Ariail Named "Dirty Thirty"

AMES, Iowa --- When former Iowa State athletics trainer Warren Ariail eyed the Cyclone football team trudging off the field after a 41-0 win in the 1959 season-opener at Drake he didn't know he was about to make history.

Seeing the Cyclones' muddy, rain-soaked uniforms, Ariail said “Here comes the Dirty Thirty.” The name was an instant hit, and Ariail was given the game ball. The significance of Ariail's observation about Iowa State's depleted roster was not lost on the ISU players, who immediately began chanting “Dirty Thirty, Dirty Thirty.”

Fifty years after the 1959 season, the nickname resounds throughout the community of Iowa State football fans. The 1959 ISU team compiled a record of 7-3 with only 30 players on the roster. The roster had shrunk from the 41 players on the team on the first day of fall practice.

“The ?Dirty Thirty' were a great group of well-rounded, hard-nosed kids,” Ariail said. “We had 22 players on the team who played offense and defense. There were another eight that were substitutes. I called them the ?big eight,' after our conference.”

The nickname stuck and the “Dirty Thirty” became a national story. A 35-12 loss at Oklahoma in the season's final game ended Iowa State's dream of a Big Eight Conference title and an Orange Bowl berth. The team's accomplishments will be recounted this fall as some of the 1959 Cyclones return to Ames to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their magical season.

Ariail was born on April 8, 1924 in Eutawville, S.C. He enrolled in 1941 at Wofford (S.C.) College and received a degree in business administration, with minors in education and physical education in 1948. Ariail's studies were put on hold while he served four years with the United States Marines Corps during World War II.

After graduation, he served as Wofford College's first certified athletic trainer from 1948-1955. He then became Wake Forest's first certified athletic trainer after becoming a member of their staff.

In the summer of 1958, Ariail was offered a position as Iowa State by newly appointed head football coach Clay Stapleton, which Ariail quickly accepted. The two had previous experience working together at Wofford.

“Coach Stapleton was a great head football coach and a true disciplinarian who did a great job coaching the fundamentals,” said Ariail.

After Iowa State, Ariail went to Indiana, where he received the Honorary I-Man's award for serving as the athletic trainer for the 1968 Rose Bowl team. In a remarkable career, Ariail also spent time in the NFL working as the athletics trainer for the Houston Oilers, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers and the Washington Redskins. He was the first athletics trainer to hold a position in both the National and the American Conferences.

Ariail still has fond memories of ISU.

“I love the people there,” Ariail said. “My son was born at Mary Greeley Hospital. We had many friends in Ames.”

At the age of 78, Ariail finished his career on the Washington Redskins' staff. He is a member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association and Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fames.

Iowa State University Athletics

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