FB: American Rivers Conference

[Pat Coleman]

I don't have any more details whatsoever. All I saw is what was in USA Today Sports Weekly's transactions when I was editing them earlier in the week.

It's always cool to see a familiar name in that file.

[DutchFan2004]

Charlie Kohawk,

I think you hit the nail on the head about character and Division 3 and the love of the game.  The kids here are here for an education and to play football.  Not playfootball and then if I am lucky get a degree. 

[Floyd in Iowa City]

"I haven't been around the conference relatively long, but is there anything remotely close to the dominance Wartburg has had in wrestling the last 10 years?"

Luther, Upper Iowa, and B.V. also had periods of dominance in wrestling, but nothing that would resemble what Wartburg has done.  The Norse have been very good over the past five years (finished 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 4th over the past five years nationally), yet they really haven't come close to touching Wartburg other than nationals last season.  Luther has five guys ranked right now and finished 3rd at the National Duals, but the Norse are fortunate if they just lose 6 of the 10 matches in a dual against Wartburg.

Wartburg is the clear-cut #1 team going into nationals.  Augsburg losing their 157-pound undefeated 3-time champ really hurts the team's chances of defending last year's title.

Luther and Loras looked very good this past Saturday at Dubuque.  B.V., Simpson, and Coe all had solid to good teams but Luther and Loras clearly looked a notch ahead.  Should be another good national tourney for the Iowa Conference.

Wartburg Basketball under Buzz, Wartburg Baseball right now, Luther Baseball before WWII, Luther Track and Field in the 1960s-1980s, Luther Cross in the 1960s-1980s, Luther Women's Tennis the whole time, and other programs (see Central in volleyball and football among other sports) have had amazing runs.  Each sport is different about how difficult it is to win every game, etc., but there is no doubt that Wartburg Wrestling is having one of the best runs that the IIAC has seen for any sport.

[Walston Hoover]

I had at one point typed up the longest streaks, I'll see if I can dig it up in my old computer.

[Walston Hoover]

THe longest streaks in IIAC Male Sports
XC Luther 11 '71-'81
Football Central 5 '83-'87
Soccer Luther 4 '96-'99
Basketball Wartburg 9 '67-75
Indoor Track Wartburg has won all 3 titles
Wrestling Wartburg 13 '93-current
Baseball Wartburg 9 97-current
Tennis Luther 13 '64-76
The Longest Streaks:
GOLF CENTRAL 16 '81-96
OUTDOOR TRACK Luther 16 '63-78

There you have it. It appears Central and Luther have the longest streak, I wasn't around for them. Were they dominating to the point that noone stood a chance against them?

[dutchfan1]

No love for the female sports, WH? 

[Walston Hoover]

I'm putting that off as long as possible 
Within days there will be a testosterone deficiency in my house.
Actually I do have those numbers some where, but can't seem to find them
I think Luther's women's tennis won something like 21 or 26 titles in a row

[Charlie Kohawk]

Nice article in today's Cedar Rapids Gazette about Fred Jackson.

Former Kohawk Jackson gets NFL chance

Mike Hlas The Gazette

    Running backs who are 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, can run around and over defenders, and who pile up huge statistics in college football are called this:
    NFL prospects.
    Unless they played college ball at the NCAA Division III level. Then, no one but the player, his family and maybe his teams believe he belongs in the NFL.
    Well, a former Coe College D-III All-America is getting his shot to defy serious odds. Fredrick Jackson, the Iowa Conference's Most Valuable Player in 2001 and 2002, has signed a free agent contract with the Buffalo Bills.
    Yes, this is 2006. But the road to the NFL from Coe College is rarely traveled and certainly not a straight one. You could ask former Kohawk running back Carey Bender, whose last season at the school was 1994, and who showed up on Buffalo's active roster for one game in 1996.
    But Bender, who was on the Bills' practice squad for much of 1995 and 1996, was 5-foot-7 and 185 pounds or thereabouts. Put his talent and drive in a typical NFL running back's body, and he probably has a nice, long pro career.
    Jackson, of Fort Worth, Texas, has NFL size. But he still had that D-III tag to overcome, even though he rushed for 1,702 yards and scored 29 touchdowns as a Coe senior. He was the school's male athlete of the year in 2001 and 2002.
    ''I got some NFL workouts out of college,'' Jackson said Wednesday as he took a break from his own workout on the Coe campus. ''But it's a big leap from Division III to the NFL. I had to show I could play at another level.''
    But Jackson went to a place that doesn't routinely send players along to the NFL. In 2004, he began a two-year stint with the Sioux City Bandits of United Indoor Football. That's a low rung of indoor football, which may be redundant. Jackson is the first player in the league's two-year history to sign an NFL contract.
    It didn't hurt that Coe graduate Marv Levy rejoined the Bills' organization last month, as general manager. Levy was Buffalo's coach when Bender was added to the team.
    But Sioux City Coach Jose Jefferson already had led Jackson to an agent who got him tryouts with other NFL organizations. After Jackson was UIF's Most Valuable Player in 2005 with 1,770 rushing yards, 442 receiving yards, 1,467 return yards and 53 touchdowns, how could he be ignored? Especially since many indoor football players have fared well in the NFL.
    The Arena Football League doesn't have much rushing, but UIF makes its linebackers play 5 yards off the line of scrimmage. So Jackson ran in Sioux City. And ran.
    ''The indoor game is so much faster,'' Jackson said. ''I think that will help me. Linebackers can run a 5.0 in the 40 and a running back can run a 4.3, but there's not much difference in the indoor game because space is so tight.''
    This Buffalo contract may be more than just some deal when a player is signed by an NFL team to be a tackling dummy for several weeks in the summer and then released. Buffalo has allocated Jackson to NFL Europe to get several games of seasoning. Training camp begins next week in Orlando, Fla. Jackson is slated to play this spring with the Rhein Fire in Dusseldorf, Germany.
    One of Jackson's teammates will be Tyson Smith of Iowa State, a linebacker with the New York Giants. Others slated to be in NFL Europe this year include former Iowa players C.J. Jones, Fred Russell and Pete Traynor.
    ''I have to earn a spot,'' Jackson said, ''but I have a good opportunity to get it.''
    Getting a shot at an NFL roster this year, he said, ''is something I always felt I could do.
    ''I've always wanted to play football, and I knew I had a short window of opportunity to get to the NFL. When I was at Sioux City, I knew it was a league that not a lot of people take seriously. There was some doubt that anybody was looking at us.''
    But somebody's always looking. Two of Buffalo's four returning halfbacks weren't drafted out of college. Offensive lineman Traynor signed a two-year contract with the Green Bay Packers last week after playing for three years with the Quad City Steamwheelers of af2, the minorleague affiliate of the Arena Football League.
    Now Jackson has the chance to go from Coe to Sioux City to Dusseldorf to football's highest level.
    ''It's just through hard work,'' he said. Then he resumed his afternoon workout. He has a big year ahead.

[The Show]

Nice article Charlie.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jackson a back-up RB in high school?

[Charlie Kohawk]

You are correct sir. Freddy was a backup to some highly recruited back whose name escapes me. He came to Coe as a fast skinny kid who wanted to play football and worked his way onto the NFL radar.

[The Show]

It would be interesting to find out where that guy went to school and if he ever amounted to much...

[PainTrain]

The kid that played in front of Freddy, if memory serves me correct, went to TCU and was L.T's backup.  Not sure if he was ever the feature back down there or not.  Either way, Freddy was a backup in high school and his twin barely played. Patrick was still a two-time all-conference first teamer......says a lot bout big school football in Texas!

[sportsknight]

Wartburg's 2006 schedule is out.  I know a couple other schools have theirs out already too, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

http://www.go-knights.net/06FBsked.htm

[Charlie Kohawk]

The kid who played in front of Freddy in high school was Tommicus Walker, who played at TCU, Nebraska and Southwest Missouri State.

[The Show]

Well traveled...