Iowa Football: Top 10 head coaches in program history
3. Forest Evashevski: 1952-1960
Career Record: 52-27-4
Awards and Accomplishments: 1956, ’58, ’60 Big Ten Champions, 1958 National Championship, 1956 & ’58 Rose Bowl Champions, College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2000
To a generation, Forest Evashevski is seen as the most successful coach the Hawkeyes have ever had. Evashevski played his college football at Michigan as a teammate of Tom Harmon, with Evashevski being an all-Big Ten quarterback his senior season. He spent two years in coaching before joining the military in World War II, playing for the Iowa Pre-Flight school in 1942. Following the war, Evashevski found his way back into coaching.
He spent a year as an assistant at Syracuse in 1946 before spending three years as an assistant at Michigan State. Evashevski then landed his first head coaching job in 1950 when he was hired by Washington State. He brought success to the Cougars program in just two short seasons, but left the program after the 1951 season to take the job as head coach of a struggling Iowa football program.
The Hawkeyes struggles early on in Evashevski’s tenure, but did play some memorable games, including an upset of Ohio State in 1952 and a tie against No. 1 Notre Dame in 1953, now famously known as “The Fainting Irish” game. However, the big breakthrough for the Iowa program came in 1956, where Iowa won their first Big Ten Championship since 1922 and won the Rose Bowl against Oregon State. Two seasons later, Iowa would reclaim the Big Ten crown and were named National Champions by the FWAA in 1958, the only national championship in Iowa history.
Many do overlook Evashevski’s final season, leading Iowa to a share of the Big Ten title, but it is overshadowed by his legendary feud with athletic director Paul Brechler. Brechler left the school after 1960 and Evashevski became athletic director and was accused of holding down the Iowa program deliberately, a claim that he denied until he died in 2009. Evashevski retire from the university in 1970.