IOWA CITY, Iowa — A Hall of Fame coach, a defending Super Bowl champion and five First-Team All-Americans are among the former Iowa Hawkeyes who will be featured on the banners being installed on the façade of Kinnick Stadium today as the season opener fast approaches for the 2013 University of Iowa football team.
ANF Plaza presented by the Iowa Farm Bureau and located in the northeast corner of Kinnick will be anchored by Hayden Fry and Jared DeVries.
Fry is the University of Iowa’s all-time winningest football coach with 143 victories. He led the Hawkeyes to three Big Ten Conference championships and Rose Bowl appearances, and coached Iowa in 14 bowl games. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Fry introduced ANF during the Hawkeyes 1985 season when Iowa was ranked No. 1 in the country and marching to its second Rose Bowl in five seasons, and the farming crisis of the 1980s was beginning to take a serious toll on America’s farmers.
DeVries was a four-year letterwinner for Fry in the late 1990s. He was named first team All-Big Ten and a consensus All-American in 1998, his final season in a career that ended with him holding the Iowa records for tackles for loss (78) and quarterback sacks (42) — records that stand today.
DeVries, the Big Ten Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award winner in 1997, was drafted in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft by Detroit. He played 10 seasons in a Lions uniform.
To learn more about DeVries and the ANF initiative — and to register for the opportunity to win the “ANF Great Grocery Giveaway” — visit www.americaneedsfarmers.org.
Sean Considine, a four-time letterwinner beginning in 2001, will be featured in Kinnick Stadium’s Bowl Plaza, which is located at the northeast corner of the home of the Hawkeyes.
Considine played in four bowl games for the Hawkeyes, including the 2004 Outback Bowl. He led Iowa with nine tackles in the 37-17 victory over Florida. A year later, in the 2005 Capital One Bowl win over LSU, the four-time Academic All-Big Ten defensive back recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown that gave Iowa a 14-12 lead going into halftime.
Considine was selected in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL Draft by Philadelphia and closed his NFL career as a member of the 2013 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.
Bruce Nelson, a four-time letterwinner beginning in 1999, will be featured in one of two positions inside the Big Ten Champions Plaza, presented by U.S. Cellular, which is located at the southeast corner of Kinnick Stadium.
Nelson was the starting center, team captain, and most valuable player of the 2002 Iowa squad that was undefeated in Big Ten Conference play and advanced to the 2003 FedEx Orange Bowl, the first of two Bowl Championship Series games the Hawkeyes have played in under the direction of Kirk Ferentz.
Nelson earned First-Team All-America and All-Big Ten honors in 2002. He was selected in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft by Carolina and was a member of Carolina’s 2004 Super Bowl squad.
Andre Tippett, a three-year letterwinner beginning in 1979, will be featured in the second location inside the Big Ten Champions Plaza.
Tippett led the Hawkeyes’ 1981 Big Ten championship team that ranks among the greatest defensively in the history of Iowa football. He collected 34 tackles for loss in a season that ended with Iowa making an appearance in the 1982 Rose Bowl — the first of three Rose Bowl appearances under Fry, and Iowa’s first bowl game since its appearance in the 1959 Rose Bowl.
Tippett earned First Team All-Big Ten and consensus All-America honors. He was drafted in the second round of the 1983 NFL Draft by New England. He played 12 seasons for the Patriots, a career that included five selections as All-Pro and an appearance in the 1986 Super Bowl.
Tippett was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2008, one year after he was inducted into the UI’s National Varsity Club Hall of Fame.
Mike Reilly, a three-time letterwinner beginning in 1961, will be featured in one of two positions inside the All-American Plaza presented by Hy-Vee. The All-American Plaza is located at the southwest corner of Kinnick.
The 2013 season is the 50th anniversary of Reilly being named a First Team All-American in 1963. He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round of the 1964 NFL Draft and concluded his NFL career as a member of a Minnesota Vikings team that advanced to the 1970 Super Bowl.
Reilly was inducted into the UI’s National Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2005. Mike’s son, Jim, played linebacker for the Hawkeyes for four years in the mid-1980s.
Eric Steinbach will be featured in the second position inside the All-American Plaza.
Steinbach, the Big Ten’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2001, was a consensus All-American on the Hawkeyes’ 2002 squad that was undefeated in league play and advanced to the first of two FedEx Orange Bowl games played in by Iowa during the Ferentz era. He also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors. Steinbach was the first player selected in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft; he was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals and enjoyed a nine-year professional career.
