Cyclones.tv: Remembering Clay Stapleton

AMES, Iowa - Clay Stapleton, the man who led Iowa State football to one of its most memorable seasons with the 1959 “Dirty Thirty” team, passed away Thursday morning in Missouri City, Mo. He was 93 years old.

Stapleton dedicated his life to athletics, and from 1958-70, Iowa State University bore the fruits of his labor while he was head football coach and athletic director. When ISU athletics director Louis Menze was searching to replace departed grid coach Jim Myers, he wanted a candidate that would stay with the balanced line single-wing offense. Menze turned to Stapleton, a college roommate of former coach Jim Myers.

Cyclones.tv's Tom Kroeschell, in concert with Jeff Grummer and Rod Bodholdt of B&G Productions, produced a one-hour documentary of "The Dirty Thirty, A Tradition of Toughness," back in August.

For those who have yet to see it, click the links to the right to view the documentary (featuring Stapleton), as well has his Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame induction speech from 2006.

"The Dirty Thirty, A Tradition of Toughness" Documentary Details

It was 1959. Iowa State was no longer a college. The new University was the center of worldwide attention with the visit of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War. The Cyclone football team started with 41 players but had only 30 by the time the season began. But this team, overwhelmingly picked for last place in the Big Eight, embraced the no excuses toughness of its coaching staff.

The result was an historic season by these Cyclones, diminutive in size and number, who became nationally as “The Dirty Thirty.”

Click here to view the documentary.