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Carrying Nile Kinnick: A teacher's tattered note from the Iowa football legend pulls him through life

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Carrying Nile Kinnick: A teacher's tattered note from the Iowa football legend pulls him through life

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The Des Moines Register

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CLOSE

Mark Wilson carried Nile Kinnick's words in his pocket for years while teaching children with reading or attention problems and other disabilities in Iowa City. It was intense.

"You are always at a high level. You can't breathe sometimes," he said. "They would come to me, 10 classes a day, and you try to take a deep breath and do the best you can.

"Then I came across this quote."

Kinnick, the University of Iowa football star who won a Heisman Trophy in 1939, was killed during World War II. Two days before he died, on June 1, 1943, he wrote in his military journal:
"How I wish I could sing and play the piano! It is a sad mistake to be the head man in everything you attempt. The axiom 'If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing well' has its limitations. Stay on the ball most of the time, but learn to coast between moments of all-out effort."
The meaning hit Wilson. He pulled out those words so often the paper tattered. It reminded him that even the greatest in Iowa football history realized you couldn't go all out, every minute. He relaxed.

The creased and tattered copy of a Nile Kinnick quote that author Mark Wilson kept with him always while teaching students with challenges. (Photo: Special to The Register)

He found the original copy of the journal several years later in the University of Iowa's Special Collections. He was overcome with emotion.

Wilson was in the middle of a 10-year process of compiling the words and photographs of Nile Kinnick that became "The Way of Nile C. Kinnick, Jr: Insights, Images, and Stories of Iowa's 1939 Heisman Trophy Winner" from Ice Cube Press, released Saturday.

Wilson grew up in Iowa City and attended the university, where Kinnick's bronze statue stands tall outside the stadium named after him, its players tapping it for inspiration. Some said Kinnick would one day be president, he was so eloquent, thoughtful and determined at only 5-foot-8, 170 pounds.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz enters Kinnick Stadium before the Hawkeyes' game against Northern Illinois on Satuday, Sept. 1, 2018. (Photo: David Scrivner/For the Press-Citizen)

With the Kinnick quote still in his pocket in 2002, a year after retiring from teaching, Wilson became an ambassador at the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame. A graduate assistant tossed down a box of vintage trophies in the recently opened museum.

Before taking the box to the basement, Wilson peeked in the box. Broken-off statuettes were scattered about. He started piecing some together like a puzzle. He realized it was the Walter Camp Memorial Trophy, awarded to Kinnick after the 1939 season for being the best back in the country.

He had no experience repairing trophies or welding, but Wilson took it home and for three months figured out ways to get the trophy back together. Once he did, he carefully put it in the front seat of his car to transport to the museum.

A statuette promptly fell off. His heart sank. But he took it home and started over with Kinnick-like determination.

"I asked the kids not to slam the doors because it might come loose," he said.

Again, he made the trip to the museum. When he got there, he held it close in his lap and called for assistance with the 26-inch trophy. Museum officials wondered if they should call a police escort, but the trophy made it and still stands today.

Wilson became even more tied to the Kinnick story as he gathered the 366 quotes that would one day grace his book that embodied the values of education, morals and empathy.

"I'd like people to know that about Nile Kinnick," said Wilson, 71. "He was more than just a football player."

NILE KINNICK: His 1939 Heisman speech still resonates

When Wilson was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer two years ago, he again turned to Kinnick's words. He thought of the quotes from Kinnick that showed his physical and spiritual fitness and mental determination.
"For three years, nay 15 years, I have been preparing for this last year of football ... I feel confident and free from the pressure of 'absolutely necessary success' and falsely accepted responsibility. I anticipate becoming the roughest, toughest all-around back to hit the conference."
Kinnick wrote that to his parents before his Heisman-winning season.

Wilson read that often during four months of chemotherapy.

"I told myself that, like Nile, 'I'm going to do this,'" he said.

Five weeks before his chemotherapy ended, he began training for an indoor triathlon. He won his age group. Three more competitions followed. So far, he's had good reports from the doctors. Now, he wants to share the inspirations from Kinnick that have framed his life on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

"As a teacher, I didn't make a lot, so it's finally my time to give back," he said.

Wilson is donating his book royalties to Nile Kinnick scholarships.

Read or Share this story: https://dmreg.co/2NEZll7

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Carrying Nile Kinnick: A teacher's tattered note from the Iowa football legend pulls him through life

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CLOSE Mark Wilson carried Nile Kinnick's words in his pocket for years while teaching children with reading or attention problems and other disabilities in Iowa City. It was intense. "You are always at a high level. You can't breathe sometimes," he said.

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Nile Clarke Kinnick (July 9, 1918–June 2, 1943)

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Nile Clarke Kinnick (July 9, 1918–June 2, 1943)

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The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa

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-student, athlete, and naval airman-was born in Adel, Iowa. His father, Nile Clark Kin-nick, was a farm manager in Adel, and his maternal grandfather, George W. Clarke, was a former governor of Iowa. As a youth, Kin nick excelled in several sports. He played American Legion baseball, catching for future Hall of Famer Bob Feller, and in 1930 he led the Adel Junior High football team to an undefeated season. In three seasons of high school basketball, Kinnick scored more than 1,000 points.

During the Great Depression, as the Kin-nicks fell on hard times, Kinnick's father found work with the Federal Land Bank in Omaha. Kinnick finished his last two years of high school at Benson High School in Omaha, then enrolled at the State University of Iowa, where he excelled academically. As a freshman, he played on the baseball, basketball, and football teams. In his sophomore year, he dropped baseball, and as a junior he dropped basketball, in order to concentrate on his studies and football. After successful freshman and sophomore football seasons, Kinnick struggled his junior year with a painful ankle injury for which, as a Christian Scientist, he refused treatment.

In 1939, Kinnick's senior season, he became the undisputed star of a team that became known as the "Ironmen" because the roster was so thin that key players were forced to play 60 full minutes in several games. Kin-nick played an amazing 402 consecutive minutes until he was injured in the final game of the season. The undermanned Hawkeyes compiled a surprising season record of 6-1-1, highlighted by dramatic wins over Notre Dame and Minnesota. Notre Dame arrived in Iowa City with a six-game winning streak and was ranked number one in the nation. Kin-nick scored the Hawkeyes' only touchdown and converted the crucial extra point in the 7- 6 upset, and he booted a spectacular 63-yard punt in the final minutes to pin the Irish near their own goal line and preserve the win. Against the powerful Minnesota squad, the Hawkeyes fell behind 9-0, but Kinnick threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to secure the 13-9 victory.

At the end of the season, Kinnick was named to virtually every All-American list in the country, and he won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, and the Maxwell Award. In a poll conducted by the Associated Press, he was picked as the nation's top male athlete of the year over such notables as Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. In his highly acclaimed acceptance speech for the Heisman, Kinnick finished by saying, "If you will permit me, I'd like to make a comment which in my mind is indicative, perhaps, of the greater significance of football, and sports emphasis in general in this country, and that is, I thank God I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of Europe. I can speak confidently and positively that the players of this country, would much more, much rather struggle and fight to win the Heisman award, than the Croix de Guerre."Bill Cunningham of the Boston Post summarized many listeners' feelings when he wrote, "This country's O.K. as long as it produces Nile Kinnicks. The football part is incidental."

 In addition to his athletic success, Kinnick had a 3.4 grade point average, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. After graduating with a B.A. in commerce, Kinnick passed up an opportunity to play professional football and instead enrolled in law school, contemplating a career in politics like his grandfather.

After his first year in law school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Air Corps Reserve and was called to active duty three days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On June 2, 1943, Kinnick took off on a routine training flight from the carrier USS Lexington, which was on a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea. After his plane developed mechanical difficulties, Kin-nick attempted a water landing, but when rescuers reached the crash site, neither the plane nor his body was found.

After the war, the State University of Iowa's student council voted to rename the football stadium, then called Iowa Stadium, for Kin-nick, but his father objected to the plan because he did not want his son singled out from the many young men who had died in the war. In 1972 Cedar Rapids Gazette sportswriter Gus Schrader rekindled interest in naming the stadium for Kinnick, and the elder Kinnick gave his approval.

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Details Page - The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa - The University of Iowa Libraries

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student, athlete, and naval airman-was born in Adel, Iowa. His father, Nile Clark Kin-nick, was a farm manager in Adel, and his maternal grandfather, George W. Clarke, was a former governor of Iowa. As a youth, Kin nick excelled in several sports.

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Iowa History Journal

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At five foot eight inches tall and 170 pounds, he would hardly be noticed walking across a college campus, even back in 1939. In today's world, he wouldn't even be considered average in size for a 22-year-old male. Many of those who saw him on the University of Iowa campus in 1939 remembered that he was always carrying several books and that he had a quick smile for anyone who looked his way. Despite the incredible acclaim that came during his final year of college, he appeared totally unaffected. He continued in the same style that he had learned from his parents while growing up in Adel, Iowa.

Yet, what he accomplished on a football field during his career at the University of Iowa in the late 1930s has earned Nile Kinnick, Jr., a unique position in the pantheon of the state's most honored legends. He is the only athlete from the state to ever win the coveted Heisman Trophy, given to the nation's best college football player, and is the only Iowan to be named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

While alive, Nile Kinnick was a hero the likes of which this state had seldom seen before, or since. In death, he became even larger. Word of his passing in the summer of 1943, when the world was embroiled in a terrible war, sent shockwaves throughout the state that had loved and revered him, and made headlines all across the nation.

Today, the University of Iowa football stadium is named in his honor and a huge statue of him greets visitors to the beautiful plaza outside the stadium. His Heisman Trophy is on display at the Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame. School buildings in Omaha, where he spent his senior year of high school, and at the Naval Air base in Yokosuka, Japan, are also named in his honor, while Adel's oldest city park is named for him and Bob Feller, who grew up in nearby Van Meter. Both played on the baseball field there as members of the local American Legion team.

Kinnick's image graces one side of the official Big Ten Conference coin that is flipped before the start of every Big Ten football game in the fall. At the end of the season, each Big Ten captain receives a coin.

But his legacy far exceeds his athletic accomplishments. He was a Phi Betta Kappa scholar and president of his senior class at Iowa. When all the Big Ten presidents met at a conference, they selected Kinnick president of their group, as well. He was a powerful public speaker and prolific writer, as evidenced by his long diary and numerous letters to friends and fans around the Midwest.

His Heisman trophy acceptance speech in New York City stunned the crowd with its emotion and brilliance.

"...several hundred men and women rose and cheered and whistled," and "you realized the ovation wasn't alone for Nile Kinnick, the outstanding football player of the year. It was also for Nile Kinnick, typifying everything admirable in American youth," wrote an Associated Press reporter.

"This country is okay as long as it produces Nile Kinnicks. The football part is incidental," wrote Bill Cunningham of the Boston Post.

The highest praise of all came from Ronald Reagan, in 1990: "He was a wonderful leader; I think he could have been anything, even President of the United States." (1)

As a scholar, thinker, humanitarian and, finally, war hero, Nile Kinnick, Jr., has emerged as a larger-than-life figure, drawing words of praise from journalists, governors, senators and even a president. His memory has endured for decades and will undoubtedly cast a giant shadow over the land of Iowa for decades yet to come.

For six decades, Nile Kinnick, Jr., has been lionized by the media and leaders of this state and offered up as an example of what Iowa is all about. And it's in large part because of the type of man he was off the field. Though he was just 24 years and 11 months old when he perished, Nile Kinnick set a standard of excellence for all Iowans who have followed in his wake.

His story begins in Adel, today a community of some 3,500 persons situated just 10 miles west of Des Moines, in prime Iowa farm country.

The Kinnick clan came to America in the late 1770s from Holland, first settling in Maryland. They journeyed west, to Indiana, and finally arrived in Iowa in 1854. The Kinnick name soon became a fixture in the Adel area in business, farming and politics. Nile's paternal grandfather, Will, was the youngest of three boys. The two oldest brothers left to fight in the Civil War, on behalf of the Union. When his father died suddenly, Will was left alone at home to farm nearly 400 acres of prime Iowa land.

Will Kinnick married Mary Jane Stump, who lived on a farm in the Des Moines area, and they raised five children - the youngest of whom was Nile Clark Kinnick, Sr. The name "Nile" came from the Stump side of the family and has a Celtic origin which means, roughly, "courageous warrior." It was a word that would come to have great meaning for the Kinnick clan.

Not only was Will Kinnick a successful farm owner and operator, he also owned a large home in Adel and was involved in numerous civic ventures. He served on the city council and was a member of the county board of supervisors for two terms. Even today, visitors to the courthouse in the center of Adel can read his name on the plaque inside the main entrance.

Nile Sr. was born on a farm three miles north of Adel; five years later, the family (without his mother, Mary Jane, who died two years after Nile Sr. was born) moved into a house in Adel, at 219 North 12th Street. Built in 1900, the two-story wood framed structure would be home to the Kinnick family until 1934. All three of Nile Sr.'s boys were born and raised in the home, still standing today.

Nile Sr. and Frances Clarke met during their school days and quickly became a steady pair. Her father, George Clarke, was a highly-respected Adel lawyer who eventually became governor of Iowa. Nile Sr. and Frances finished one-two in the Adel High School class rankings (she was first, he was second), graduating in the spring of 1912. She attended Drake College in Des Moines at first, then transferred to Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, where she studied voice. It was also in Evanston that she became a Christian Science devotee.

Nile Sr. graduated from Iowa State University in 1916 with a degree in agronomy. While at Iowa State, he played three years of collegiate football, though weighing just one hundred and thirty five pounds. He was a quarterback and was adept at drop-kicking, a trait that would be keenly developed by his son during his football days at the other college down the road, in Iowa City, two decades later.

Though Frances had her heart set on a career as a professional concert singer, she gave it up to come back to Adel and marry Nile Sr. They moved into the Kinnick family house on North 12th Street in December of 1916 and eventually had three sons - Nile Jr., Ben and George. The boys didn't have far to go to high school. In fact, all they had to do was cross the street. Adel High school was just a football toss away, and remained the high school until ?, when it became Adel Middle School.

When The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, Nile Sr. assumed he would be drafted and sent overseas. His number was never called, however, and he stayed busy with the farming chores.

"...his part in the war was typical of many young men in the granary of the nation - to produce all he could to feed the troops and the hungry of the world," wrote D.W. Stump in his 1975 biography, Kinnick: The Man and the Legend. "A deep sense of responsibility, throughout preparation and diligent execution of one duties (a Kinnick family tradition) was put to work in the service of the nation." (2)

Among the thousands of Iowans who did serve in World War I were two famous athletes. Earl Caddock, the heavyweight wrestling champion of the world, came off a farm near Anita and saw considerable front-line action in France. He suffered lung damage but returned home to resume his mat career. In 1916, Fred Becker of Waterloo became the very first University of Iowa football player to earn All-American first team honors. He served in France with the U.S. Army and died on July 18, 1918, in the battle of Chatteau-Thierry.

NILE KINNICK, Jr.,, was born on July 9, 1918, the eldest of the sons. Ben followed just thirteen months later, while George appeared on October 19, 1926. It was a rather idyllic childhood for the Kinnick boys, growing up in a loving family environment where everyone was encouraged to work hard and dream big. Life was split between the large house in town and doing chores on the family farms, owned and operated by uncles and cousins.

Nile's youth was one of constant activity, work and learning. When not in the schoolroom, he handled some farm chores, worked various jobs and participated in rough-and-tumble football games in the Kinnick front yard. In the winter, he played basketball in a barn where his dad had rigged up baskets, and went ice skating on the Raccoon River with family and friends. He played marbles in the spring and baseball in the summer. He also worked to earn money. At age nine, he took on a newspaper route for the Des Moines Register; at age 12, he was a bagger at a grocery store and also earned money by cutting weeds and shoveling grain.

All the time, the Kinnick household was filled with conversation after supper, with the parents engaging their children in lively discussions about a wide variety of subjects. In the Kinnick home, thinking and conversing were every bit as important as playing sports.

At Adel Junior High School, Nile was a three-sport star, excelling in football, basketball and baseball. He helped the team to undefeated seasons in both football and basketball. He continued the same success in high school, and in 1933, his junior year, Adel posted its first undefeated season ever in football.

The Des Moines Register, the same paper that Nile used to deliver on Adel doorsteps, reported thusly: "Kinnick, who directed the Adel team from the quarterback position, liked the rough going and he played fiercely in every tilt of a 12-game schedule. Kinnick was versatile...and carried the ball brilliantly in the open field. His passing and punting figured prominently in every Adel game."

Adel was voted the state mythical title, and today a football signed by every member of the Adel team of 1933 can be seen in the Adel-Desoto-Minden High School trophy case.

Nile was involved in far more than athletics at school. Encouraged by his and one of his favorite coaches, Otto Kohl, as well as his parents, he participated in both speech contests and drama and worked very hard in the classroom. He maintained a near straight-A average all through high school.

When basketball season rolled around, Kinnick proved he was just as skilled on a court as he was on the football field. He scored one-third of the team's points that season as it fought its way to the finals of the district playoffs. He scored 25 points in a losing cause and drew rave reviews from the newspapers. As great as was his junior year in both football and basketball, it looked like his senior year would be one of the finest in the history of Iowa high school athletics.

BUT IT WASN'T TO BE. With the Great Depression in full swing, the economy bottomed out all across the Midwest. The Kinnicks lost much of their wealth and the family farms were, in the words of Nile Sr., "swept away." He accepted a position as a farm appraiser for the Federal Lank Bank in Omaha, about 120 miles to the west. Suddenly, young Nile was saying goodbye to Adel, where he had spent all previous seventeen years of his life. He was destined to become a Benson Bunny!

At Benson High School, Nile treated Nebraska fans and sportswriters to the same sort of shows he had given Adel. He was a sensation on the football field, several times hooking up with brother Ben for scoring strikes. In a 27-0 victory over Fremont, he ran wild on the field and he scored numerous other times during the season on dazzling runs. At the end of the season, he was named first team all-state.

That winter, he led the basketball team to third place in the Nebraska state tournament and wound up being named first team all-state in that sport, as well.

"He was a sight to behold," said a player from Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs. "I had never seen a basketball player of his abilities up 'til that time. His dribbling with either hand and all-around ball handling, (and his) ability to change speed and direction were uncanny, to say nothing of his accurate shooting." (3)

Nile also was the catcher on the Benson baseball team and helped it win the city championship. He had always done well in baseball, dating all the way back to the time he played American Legion summer baseball, on an area team that also included Bob Feller, of nearby Van Meter. In fact, most of the time when Feller was pitching, Kinnick was the catcher. Within a few years, they would be two of the most celebrated athletes in the entire nation, and future hall of famers in their respective sports!

While playing three sports at Benson, Nile was maintaining the straight A grade-point average he had brought with him from Adel. He was also very popular off the field, showing as much attention to the second and third-team players as he did to the starters.

"I am sure that those of us who grew up with Nile were aware we were with an outstanding individual, who let his actions and deeds speak for him," recalled Randy Mortimer, an Adel teammate, years later. "He was humble, almost to the point of being shy, where his abilities were concerned."

Although Kinnick was a gifted natural athlete, those who knew him well understood that he worked extremely hard to hone his skills.

"Nile was the leader, organizer and coach," said Mortimer. "He was always working to improve and perfect his talents and abilities in all sports. Nile took part in other school activities, such as plays and speech contests. He was a leader in the classroom just as he was on the field of sports." (4)

He followed in the footsteps of his father when it came to using a football. He spent hours kicking the ball, and developed extraordinary control of the trajectory. It was a skill that would play a huge role in Iowa's incredible triumph over Notre Dame several years later in Iowa City. He also worked so hard at throwing a football that he could toss it equally well with either hand, though he was not ambidextrous by nature.

With high school behind him, Nile decided it was time for a big summer trip. He and Ben took off in the family's 1929 Ford Coupe, and spent two weeks on the road in the West. They drove through Colorado, sleeping in farmer's fields a couple of nights, and down into New Mexico, then over to Los Angeles and up the coast to Seattle, visiting relatives. During the long drive, Nile had plenty of time to contemplate his upcoming college years. Recruiting was nothing at all like it was to become in the decades ahead, and college coaches confined their efforts to a letter or two and maybe a visit in the home, if the prospect was really sensational.

Both Drake University and Iowa State showed interest in the son of their graduates, but Nile was intrigued by the possibility of playing at Minnesota. Under coach Bernie Bierman, the Golden Gophers had won two national titles in the 1930s and were considered, along with Notre Dame, one of the top two football schools in the country.

"When Nile was a senior, Bernie Bierman was top dog in the Big Ten, so Nile drove up to Minneapolis to see if the Gophers had any interest in him," said Nile Sr., in an exclusive interview with Maury White of the Des Moines Register. "They didn't, not at all. Not many people know that. So he came back to Cedar Rapids....

"Otto Kohl, who had been his coach at Adel, took Nile to Iowa City and introduced him to Rollie Williams, the basketball coach whom he knew well, and to Ossie Solom, the football coach. They offered him a job and he worked a few weeks there that summer, digging ditches. Nile chose Iowa because of the law school." (5)

Bierman's decision would come back to haunt him in a stunning fashion four years later. However, looking back with the perspective of time, it simply seems that Nile Kinnick was destined to become a Hawkeye - and destined to become the most honored football player in Iowa history!
Next Issue: Part two of the Nile Kinnick Story: Hawkeye Heroism
Footnotes:
1. Personal conversation with the author on Oct. 30, 1990, in Dixon, Illinois.
2. Kinnick: The Man and the Legend, by D.W. Stump, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1975, page 12.
3. Ibid, page 26
4. Ibid, page 24
5. Des Moines Register, August 6, 1989, story by Maury White.

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By Mike Chapman At five foot eight inches tall and 170 pounds, he would hardly be noticed walking across a college campus, even back in 1939. In today's world, he wouldn't even be considered average in size for a 22-year-old ... Continue reading →

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Time Machine: When Nile Kinnick was the Cornbelt Comet

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Time Machine: When Nile Kinnick was the Cornbelt Comet

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The Gazette

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Correction: Nile Kinnick was killed in June 1943 when his plane crashed off the coast of Venezuela. A previous version of this story had the incorrect location. Updated Dec. 2, 2019, at 5:45 p.m.

In the spring of 1938, newspapers around the country carried an Associated Press story predicting what the world would be like in 1965. One of the predictions was for a "Cornbelt Comet," a streamlined wonder train that would glide across the prairie.

The following year, the nickname was appropriated and applied to a phenomenal University of Iowa football player named Nile Kinnick, winner of the Heisman Trophy, college football's highest honor.

Kinnick played high school football in Adel, in central Iowa, before moving to Omaha for his senior year.

He came back to Iowa to play college football in 1936. Kinnick - the grandson of George C. Clarke, Iowa's governor from 1913 to 1917 - was a UI freshman quarterback.

As a sophomore, he was a halfback and good enough to be named to AP's second team. He also was named outstanding sophomore player in the Big Ten.

He injured his ankle and sat out more of his junior year.

Year of 'Iron Men'

Then came Kinnick's senior year, 1939, when the Hawkeyes went from cellar dwellers to No. 2 in the Big Ten - the year of the "Iron Men," the team that would upset top-ranked Notre Dame in one of Iowa's most famous victories.

It was Oct. 15 that the first reference to Kinnick as the "Cornbelt Comet" appeared in The Gazette's sports pages when sports writer Tait Cummins analyzed each of the Iron Men in his "Red Peppers, Hot Sports Chatter" column.

For Kinnick he wrote, "An introvert. Concentrates harder on the task at hand than any man on the squad. Attacks the game with a fierceness which is apparent even in practice. ... His respect for Coach Anderson borders on adoration. Extremely approachable, Kinnick nevertheless keeps admirers at arm's length until he's sized them up. ... Popular with his mates, which possibly is the best tribute."

The Hawkeyes' destiny seemed sealed by the seventh game when Bill Green's pass landed in Kinnick's hands for the winning touchdown over a favored Minnesota team. For the first time since the tradition started in 1935, the bronze pig, Floyd of Rosedale, came home with the Hawkeyes.

As a senior, Kinnick had a hand in 107 of the 123 points the team had scored by the Minnesota game. He also was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, held a 3.8 grade average and did about two hours of clerical or janitorial work every day.

'Courageous Best'

The last game of the season at Northwestern was the one that could give the Hawkeyes the Big Ten crown.

There was a rally before the team left for Evanston. Coach Eddie Anderson later told a reporter, "Kinnick was called upon for some words. He was perfectly at ease as he stood there. Then he said something which impressed me. 'I'll promise you this,' he told that gathering, 'we'll do our level best, our most courageous best.' Our 'most courageous best' - I had never heard that phrasing and yet it is something so typical of Kinnick."

The battle with Northwestern in Evanston, on a cold, windy, overcast day, ended in a 7-7 tie that gave Ohio State the championship and Iowa second place. The brutal game ended for Kinnick in the third quarter when he suffered a shoulder separation.

Both teams cheered for Kinnick as he left the field.

The Heisman

On Monday, Nov. 27, when the Big Ten coaches picked their all-star football team, only one player was a unanimous pick: Nile Kinnick. On Dec. 6, he was awarded the Heisman Trophy at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City.

When he received the Walter Camp Memorial trophy in Washington, D.C., as the "best football player of the year" in January 1940, Kinnick again impressed his audience by saying, "Thank God, I've been dodging tacklers instead of bullets and throwing footballs instead of hand grenades ... thank God for America."

Kinnick, who stayed at Iowa to study law, gave up a job as assistant coach to enlist in the Navy in December 1941, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II.

Ensign Kinnick graduated from the naval air base in Miami in September 1942. He was back in Iowa to toss as few footballs before the Hawks played Washington University.

He was assigned to an aircraft carrier in the spring. On June 4, 1943, 24-year-old Nile Kinnick was killed in action when his fighter plane crashed off the coast of Venezuela. His body was not recovered.

His brother, Ben, would die in a year later in the South Pacific.

A Naval air station fieldhouse in Olathe, Kan., was named for Kinnick in August 1943. Tokyo's Meiji stadium was renamed in his honor in 1946.

Iowa students pushed to rename the football stadium in his honor, but a scholarship was established instead. The honor finally came his way in 1972, when the site of his football heroics was renamed Kinnick Stadium.

Comments: (319) 398-8338; d.fannonlangton@gmail.com

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Time Machine: When Nile Kinnick was the Cornbelt Comet

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Correction: Nile Kinnick was killed in June 1943 when his plane crashed off the coast of Venezuela. A previous version of this story had the incorrect location. Updated Dec. 2, 2019, at 5:45 p.m. In the spring of 1938, newspapers around the country carried an Associated Press story predicting what the world would be like in 1965.

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Rare and early newspapers

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THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 10, 1943

* re. Nile Kinnick death
* Iowa Hawkeyes Heisman trophy winner
* NCAA college football

This 40 page newspaper has a small one column heading on page 28:"Memorial to Kinnick Is Planned by Iowa"

Other news, sports and advertisements throughout with much on WWII. Nice condition.

wikipedia notes: On June 2, 1943, Kinnick was on a routine training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16), which was off the coast of Venezuela in the Gulf of Paria. Kinnick had been flying for over an hour when his F4F Wildcat developed an oil leak so serious that he could neither reach land nor the Lexington, whose flight deck was in any case crowded with planes preparing for launch. Kinnick followed standard military procedure and executed an emergency landing in the water, but died in the process. Rescue boats arrived on the scene a mere eight minutes later, but they found only an oil slick. His body was never recovered. Nile Kinnick was the first Heisman Trophy winner to die; he was a month and seven days away from his 25th birthday.

Iowa sportscaster Tait Cummins said, "Kinnick proved one thing, that college athletics could be beautiful. Everything that can be said that is good about college athletics he was. He didn't represent it...he was it."

In a letter to Kinnick's parents, Kinnick's lieutenant commander, Paul Buie, wrote, "Having lost all oil the engine, without lubrication, failed, forcing Nile to land in the water." Kinnick's squadron mate, Bill Reiter, also confirmed that the oil leak was so bad that Kinnick was forced to land four miles before he could reach the Lexington. This varies slightly from the often-repeated legend that Kinnick could have made it back to the ship but instead chose to land in the water to spare the ship's crew from danger. While Kinnick gave his life for his country, the decision to land his plane in the water was standard military procedure, and a landing on the Lexington, given his situation, was an impossibility, not a deliberately bypassed option.

There is also some uncertainty about exactly how Kinnick died. Reiter was the only person who claimed to have seen Kinnick clear of the plane and motionless in the water. Reiter died three months later in battle at Wake Island, which would have been Kinnick's first military mission had he lived.

Since Kinnick's body was never found, it is possible that Kinnick was still tethered to the plane. Dick Tosaw, whose brother played high school football with Kinnick, has repeatedly pursued the idea of finding and salvaging Kinnick's plane, and making a monument at Kinnick Stadium or at Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School. But the possibility, however remote, that Kinnick's body is still with the plane led to overwhelming opposition to Tosaw's efforts. Nile Kinnick Sr. opposed the idea, saying that it would be like digging up his son's grave. Kinnick's teammates were also unanimously opposed to the idea. Such strong opposition from Kinnick's teammates, relatives, and fans scuttled Tosaw's plans.

Category: The 20th Century

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timothy hughes rare and early newspapers

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THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 10, 1943 * re. Nile Kinnick death * Iowa Hawkeyes Heisman trophy winner * NCAA college football This 40 page newspaper has a small one column heading on page 28:"Memorial to Kinnick Is Planned by Iowa" Other news, sports and advertisements throughout with much on WWII.

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Big Ten Network

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Nile Kinnick’s 1939 Heisman Trophy Speech and University of Iowa Fight Song

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Nile Kinnick’s 1939 Heisman Trophy Speech and University of Iowa Fight Song

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The Heisman website

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"The Cornbelt Comet"

RB | Senior | University of Iowa

Kinnick won Iowa's first Heisman while leading his team to a 6-1-1 record.
Born in Adel, Iowa, Kinnick was the grandson of a governor and a star athlete in football and basketball at Adel High for three years before the family moved to Omaha, Neb., after his junior year.

Kinnick grew to be 5-8 and 170 pounds and, after failing a football tryout with Minnesota, he went to Iowa. His shifty running style helped earn him the nickname "The Cornbelt Comet."

The Hawkeyes struggled in those days, though. The team went 1-7 when Kinnick was all-Big Ten as a sophomore in 1937 and 1-6-1 in 1938 when Kinnick was slowed to a near halt by an ankle injury suffered in the opening game.

In 1939, Kinnick was on the field an average of 57 minutes per game. He played 402 consecutive minutes against Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Notre Dame, Minnesota and Northwestern before a separated shoulder in the season-finale against the Wildcats forced him to the sideline.

A halfback who was the team's main passer, Kinnick threw for 638 yards and 11 touchdowns as well as rushing for 374 yards on 106 carries (3.5-yard average). He also made 11-of-17 dropkick conversion attempts and scored 41 points. By passing, running or kicking, Kinnick was directly involved in 107 of Iowa's 130 points that season. He also made eight interceptions.

He finished his career with 1,674 yards rushing, 18 interceptions (an Iowa record that lasted half a century) and an average of 39.9 yards per punt.

Kinnick was named the Big Ten MVP award as well as the winner of the Walter Camp and Maxwell awards, plus the Heisman Trophy. In his acceptance speech at the Heisman Dinner, Kinnick reflected the prevailing isolationist mood of the country, saying that he thanked God he had been born in America, "where they have football fields instead of in Europe where they have battlefields." And he added that he knew, "the football players of this country had rather battle for such medals as the Heisman Trophy than for such medals as the Croix de Guerre and the Iron Cross."

During World War II, Nile was a pilot attached to an aircraft carrier in the Caribbean. In June 1943, he crash-landed his fighter in the sea and was killed in action.

Kinnick was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1951.

More Articles About Nile Kinnick

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Kinnick won Iowa's first Heisman while leading his team to a 6-1-1 record. Born in Adel, Iowa, Kinnick was the grandson of a governor and a star athlete in football and basketball at Adel High for three years before the family moved to Omaha, Neb., after his junior year.