THE NEBRASKA 100

Nile Kinnick's greatest accomplishments were to be in an arena far removed from the athletic fields on which he starred.

Many forecast a sterling political career for the Phi Beta Kappa halfback who spurned professional football for law school after his graduation from Iowa in 1939. Some have suggested Kinnick was of presidential timber. Sadly, he never got a chance to fulfill those aspirations as he was killed when his fighter plane crashed into the Caribbean Sea during a training flight in 1943.

Many consider Kinnick's speech while accepting the 1939 Heisman Trophy one of the event's most eloquent.

"I thank God I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest,'' Kinnick said, "and not on the battlefields of Europe.''

Born in Adel, Iowa, Kinnick moved with his family to Omaha in 1934. In his one season at Benson High School, Kinnick was all-state second team in football. He was All-Nebraska in basketball. As a baseball player, he teamed with Hall of Famer Bob Feller to form an imposing battery on a central Iowa town team.

Kinnick returned to Iowa for college, and played on teams that went 2-13-1 as a sophomore and junior. He then led a dramatic turnaround as the 1939 Iowa "Ironmen'' posted a 6-1-1 record and upsets of national powers Notre Dame and Minnesota.

The Iron Man of the Ironmen, Kinnick rushed for 374 yards and passed for 638 and 11 touchdowns -- on 31 completions. He punted, played defense and rarely left the field. He played 402 consecutive minutes before being knocked from a game with a separated shoulder.

"Historically, he was not the best player we've ever had here,'' said George Wine, Iowa's longtime sports information director who became well acquainted with the Kinnick family. "But he was a guy who could really make plays when it counted. He was money.''

Kinnick won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell and Walter Camp Awards after the 1939 season and was named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951, was named Iowa's greatest player in a fan vote in 1989, and was picked as a defensive back on Sports Illustrated's all-time team for the first 100 years of college football. The stadium at Iowa was renamed in his honor in 1972, and the Omaha schools named the stadium at Northwest High School after him.

-- Steve Pivovar