FB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

7 - The number of int's Dubuque threw against Ithaca in their 1979 playoff game!!! 

[DutchFan2004]

7 - The number of int's Dubuque threw against Ithaca in their 1979 playoff game!!! 

Ouch!

[DBQ1965]

7 - The number of int's Dubuque threw against Ithaca in their 1979 playoff game!!! 

The Spartans have been throwing interceptions as long as I can remember ... even in the good years!

[sc_stormchaser]

7 - IIAC record, Touchdowns in 1 game

• Guy Leman (Simpson) 7 vs. Luther 11/14/98

7 - IIAC record, Interceptions in 1 game

• Buena Vista (team record) 7 vs. William Penn, 9/30/00

7 - Referees in an IIAC game

'7' - Rock Bowl midfield insignia

A Cornell player had made a comment about going up against Matt Ditch in practice every day. I can tell the same type of story about Guy Lehman. He was "old school" tough. Wasn't very quick, but was always looking for contact. I'll never forget the game we ran a fake punt and all he had in front of him was green grass and a very small punt returner. He went out of his way to run the guy over. I actually felt sorry for the guy. One second you're expecting to return a punt, the next second you're getting run over by Leman. He's the type of guy who could get 35 carries on Saturday and be running guys over on Monday's practice.

[sportsknight]

'7' - Rock Bowl midfield insignia

This made me laugh.

[DutchFan2004]

'7' - Rock Bowl midfield insignia

This made me laugh.

It was definately creative

[Floyd in Iowa City]

This morning I got a chance to look up a couple of things.  Like the following:

As the only schools with all-men enrollments, the Duhawks and Bees were making a mockery of Iowa the Conference. From 1946-51, Loras lost only three games to IC foes – all to St. Ambrose (two playoffs for the IC championship). IC teams slowly dropped Loras from their schedules, and by 1958 only Luther remained.

1946 Loras 0-1 in the IIAC, 1-7 overall
1947 Loras 2-0 in the IIAC, 9-0 overall
1948 Loras 2-0 in the IIAC, 7-1 overall
1949 Loras 0-1 in the IIAC, 3-5 overall
1950 Loras 5-1 in the IIAC, 8-3 overall
1951 Loras 5-1 in the IIAC, 6-4 overall

1946 St. Ambrose 1-0 in the IIAC, 5-3 overall
1947 St. Ambrose 0-1 in the IIAC, 5-3 overall
1948 St. Ambrose 0-1 in the IIAC, 7-3 overall
1949 St. Ambrose 1-0 in the IIAC, 8-0 overall
1950 St. Ambrose 6-0 in the IIAC, 12-1 overall (league champs)
1951 St. Ambrose 6-0 in the IIAC, 9-2 overall (league champs)

St. Ambrose and Loras looked to have been very good teams in 1950 and 1951, but it appears to just have been a two-year run "of mockery."  Luther had a 21-game unbeaten mark over three years in the mid-1950s and Wartburg had a run almost that long in the late 1950s.  I didn't even bother looking up all of the crazy runs of dominance that Central had since the 1960s.

The average league champion from 1946-1951 on average played 5.67 conference games per season.  St. Ambrose averaged 2.67 IIAC games and Loras averaged 3.00 games. 

I have always found it strange that the Iowa Conference recognizes football and basketball champions from the decades before consistent league schedules, but only recognizes baseball champions since 1947.  Baseball, football and basketball in the Iowa Conference all had similar systems to determine the league champion even with inconsistent schedules.

[DutchFan2004]

Thanks Floyd that was interesting.  I wondered what that boasting was about.  Is there a resource that shows who the teams were in the IC at that time?  Did Loras and St Ambrose play a full schedule those years?

[Walston Hoover]

Interesting info. Thanks for looking that up. I was going to do the same thing over lunch, but you beat me to it.

[dutchfan1]

6 the number of former IIAC football champs that are no longer members of the Iowa Conference


Parsons, Iowa Teachers, St Ambrose, William Penn, Upper Iowa, and Iowa Wesleyan.

2 for Iowa Teachers
2 for St Ambrose
3 Iowa Wesleyan
4 William Penn
5 for UIU
6 for Parsons

DF2004:  remind me of the years when St. Ambrose and Iowa Teachers were part of the IIAC football conference.

I believe you were playing against them oldNorse!!!  I kid I kid

Iowa Teachers...known as UNI now, left in the 1920's
St. Ambrose left in the early 50's...for football only along with Loras before dropping out all together a few years later...because, the story goes...they were too good.  I have also heard Loras and St. Ambrose had big ambitions to start a big time all-catholic schools conference but that never came to be. 

I also remember reading about how schools like Morningside and St. Ambrose also were not in good standing at times when they were in the Iowa Conference because they did not play enough league games.  I want to say that St. Ambrose played around a total of 30 conference games between 1933-1947 when other schools like Luther were playing 5-6 conference games a year during those years.  I really don't count part of the war years (1942-1945 seasons) though as a lot of interesting things happened in college athletics.

I have also read the things about Loras and St. Ambrose being so good in football and basketball in the early 1950s, but when did Loras win the IIAC title?  It is crazy how they ended up dropping the sport. 

From the Loras website:

But the times were changing in the early 1950s and Loras – who eyed moving on to a more competitive conference (the Missouri Valley and Illinois Conference were possibilities)  -- decided to strike out in another direction. The lack of some major sports (wrestling, swimming and gymnastics) and sub-par facilities blocked entry into a higher-level conference. Under President Loras Lane, along with St. Ambrose, Loras worked to form an all-Catholic Midwest Conference. The short-lived Midlands Conference lasted just two years for football -- 1952-53).
     When Loras petitioned to leave the Iowa Conference, the IC agreed and in part the resolution said: ``....Loras and St. Ambrose respectively have concurred in the feeling that it would make for better balance in the football competition between schools in the conference if Loras and St. Ambrose withdrew from championship consideration in football.''  Loras retained its IC membership for basketball and track.
       As the only schools with all-men enrollments, the Duhawks and Bees were making a mockery of Iowa the Conference. From 1946-51, Loras lost only three games to IC foes – all to St. Ambrose (two playoffs for the IC championship). IC teams slowly dropped Loras from their schedules, and by 1958 only Luther remained.
       The lack of a strong conference (the Midlands had only five football teams), schedule problems (Loras sometimes had to place twice on a weekend), the drop in gate receipts and a growing deficit in the football program (as much $39,053 in 1959 and never less than $20,000 a year in the 1950s) spelled big trouble. The hoped for mega-Catholic conference of 10-12 schools never got off the ground.
    By 1959, President Rev. Msgr. Dorance V.  Foley came to the hard decision to drop football.  On field success had fallen – six consecutive losing season by 1959 – and home game attendance was small at best.  Gate receipts were $32.70 for one game. With no conference there were scheduling problems; Loras had to guarantee some schools  $1,400 to come and play a game on campus.
            From 1960 through 1969 the only touchdowns scored on campus were in 6-man intramural touch football.

The IIAC seemed to never have discussed dropping Central for winning too much in football or Buzz Levick's Wartburg teams in basketball, so this stuff about Loras and St. Ambrose being too good for the rest of the league has never made sense to me within that context.

I love this stuff -- this is creative editing at its finest. The SID that wrote this has a pretty skewed sense of reality.....and very little to honestly brag about.

Does Loras get much more than $32.70 at the gates these days? The Loras game never seemed very well attended....

[doolittledog]

It has always amazed me that for how much of a Loras town the city of Dubuque is...it doesn't translate into supporting their athletic teams.  The football games we would go to at the Rock Bowl weren't sold out.  The basketball games would be packed at the Loras fieldhouse, but then again that was a pretty small place. 

[Klompen]

7 - The number of total points scored in the Central - Concordia Moorhead first round playoff game of 1988 when Central had lost their first and second string quarterbacks at the end of the regular season.  People asked why I was bothering to go all the way to the game.  Since we didn't have a QB, the result seemed a foregone conclusion.  I gave the defense their due and said that as long as the defense kept them from scoring we couldn't lose!  The third stringer threw more interceptions than completions and the only points scored the entire game was the second half kickoff return for a TD and the ensuing PAT.  Way to go '88 D!

The next game they moved the tight end to QB and we made it all the way to the Stagg Bowl after a close victory over UWW and a double OT win against Augustana.

[Walston Hoover]

32.70?
What was the cost of a ticket? Anyone remember from around those times. I'm guessing you could get in for .10. Cornell would be thrilled with 327 people at a game.

[sportsknight]

32.70?
What was the cost of a ticket? Anyone remember from around those times. I'm guessing you could get in for .10. Cornell would be thrilled with 327 people at a game.

Yeah, but you have to wonder if that included the couple hundred people sitting on the other bluff that Loras didn't bother to start charging to get into games until 3 years ago.

[dutchfan1]

32.70?
What was the cost of a ticket? Anyone remember from around those times. I'm guessing you could get in for .10. Cornell would be thrilled with 327 people at a game.

Yeah, but you have to wonder if that included the couple hundred people sitting on the other bluff that Loras didn't bother to start charging to get into games until 3 years ago.

They're students, right? Come on -- that would be like charging the Wartburg students that live in dorm behind the visitor's bleachers admission..... back in my day, we referred to it as "tuition."