talent on the Iowa rosters in the mid-1980s, and especially in 1985, was a testimony to Fry and to his remarkable coaching staff that included future head coaches Bill Snyder, Barry Alvarez, Bob Stoops, Dan McCarney, Kirk Ferentz and Don Patterson.

Snyder’s rebuilding job at Kansas State in the early 1990s still is regarded as one, if not the greatest rebuild in the history of major college football.

Alvarez also achieved legendary status for rebuilding the Wisconsin program, while Ferentz is now the Big Ten’s all-time winningest head football coach with 207 wins.

McCarney also rebuilt Iowa State’s program in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while Patterson had nearly a decade of success as the head coach for Western Illinois.

There were so many winners on Iowa’s 1985 squad, players and coaches.

And many of them will return to Iowa City this weekend to celebrate the 40-year anniversary of the 1985 team.

Chuck Long said Friday morning on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast that he’s heard that at least 75 players from the 1985 squad will be in town this weekend, including Ronnie Harmon.

Sadly, Hayden Fry won’t be part of the festivities as he passed away in 2019 at the age of 90.

But Fry’s legend and his vast influence lives on forever as he helped to change the course of so many young lives for the better.

Fry was the first Division I head coach to offer Chuck Long a scholarship, and it was easy to see why since Long was mostly a wishbone quarterback in high school with average running skills. He only threw about four or five passes per game in high school, and yet, Fry saw potential in Long where other coaches didn’t see it.

Following Iowa’s offer, Long also received scholarship offers from Northwestern and Northern Illinois, but that was it.

“Hayden Fry believed in me when nobody else did,” Long said. “He really did change the course of my life.”

Long was overwhelmed at first as a Hawkeye, and he even questioned if he was in over his head.

But his father encouraged him to stay at Iowa and to just keep working and listening to his coaches.

Father obviously knew best.

Fry and his assistants helped to change the lives of all the players from the 1985 team who plan to be Iowa City this weekend.

The 1985 squad had players from all over the country, along with, of course, players from instate.

Long grew up in Wheaton, Illinois, while Ronnie Harmon was from New York City, Queens specifically.

Larry Station was from Omaha of all places.

He turned down Nebraska at a time when hardly anybody from nearby turned down Nebraska.

Station was a high school senior in 1981 when Iowa had its breakthrough season, as was Ronnie Harmon.

They apparently had seen enough to believe that Fry was on the verge of doing something special.

The high point of the 1985 season was undoubtably the 12-10 win over Michigan in the sixth game when Iowa was ranked No. 1 and Michigan No. 2.

Fans rushed the field at Kinnick Stadium after Rob Houghtlin’s 29-yard game-winning field goal cleared the uprights as time expired.

The same Iowa program that didn’t have a winning season in the 1970s, and that finished 0-11 in 1973, was on top of the mountain and looking down at everyone else in 1985.

The team ultimately fell short of its goal of winning a national title, but it still reached a level that so few have at Iowa.

It played a fun style of football in which the passing game was a key component in a conference that wasn’t known for its passing offenses.

Hayden Fry was ahead of his time as an offensive strategist, as was Bill Snyder, and the 1985 squad was their masterpiece.

Dan McCarney, who grew up in Iowa City and is a former Hawkeye player and assistant coach, will serve as the honorary captain for the Indiana game on Saturday.

McCarney is known as a master motivator and he will use those motivational skills as he addresses the current Iowa team before the Indiana game.

He will almost certainly bring up the 1985 squad and tell the current players that so many from that team will be in the stands cheering on Saturday.

The 1985 team set a standard that other Hawkeye teams to this day try to meet.

It was Hayden Fry at his absolute best.