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Iowa State University Athletics
Iowa State To Honor Johnny Majors On Saturday
11.15.2016 | Football
AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State Athletics Department will honor former Iowa State head football coach Johnny Majors at the Texas Tech game on Saturday.
Majors will be back along with a number of his players for the annual Iowa State Letterwinners Club All-Sport Reunion.
Former Cyclone gridiron stars under Majors George Amundson, Keith Schroeder, Merv Krakau and Dave McCurry are expected to be in attendance.
At the age of 33, Majors was hired to take over the Iowa State football program prior to the 1968 season. Majors faced a giant rebuilding project, as the Cyclones were a combined 4-15-1 the two seasons prior to his arrival.
In his third season (1970), the Cyclones made progress, recording a 5-6 mark, setting up a breakout season in 1971.
Majors improved the Cyclone recruiting efforts yearly in his tenure in Ames, and behind four All-Americans and many future NFL players, the Cyclones had the talent to compete in the rugged Big Eight Conference heading into the 1971 campaign.
Iowa State raced out to a 5-1 mark and ended the season at 8-3, securing a bid to the Sun Bowl, the school's first-ever postseason appearance.
Led by All-American George Amundson, who rushed for a then-school-record 1,260 yards, the Cyclones scored 40 or more points five times during the year, including a 54-0 thrashing of Oklahoma State, the largest winning margin vs. a conference opponent in school history.
In Majors' final season in 1972, the Cyclones made it to their second-straight bowl game by participating in the Liberty Bowl, finishing the season with a 5-6-1 mark. One of the highlights of the season was a 23-23 tie vs. No. 3 Nebraska in Clyde Williams Field, ending the Cornhuskers' 24-game winning streak vs. league opponents.
Majors announced his resignation following the Liberty Bowl contest vs. Georgia Tech to take over the head coaching duties at Pittsburgh.
Majors ended his five-year coaching tenure at Iowa State with a 24-30-1 record. He coached 12 Cyclones who earned first-team all-Big Eight honors, including Amundson, who was the Big Eight Player-of-the-Year in 1972 and the school's highest NFL draft pick (No. 14 in 1973).
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