Veenker was 3-1 in '31

AMES, Iowa ? Iowa State's football team is 3-1 in Paul Rhoads' first season as Cyclone head coach. You have to go back to 1931 to find the last time an ISU football team started the season 3-1 under a new head coach. Many Cyclones will recognize the name but perhaps not know the history of Iowa State's head coach in 1931, George Veenker.

Rhoads took over a team that had lost 10 straight games. Iowa State had gone winless in 1930 under Noel Workman. When Veenker, who had been an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at Michigan, came to Iowa State, the Cyclones were in the midst of a 16-game losing streak.

No one expected much in 1931. Iowa State ended its losing streak with a 6-0 win over Simpson in the season-opener. The Cyclones won at Morningside, 20-6, the following weekend. A 20-0 loss at Detroit set the stage for Big Six play. When Iowa State played host to Missouri on Oct. 24, the Cyclones hadn't won a Big Six Conference game in nearly three years.

The Cyclones ended the league drought as well, beating the Tigers in Ames, 20-0. The game's biggest play was a Statue of Liberty call with left halfback Dick Grefe racing in for the touchdown. Grefe came up big the following weekend at Oklahoma. The Des Moines native caught a 56-yard TD pass for Iowa State's first score and then scored again on a line plunge as the Cyclones triumphed 13-12 in Norman.

The biggest win of the season was an unlikely 7-6 victory over Kansas State. The Wildcats scored first for a 6-0 lead. With the ball on the Kansas State 44-yard line, right halfback Paul Schraforth heaved a 40-yard pass to right end Ken Wells. A Kansas State player tipped the ball into the hands of Wells, who raced the remaining 10 yards for a TD. Grefe then kicked the extra point for a 7-6 lead.

Kansas State, the preseason Big Six favorite, outgained Iowa State, 393-93 and had 16 first downs to the Cyclones' four. Early in the third quarter, the Wildcats drove to the Iowa State 4-yard line only to be turned back. Two additional drives into Cyclone territory did not yield any points as Iowa State won the game to improve to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Six. A one-point loss to Drake precluded a game at Nebraska to determine the conference title. Nebraska won 23-0. But nationally, Veenker was hailed as “the Moses who led the Cyclones out of the football wilderness they've wallowed in for two years.”

Veenker would coach the Cyclones through the 1936 season, fashioning a record of 21-22-8. His biggest win was probably Iowa State's 31-6 victory over Iowa in 1934. He took on athletics director duties in 1931, serving as AD until 1945. One of his proudest achievements was persuading the college to give up land to construct a golf course on the northern edge of campus. The golf course opened in 1938 and was named for Veenker in 1959, shortly after his death the same year.

By all accounts, the reserved Veenker was a man of few words. But his legacy lives on.

Iowa State University Athletics

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