June 3, 2026 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Nile Kinnick transformed a struggling Iowa Hawkeyes football program through sheer grit, leadership, and one extraordinary season that earned him college football’s highest honor, the Heisman Trophy. But after becoming one of the biggest stars in American sports, Kinnick turned away from professional football, pursued law, and ultimately answered the call to serve during World War II, where he would pay the ultimate sacrifice.
Scott Siepker, AKA “Iowa Nice Guy” and the creator of Kinnick: The Documentary, shares the remarkable story of the namesake of Kinnick Stadium, whose brief life left a lasting mark on college football, Iowa, and the country he ultimately died serving. Even Ronald Reagan once said Kinnick possessed the kind of character that could have made him president.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories.
Over the course of World War Two, nineteen NFL players
would pay the ultimate sacrifice in both the European and
Pacific theaters. Around six hundred and thirty eight NFL players
would serve. But this story isn't about an NFL player,
(00:30):
though he certainly would have been drafted first overall had
he decided to pursue football as a career rather than
service to God and country. Here to share the story
of Iowa's own Nile Kinnick is Scott Sidger. Take it away, Scott.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
In Iowa, we have no professional teams, so our big
teams are our college football teams. Study and while Iowa
State University, my alma mater, has grown immensely, it is
(01:06):
true the number one brand, the biggest brand still in
the state of Iowa, is the Iowah hawk Gys. Tough nosed,
defense oriented, ridiculed at times for loving punting, the Hawkeyes
are known for playing hard, playing smart, playing above their talent.
(01:30):
And as you grow up a fan of a school,
you of course get to know the lore and the
legends of that university. And at the University of Iowa,
there is no greater figure than Nile Kinnick.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He was to Iowa what Red Grange was to Illinois,
something like a god.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
He won the Heisman Trophy in nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Won the Maxwell Trophy, is the best running back in
the country.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
He was the nation leading punter. He was the dropkicker.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
He won the Walter Camp Trophy.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
He became an All American, named the Sports Illustrated All
Century Team sixty years after his last game.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
And then yes, he also played cornerback on defense.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
He was named the Male eightp Athlete of the Year,
over Joe Demaggio, who batted three eighty one that season,
and over Joe Lewis, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world,
who had four knockouts that year.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But Nile was so much more than a football player, by.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Some magical mix of qualities listed on Every Boy Scout Manual.
He raised the expectations of a generation of Iowans yearning
to reach the other side of the Great Depression. He
did it by teaching them how to win, how to fight,
and how to die.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I've never met anyone who had their life as well
programmed out as Nile did.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
My father thought that Nile was one of the finest
young men that he'd ever met, the guy.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Who was unbelievable, even New Sinling. We got on the
train one time you go into Chicago and there were
two cars of gfn't dumb kids and somebody looks around
for Nile and why he's back here with these kids.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
He's talking about every kid wanted to have twenty four
on his jersey. Well, he saw the way this guy worked,
and we tried to emulate what he did.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
His nickname was June. Everybody in Adell called him June
because he was Nile Clark Kinnick Junior. Nile comes into
this world in nineteen eighteen. One of the Birst notes
is that he was a very sturdy baby, which I
just love has a little bit of a descriptor. Nile
(03:53):
certainly grew up in an aristocratic home. His father, Nile Senior,
finished second in his class and then eventually he goes
to Iowa State to play football. But the person he
got second to was Francis Clark.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
With an E on the end. Her father was governor
of Iowa for two terms in the early teens. She
was very cultured, very smart, very sweet, very beautiful, and
the sweetheart of Nile scene.
Speaker 9 (04:25):
He grew up in the Christian Science faith, and his
mother was probably the key person in that.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They lead a very wholesome life, purposeful in understanding and
instilling in the family duty, honor, honesty, hard work. He
was a des Moines Register newspaper boy when he was
in third grade, but he also had to dig ditches.
Speaker 9 (04:50):
They were always talking about live right, do right, think right, act.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Right after dinner, they sat around he his mother, his father,
and his brothers and talked about the world. They talked
about politics, they talked about literature, They talked about newspaper
items of the day. So imagine that. Imagine the chemistry
that's going on in the Kinney household for all those
early years where Nile is sitting there just absorbing all
(05:16):
this knowledge.
Speaker 9 (05:17):
You could tell that it had a bearing on who
Nile Kinnick ended up being, because he had a very
strong social consciousness as he got old.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Any intellect was always a top priority at the Kinnick household. However,
sports was an undeniable part. This is a household where
if you're not learning, you're outside playing. And Nile didn't
(05:46):
just play football. He played basketball, he played baseball, He
actually was the catcher for World Series champion and Hall
of Famer Bob Feller, who grew up just down the
road in Van Meter. The heater from Van Meter. He
was the second leading scorer on the basketball team. Dad
would teach Nile and his brothers how to drop him.
Speaker 8 (06:10):
There used to be a barn, Uncle, Nile and Nile Junior.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
They would take down the haymout door, and the height
of that next level was about the same as the
goal posts in that football field, and they'd work for
hours kicking.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Footballs through that little haym mout door.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
The schedule was the same all the time. Get up early,
have a huge breakfast, watch Nile to four eggs, a
whole bunch of bacon, some cereal, and George and I
would go out with him to the football field. We
would have a bag full of footballs and George and
I were the retrievers. Go down, take a stationary position
(06:48):
or run a little ways, and he would drop a
pass in our hat. He would have these drills sprints
forward and backwards, so he on defense could be going
backwards but watching where the quarterback's eyes were of the opponent.
He intercepted many passes and he would do passing drills
with both the right and the left hand.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yes, he was ambidextrous.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
He worked constantly three summers in a row learning how
to throw a football left handed.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
He just had a bag of tricks.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
He has all super smart. He's got he is. He
is all American. He's got that chisel jaw, that fold
in his chin. Definitely the embodiment of what all American
description would be. But his life is far from a
Disney story. The stock market crashes and the Great Depression
(07:44):
settles in.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
The farm belt especially was in bad shape.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Some people lost all their money.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
Between nineteen twenty six and nineteen twenty five, thousand farmers
went through Margus for closure in Iowa.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The Disney version for his childhood would go and he
would be able to stay in his hometown and lead
them to the state championship his senior year. But despite
the fact that his grandfather was governor of Iowa, that
doesn't come with the cachet it does today. The family
(08:19):
did have to sell the farm. They had to move
to Omaha so that Nile Senior could find a job.
In the documentary, we get to interview, We do the
first and only interview with Don Bis, who is Nile's
first cousin, and Don tells the story in the documentary
of sitting on the back stoop of the Kinick farm,
(08:41):
of Grandpa Kinnick's farm.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I was then nine years old, sitting on those steps
in bullying. I had my little coveralls on because we
had lost the farm to the bank.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
The bank has to auction off everything.
Speaker 6 (08:57):
And the auctioneer was out there auction off all of
our belongings, just hunting the gavel, and I'm saying sold
And every time he stay sold at sab again because
there was my.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Life for a young person, a young man to have
everything you know, be uprooted, questions your identity, and can
make everything fall apart if the foundation that you were
brought up on is cracked. But in the Kinnick home,
(09:32):
that was a solid foundation.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
He became first team All State football player in Nebraska
and first team All State basketball. So Nile Kinnick holds
the unique distinction of being All state in two sports
in Iowa and all state and two sports in Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
When we return the story of Nile Kinnick continues here
on our American Stories, and we returned to our American
(10:11):
stories and the story of Iowa Hawkeye's sports legend Nile Kinnick.
Let's return to the story here again is Scott Sipker.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Nile decides on going to the University of Iowa.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
But the power in the Midwest then was the University
of Minnesota.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
Along with Notre.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Dame, Minnesota was winning multiple national titles.
Speaker 9 (10:34):
He was interested in going to Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But a coach of the university, Bernie Berman, took a
look at Nile and said, we don't want him. He's
too small.
Speaker 9 (10:43):
He was five eight, one hundred and seventy five pounds.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
If we're being generous, and although he was a very
tough five eight, he wasn't extremely fast. Now they said
he was like carved out a rubber. So he was
very strong. But when you're the University of Minnesota and
you have the pick of the litter, now Kinnick was
not going to be that puppy who were going to
take home.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Well Son, it's nice at you're interest and be in
a gopher, but I don't think we're that interested in you.
Speaker 9 (11:07):
I think the legend of why he ended up at
Iowa was that he wanted to go someplace where he
could make.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
A difference now I would like to challenge, and the
Hawkeys were truly awful. The previous two years, the University
of Iowa had won three total games.
Speaker 10 (11:25):
The athletic department was basically broke.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
They hadn't paid off the bond issue on the stadium.
Speaker 10 (11:31):
My dad had a couple of bonds on the Iowa
stadium and I can remember him telling me you might
as well put these up on the wall to cover
a crack. They're not worth the paper they're written on.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Truly an awful football team. His first season, the team
I think won one game. However, freshmen were not allowed
to play. You can imagine how frustrating it must have
been for Nile to have to sit there and practice
but just watch his team lose over and over again,
and these games weren't close. His sophomore year comes around,
(12:06):
he finally gets to play. He does end up becoming
an All American punter.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Despite Iowa's one in seven record.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He leads the nation in punting. His junior year starts,
but is totally thwarted by an awful ankle injury. The
Hawkeyes ended up firing Nile's coach and bringing in an
under Dame.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Man doctor Eddie Anderson.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Who has this new philosophy.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
The Hawkeyes had been one and nine. He's taking over
a disheveled program, and immediately he sees Nile Kinnick and
sees the potential of building an entire offense around this
young man. They had a bond.
Speaker 7 (12:50):
Nil and Anderson walked off the field. Anderson had his
arms around him every night, which sometimes made me kind
of jealous.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It did smackle a little of favoritism.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
My father would call the rest of them by their
last name, but Nile was Nile. Well.
Speaker 10 (13:11):
Eddie had been an All American and at Notre Dame
under Rockney. He brought the Notre Dame, the Rockney way
of doing things to this team.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
We are going to be the toughest team in the
Big ten.
Speaker 9 (13:29):
Doctor Eddie Anderson wanted to have his team in the
very best shape of any team in the nation.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
So his new coach starts spring football early in February.
We're going to run these guys into the ground and
we're going to see who's tough enough to actually make
it through. These practices are awful, and most players quit.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Started out with eighty seven and the spring and we
ended up with about thirty seven In the.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Fall they just but the ones that stay will become
known as the Ironman.
Speaker 9 (14:06):
Football then was a more aerobic sport. There wasn't as
much scoring. It was going up and down the field.
Plinning was much more important. A lot of your top
players played both offense and defense. In nineteen thirty nine,
the substitution rule was that when you came out of
a game, you couldn't go back into a game until
the next quarter, but teams that had deeper rosters could
(14:28):
substitute their top players with two minutes left in the
first quarter.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The University of Iowa did not have enough players to
do that, so most of the players had to play
all sixty minutes for several games in a row, both offense, defense,
and special teams. So this rough and tumble, thin group
is expected to do nothing, but they start off beating
(14:55):
a smaller school in South Dakota.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
He threw three touchdowns kicked five extra points in Iowa
beat South Dakota forty one to nothing. The interesting point
is there were only sixteen thousand people there to see
the game, so that means there were at least thirty
four thousand empty seats The second game was against Indiana,
and they were a pretty good team at that point.
(15:17):
What Nile Kinnick did in that game is astounding. Six
hundred and three yards and he did it running, passing,
pump returning, kickoff returning, and even threw in an interception
for good major.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Seeing him dodge the people, it came to me, it's
almost like an imitation of the you know, Heisman Trophy.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
They end up losing to Michigan in their first real
test of the season, but they only have one loss,
which is an incredible achievement for this team, and Nile
Kinnick is starting to make headlines. But it's still a
little under the radar because nobody's going to really believe
in the Iowawk guys who have had a loser program
for years and years and years until Notre Dame comes
(15:58):
to town.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Doctor Eddie Anderson, IOWA coach, had played for Notre Dame
and was an All American in so think of all
the hooplah, all the dynamics. Everybody's excited.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Notre Dame's undefeated, a favorite to win the national title.
They have all the resources, all the talent, a deep squad.
Their players can't rest Throughout the game, no one is
expecting the Iowa Hawkeyes, led by Nile Kinnick, to be
able to beat mighty Notre Dame. The game starts and
it is a slog in fact Nile he.
Speaker 9 (16:30):
Actually punted the ball sixteen times that game, which is
still an Iowa record.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
But as the game is winding down, Nile drops back
to pass. He throws a deep intercepted and he thinks
this is the end of the game. As the Notre
Dame defender is returning the interception, the Hawkes tackle him.
(16:55):
The fighting Irish player fumbles the ball. Iowall recover the
ball inside their own five yard line. The score is
six to nothing. Iowa now has a fresh set of
downs and maybe the best running back in college football,
Nile Kinnick. They end up running on first down and
(17:17):
second down to the right side and he gets tackled
pretty much no progress. The quarterback at the time comes
into the huddle and says, we're gonna do the exact
same play, but we're running into the left. We're not
going to see it coming. Coupe hikes the ball, hands
it off to Nile. Kinnick, busts through and scores Iowas touchdown,
(17:41):
but the score still six to six, is going to
come down to that extra point. And of course who
is the kicker for the iowah Hawkeyes Nile Kinnick. And
I can imagine that hey mau door that his father
would open up and teach him how to drop kick
was there in his mind. He goes absolutely crazy.
Speaker 11 (18:02):
No one had ever heard of Iowa, but all of
a sudden, in theaters from Texas to New York, to
Georgia to Alabama, people stood up and cheered when they
heard the Iowa score. And then came Minnesota, which Iowa
hadn't beaten in a decade, and we hated them.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And of course nobody's thinking they're going to beat Minnesota.
And yet Nile Kinnick is able to lead the iowahaw
Keys to a victory. Now you have fans went crazy again, probably.
Speaker 11 (18:28):
Twenty thousand or more storm the field to congratulate the players.
Speaker 10 (18:31):
I can remember standing by the runway where the Minnesota
players were going back to the addressing. Beerman walked by me.
They look on his face as a wonder it didn't
crack the bricks in the stadium.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
They become a national sensation. They were the embodiment of
the American struggle through the Great Depression. This rough and
tumble squad out of Iowa City is an inspiration to
the rest of the nation that feels browbeat, feels like
they got everything against them, that all they really have
is the heart in their chest.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And you've been listening to Scott Sipeger, aka the Iowa
nice Guy, telling a remarkable story about Nile Kinnick. When
we return the story of Nile Kinnick continues here on
our American Stories, and we return to our American stories
(19:41):
and the final segment of our story on Nil Kinnick.
Let's return to the story here again is Scott Sipeger.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I don't think it was something that anyone thought was
possible because to win the Heisman Trophy you really have
to be on a really good team because your contributions
have to be connected with winning. He's thinking that the
Iowa Hawkeyes are going to have a good enough team
now all American. Yeah, it's possible, there are money more
spots for that. But as the season ends, Nile gets
(20:11):
the notification that he has won the Heisman Trophy. In
nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
The Heisman trophy actually came into existence in nineteen thirty five,
so it's a relatively new award back then, but it
still had already gained a lot of prominence because it
was held in New York City at the New York
Downtown Athletic Club, which was full of millionaires and very
important people.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Nile is somebody now. One of the commentators at the
time said that I played competing.
Speaker 12 (20:42):
Nationally, was probably Shirley Temple and Charlie McCarthy to become
America's favorite personality.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Nile is competing with Shirley Temple.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
He and doctor Eddie Anderson were giving the royal treatment
everywhere they went. People were just excited to meet this
dynamic young football player from the University of Iowa, and
a lot of them were surprised when they saw his
size once again five foot eight, one hundred and seventy
two one hundred and seventy three pounds.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So to come out and win it. It was that
underdog story that America was craving at the time, because
we all felt like underdogs, especially here in the Midwest.
I do think Now was aware that his words had
meaning to them. They carried weight his heisman Trophy speech,
(21:31):
which is still to this day considered the greatest Heisman
Trophy speech of all time. First starts off with the
part that nobody really talks about our quotes, but it's
all just a big thank you to his teammates, to
his coaches, to his family and friends.
Speaker 13 (21:49):
I want to take this grand opportunity. Do you think collectively,
all the sports writers and all.
Speaker 12 (21:55):
The sportscasters, and all those who have.
Speaker 13 (21:58):
Seen fifth have seen their way clear, cast.
Speaker 12 (22:00):
A ballot in my favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
For this trophy.
Speaker 13 (22:02):
And I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank
mister Prince and his committee, the Heisman Award Committee, the
football player.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
But then he gets to the heart of his speech,
the point that made it the greatest Heisman Trophy speech
of all time. He's in a room in New York
City talking to some of the most important leaders in
America at that time, which are mostly World War One
veterans who are trying to decide whether or not they're
going to send Niles generation to this newest European war.
(22:34):
We don't know at the time if America is getting
involved in the war, but we certainly are starting to prepare.
So he talks about war.
Speaker 12 (22:44):
Finally, if you will permit me, I'd like to make
a comment which in my mind is in dictated perhaps
of the greater.
Speaker 13 (22:52):
Significance of football and sports emphasis in general in this country,
and that is I thank god I.
Speaker 12 (22:58):
Was warring on the grid irons of the mi to
win and not on the battlefields of Europe. I guess
speak confident and positive. The players of this country.
Speaker 13 (23:15):
Went much more much rather struggle and to fight to
win the heights of an award and qua the gear.
Speaker 7 (23:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You would rather play football on the grid irons of
the Midwest than fight and win the qua de guere.
Nile doesn't stick to sports, and I know we oftentimes
criticize our athletes. Just stick to sports. I don't want
to hear what you have, what your opinion is. Nile
Kinnick did not believe in that, because Nile Kinnick was
not just a football player. Now, Kinnick was an American patriot.
(23:49):
He's somebody who believed deeply in the things that he
was taught as a child. And we're talking about a kid,
not I can't call him a kid a young man.
He's still in his early twenties. If you listen to
his voice and you're not look at you would think
this is a wise man. He's got great oratory skills,
(24:11):
He's incredibly intelligent, and this is Nile revealing I think
that his intentions for his life are not sports oriented.
Nile comes back to Iowa and he decides, I don't
want to do professional football. I just want to get
my law degree. So despite being able to have gone
(24:33):
and played in the NFL, he skips that part enrolls
right back at the University of Iowa to become an attorney.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
In a class of one hundred and six. At the
end of his first year, he's ranked third in the class,
and he's also coaching Iowa freshman football something like twenty
hours a week. So that just shows you how determined
and dedicated and driven Nia was.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
And it doesn't just stop there with his Heisman Trophy speech.
Roosevelt is running for reelection. A man named wilk is
running against is the Republican nominee, and Nile Kinnick believes
that Wilkie is the better option for president, and so
he goes out and starts stumping for the Republican nominee
for president. Now FDR ends up winning the election, but
(25:18):
wilk won the state of Ile. I'm obviously biased towards Nile.
I think Senate is probably the floor, but that the
Office of the Presidency of the United States of America
was absolutely within the realm of possibilities for Nile Kinnock's life,
if you don't want to take my word for it.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
We were cleared by the Secret Service and we're standing
there in the room and the door opens up and
in walks Ronald Reagan, seventy eight years old, Ramrod Street,
and he's making his way past all twenty of us,
and I said, mister President, could I ask you a question?
And he says, yes, certainly. I said, well, you worked
at WHO Radio and Des Moines in nineteen thirty seven.
(25:59):
I'm curious, did you ever meet Nile Kinnick? And Ronald
Reagan stopped and just stared at me for a minute.
The Secret Service were staring real intently. They saw the
President lock in and he looked at me and he said,
why no, I never did. And that's something that I
deeply regret because I'm a big fan of Nile Kinnick,
and I would have liked to have met him. I
(26:20):
think he could have been anything, maybe even President of
the United States.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You can take Ronald Reagan's word for it. In our
research for the documentary, we came across the story that
when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December seventh, he
ran immediately to enlist. This is not a true story.
(26:47):
They enlist themselves before Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
My lasting memory of Nile was when he came back
to the University of Iowa as a commissioned officer.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
He's there in the press box and the crowd starts
chanting his name, and he's able to come out, and
he takes his cap off and he says thank you
to the crowd. Place goes crazy for Nile Kinnick. And
he's in his I should paint the picture better. He's
in his Navy uniform. So he takes his Navy cap
off and salutes the crowd. He looked like General Eisenhower. That, unfortunately,
(27:22):
is the last time Nile Kinnick is ever in Iowa City.
Speaker 14 (27:28):
Dear mister and missus Kinnick, it is with deepest regret
and sympathy that I inform you of the loss of
your son, Nile in an airplane crash on the second
of June nineteen forty three, his plane developed a serious
oil leak about ten minutes before he landed. Having lost
all oil, the engine failed, forcing now to land in
the water. A diligent and immediate search of the exact
(27:52):
location of the landing failed to reveal any trace whatever
of Nile.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
The loss of Nile Kinnick was not an extraordinary event
to ordinary so many young men were dying every day
because of the carnage of World War Two. Nile's younger
brother also perished in the Pacific Theater was just left
Nile's youngest brother to carry on the family legacy. Once
(28:24):
America won World War Two, there was some honoring of Nile.
The United States Navy named the Flagship Naval base in
Japan for America. They named the high school there now
Clark Kinnick Junior High School. But the family was pretty
adamant that they did not want the stadium to be
named after Nile. They wanted to honor all those who
(28:48):
had perished. So the family thought, if you're going to
rename it from Iowa Stadium, you should name it Memorial Stadium.
But then as time went on, there was a lawyer
who served in the Navy named Les Swanson who broke
his leg coming down the stairs one day and was
stuck in a wheelchair, and he always loved Nile Kinnick,
(29:11):
and since he was stuck in a wheelchair he couldn't
do anything. He decided he was going to get Iowa
to change the name to Kinnick Stadium. And so he
began this brage, annoying the people of power, letter after
letter after letter, figuring it out, lawyer mindset, how are
(29:32):
we going to make this happen? And so Less through
just sheer grit and determination, figures out who to pressure.
But they require that Nile Senior agree and less rights
to Nile Senior, And finally, after many decades of refusal,
Nile Senior gives his blessing to rename the stadium Nile
(29:56):
Clark Kinnick Junior Stadium, which we all show Kinnick Stadium.
Leis Swanson died just a few weeks after that agreement
was made, but Nile Senior was able to make it
for the first game ever at the new Kinnick Stadium.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
A legend in Iowa sports. Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories.
Over the course of World War Two, nineteen NFL players
would pay the ultimate sacrifice in both the European and
Pacific theaters. Around six hundred and thirty eight NFL players
would serve. But this story isn't about an NFL player,
(00:30):
though he certainly would have been drafted first overall had
he decided to pursue football as a career rather than
service to God and country. Here to share the story
of Iowa's own Nile Kinnick is Scott Sidger. Take it away, Scott.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
In Iowa, we have no professional teams, so our big
teams are our college football teams. Study and while Iowa
State University, my alma mater, has grown immensely, it is
(01:06):
true the number one brand, the biggest brand still in
the state of Iowa, is the Iowah hawk Gys. Tough nosed,
defense oriented, ridiculed at times for loving punting, the Hawkeyes
are known for playing hard, playing smart, playing above their talent.
(01:30):
And as you grow up a fan of a school,
you of course get to know the lore and the
legends of that university. And at the University of Iowa,
there is no greater figure than Nile Kinnick.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He was to Iowa what Red Grange was to Illinois,
something like a god.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
He won the Heisman Trophy in nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Won the Maxwell Trophy, is the best running back in
the country.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
He was the nation leading punter. He was the dropkicker.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
He won the Walter Camp Trophy.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
He became an All American, named the Sports Illustrated All
Century Team sixty years after his last game.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
And then yes, he also played cornerback on defense.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
He was named the Male eightp Athlete of the Year,
over Joe Demaggio, who batted three eighty one that season,
and over Joe Lewis, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world,
who had four knockouts that year.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But Nile was so much more than a football player, by.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Some magical mix of qualities listed on Every Boy Scout Manual.
He raised the expectations of a generation of Iowans yearning
to reach the other side of the Great Depression. He
did it by teaching them how to win, how to fight,
and how to die.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I've never met anyone who had their life as well
programmed out as Nile did.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
My father thought that Nile was one of the finest
young men that he'd ever met, the guy.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Who was unbelievable, even New Sinling. We got on the
train one time you go into Chicago and there were
two cars of gfn't dumb kids and somebody looks around
for Nile and why he's back here with these kids.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
He's talking about every kid wanted to have twenty four
on his jersey. Well, he saw the way this guy worked,
and we tried to emulate what he did.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
His nickname was June. Everybody in Adell called him June
because he was Nile Clark Kinnick Junior. Nile comes into
this world in nineteen eighteen. One of the Birst notes
is that he was a very sturdy baby, which I
just love has a little bit of a descriptor. Nile
(03:53):
certainly grew up in an aristocratic home. His father, Nile Senior,
finished second in his class and then eventually he goes
to Iowa State to play football. But the person he
got second to was Francis Clark.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
With an E on the end. Her father was governor
of Iowa for two terms in the early teens. She
was very cultured, very smart, very sweet, very beautiful, and
the sweetheart of Nile scene.
Speaker 9 (04:25):
He grew up in the Christian Science faith, and his
mother was probably the key person in that.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They lead a very wholesome life, purposeful in understanding and
instilling in the family duty, honor, honesty, hard work. He
was a des Moines Register newspaper boy when he was
in third grade, but he also had to dig ditches.
Speaker 9 (04:50):
They were always talking about live right, do right, think right, act.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Right after dinner, they sat around he his mother, his father,
and his brothers and talked about the world. They talked
about politics, they talked about literature, They talked about newspaper
items of the day. So imagine that. Imagine the chemistry
that's going on in the Kinney household for all those
early years where Nile is sitting there just absorbing all
(05:16):
this knowledge.
Speaker 9 (05:17):
You could tell that it had a bearing on who
Nile Kinnick ended up being, because he had a very
strong social consciousness as he got old.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Any intellect was always a top priority at the Kinnick household. However,
sports was an undeniable part. This is a household where
if you're not learning, you're outside playing. And Nile didn't
(05:46):
just play football. He played basketball, he played baseball, He
actually was the catcher for World Series champion and Hall
of Famer Bob Feller, who grew up just down the
road in Van Meter. The heater from Van Meter. He
was the second leading scorer on the basketball team. Dad
would teach Nile and his brothers how to drop him.
Speaker 8 (06:10):
There used to be a barn, Uncle, Nile and Nile Junior.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
They would take down the haymout door, and the height
of that next level was about the same as the
goal posts in that football field, and they'd work for
hours kicking.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Footballs through that little haym mout door.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
The schedule was the same all the time. Get up early,
have a huge breakfast, watch Nile to four eggs, a
whole bunch of bacon, some cereal, and George and I
would go out with him to the football field. We
would have a bag full of footballs and George and
I were the retrievers. Go down, take a stationary position
(06:48):
or run a little ways, and he would drop a
pass in our hat. He would have these drills sprints
forward and backwards, so he on defense could be going
backwards but watching where the quarterback's eyes were of the opponent.
He intercepted many passes and he would do passing drills
with both the right and the left hand.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yes, he was ambidextrous.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
He worked constantly three summers in a row learning how
to throw a football left handed.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
He just had a bag of tricks.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
He has all super smart. He's got he is. He
is all American. He's got that chisel jaw, that fold
in his chin. Definitely the embodiment of what all American
description would be. But his life is far from a
Disney story. The stock market crashes and the Great Depression
(07:44):
settles in.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
The farm belt especially was in bad shape.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Some people lost all their money.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
Between nineteen twenty six and nineteen twenty five, thousand farmers
went through Margus for closure in Iowa.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The Disney version for his childhood would go and he
would be able to stay in his hometown and lead
them to the state championship his senior year. But despite
the fact that his grandfather was governor of Iowa, that
doesn't come with the cachet it does today. The family
(08:19):
did have to sell the farm. They had to move
to Omaha so that Nile Senior could find a job.
In the documentary, we get to interview, We do the
first and only interview with Don Bis, who is Nile's
first cousin, and Don tells the story in the documentary
of sitting on the back stoop of the Kinick farm,
(08:41):
of Grandpa Kinnick's farm.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I was then nine years old, sitting on those steps
in bullying. I had my little coveralls on because we
had lost the farm to the bank.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
The bank has to auction off everything.
Speaker 6 (08:57):
And the auctioneer was out there auction off all of
our belongings, just hunting the gavel, and I'm saying sold
And every time he stay sold at sab again because
there was my.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Life for a young person, a young man to have
everything you know, be uprooted, questions your identity, and can
make everything fall apart if the foundation that you were
brought up on is cracked. But in the Kinnick home,
(09:32):
that was a solid foundation.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
He became first team All State football player in Nebraska
and first team All State basketball. So Nile Kinnick holds
the unique distinction of being All state in two sports
in Iowa and all state and two sports in Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
When we return the story of Nile Kinnick continues here
on our American Stories, and we returned to our American
(10:11):
stories and the story of Iowa Hawkeye's sports legend Nile Kinnick.
Let's return to the story here again is Scott Sipker.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Nile decides on going to the University of Iowa.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
But the power in the Midwest then was the University
of Minnesota.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
Along with Notre.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Dame, Minnesota was winning multiple national titles.
Speaker 9 (10:34):
He was interested in going to Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But a coach of the university, Bernie Berman, took a
look at Nile and said, we don't want him. He's
too small.
Speaker 9 (10:43):
He was five eight, one hundred and seventy five pounds.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
If we're being generous, and although he was a very
tough five eight, he wasn't extremely fast. Now they said
he was like carved out a rubber. So he was
very strong. But when you're the University of Minnesota and
you have the pick of the litter, now Kinnick was
not going to be that puppy who were going to
take home.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Well Son, it's nice at you're interest and be in
a gopher, but I don't think we're that interested in you.
Speaker 9 (11:07):
I think the legend of why he ended up at
Iowa was that he wanted to go someplace where he
could make.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
A difference now I would like to challenge, and the
Hawkeys were truly awful. The previous two years, the University
of Iowa had won three total games.
Speaker 10 (11:25):
The athletic department was basically broke.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
They hadn't paid off the bond issue on the stadium.
Speaker 10 (11:31):
My dad had a couple of bonds on the Iowa
stadium and I can remember him telling me you might
as well put these up on the wall to cover
a crack. They're not worth the paper they're written on.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Truly an awful football team. His first season, the team
I think won one game. However, freshmen were not allowed
to play. You can imagine how frustrating it must have
been for Nile to have to sit there and practice
but just watch his team lose over and over again,
and these games weren't close. His sophomore year comes around,
(12:06):
he finally gets to play. He does end up becoming
an All American punter.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Despite Iowa's one in seven record.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He leads the nation in punting. His junior year starts,
but is totally thwarted by an awful ankle injury. The
Hawkeyes ended up firing Nile's coach and bringing in an
under Dame.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Man doctor Eddie Anderson.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Who has this new philosophy.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
The Hawkeyes had been one and nine. He's taking over
a disheveled program, and immediately he sees Nile Kinnick and
sees the potential of building an entire offense around this
young man. They had a bond.
Speaker 7 (12:50):
Nil and Anderson walked off the field. Anderson had his
arms around him every night, which sometimes made me kind
of jealous.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It did smackle a little of favoritism.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
My father would call the rest of them by their
last name, but Nile was Nile. Well.
Speaker 10 (13:11):
Eddie had been an All American and at Notre Dame
under Rockney. He brought the Notre Dame, the Rockney way
of doing things to this team.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
We are going to be the toughest team in the
Big ten.
Speaker 9 (13:29):
Doctor Eddie Anderson wanted to have his team in the
very best shape of any team in the nation.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
So his new coach starts spring football early in February.
We're going to run these guys into the ground and
we're going to see who's tough enough to actually make
it through. These practices are awful, and most players quit.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Started out with eighty seven and the spring and we
ended up with about thirty seven In the.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Fall they just but the ones that stay will become
known as the Ironman.
Speaker 9 (14:06):
Football then was a more aerobic sport. There wasn't as
much scoring. It was going up and down the field.
Plinning was much more important. A lot of your top
players played both offense and defense. In nineteen thirty nine,
the substitution rule was that when you came out of
a game, you couldn't go back into a game until
the next quarter, but teams that had deeper rosters could
(14:28):
substitute their top players with two minutes left in the
first quarter.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The University of Iowa did not have enough players to
do that, so most of the players had to play
all sixty minutes for several games in a row, both offense, defense,
and special teams. So this rough and tumble, thin group
is expected to do nothing, but they start off beating
(14:55):
a smaller school in South Dakota.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
He threw three touchdowns kicked five extra points in Iowa
beat South Dakota forty one to nothing. The interesting point
is there were only sixteen thousand people there to see
the game, so that means there were at least thirty
four thousand empty seats The second game was against Indiana,
and they were a pretty good team at that point.
(15:17):
What Nile Kinnick did in that game is astounding. Six
hundred and three yards and he did it running, passing,
pump returning, kickoff returning, and even threw in an interception
for good major.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Seeing him dodge the people, it came to me, it's
almost like an imitation of the you know, Heisman Trophy.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
They end up losing to Michigan in their first real
test of the season, but they only have one loss,
which is an incredible achievement for this team, and Nile
Kinnick is starting to make headlines. But it's still a
little under the radar because nobody's going to really believe
in the Iowawk guys who have had a loser program
for years and years and years until Notre Dame comes
(15:58):
to town.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Doctor Eddie Anderson, IOWA coach, had played for Notre Dame
and was an All American in so think of all
the hooplah, all the dynamics. Everybody's excited.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Notre Dame's undefeated, a favorite to win the national title.
They have all the resources, all the talent, a deep squad.
Their players can't rest Throughout the game, no one is
expecting the Iowa Hawkeyes, led by Nile Kinnick, to be
able to beat mighty Notre Dame. The game starts and
it is a slog in fact Nile he.
Speaker 9 (16:30):
Actually punted the ball sixteen times that game, which is
still an Iowa record.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
But as the game is winding down, Nile drops back
to pass. He throws a deep intercepted and he thinks
this is the end of the game. As the Notre
Dame defender is returning the interception, the Hawkes tackle him.
(16:55):
The fighting Irish player fumbles the ball. Iowall recover the
ball inside their own five yard line. The score is
six to nothing. Iowa now has a fresh set of
downs and maybe the best running back in college football,
Nile Kinnick. They end up running on first down and
(17:17):
second down to the right side and he gets tackled
pretty much no progress. The quarterback at the time comes
into the huddle and says, we're gonna do the exact
same play, but we're running into the left. We're not
going to see it coming. Coupe hikes the ball, hands
it off to Nile. Kinnick, busts through and scores Iowas touchdown,
(17:41):
but the score still six to six, is going to
come down to that extra point. And of course who
is the kicker for the iowah Hawkeyes Nile Kinnick. And
I can imagine that hey mau door that his father
would open up and teach him how to drop kick
was there in his mind. He goes absolutely crazy.
Speaker 11 (18:02):
No one had ever heard of Iowa, but all of
a sudden, in theaters from Texas to New York, to
Georgia to Alabama, people stood up and cheered when they
heard the Iowa score. And then came Minnesota, which Iowa
hadn't beaten in a decade, and we hated them.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And of course nobody's thinking they're going to beat Minnesota.
And yet Nile Kinnick is able to lead the iowahaw
Keys to a victory. Now you have fans went crazy again, probably.
Speaker 11 (18:28):
Twenty thousand or more storm the field to congratulate the players.
Speaker 10 (18:31):
I can remember standing by the runway where the Minnesota
players were going back to the addressing. Beerman walked by me.
They look on his face as a wonder it didn't
crack the bricks in the stadium.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
They become a national sensation. They were the embodiment of
the American struggle through the Great Depression. This rough and
tumble squad out of Iowa City is an inspiration to
the rest of the nation that feels browbeat, feels like
they got everything against them, that all they really have
is the heart in their chest.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And you've been listening to Scott Sipeger, aka the Iowa
nice Guy, telling a remarkable story about Nile Kinnick. When
we return the story of Nile Kinnick continues here on
our American Stories, and we return to our American stories
(19:41):
and the final segment of our story on Nil Kinnick.
Let's return to the story here again is Scott Sipeger.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I don't think it was something that anyone thought was
possible because to win the Heisman Trophy you really have
to be on a really good team because your contributions
have to be connected with winning. He's thinking that the
Iowa Hawkeyes are going to have a good enough team
now all American. Yeah, it's possible, there are money more
spots for that. But as the season ends, Nile gets
(20:11):
the notification that he has won the Heisman Trophy. In
nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
The Heisman trophy actually came into existence in nineteen thirty five,
so it's a relatively new award back then, but it
still had already gained a lot of prominence because it
was held in New York City at the New York
Downtown Athletic Club, which was full of millionaires and very
important people.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Nile is somebody now. One of the commentators at the
time said that I played competing.
Speaker 12 (20:42):
Nationally, was probably Shirley Temple and Charlie McCarthy to become
America's favorite personality.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Nile is competing with Shirley Temple.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
He and doctor Eddie Anderson were giving the royal treatment
everywhere they went. People were just excited to meet this
dynamic young football player from the University of Iowa, and
a lot of them were surprised when they saw his
size once again five foot eight, one hundred and seventy
two one hundred and seventy three pounds.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So to come out and win it. It was that
underdog story that America was craving at the time, because
we all felt like underdogs, especially here in the Midwest.
I do think Now was aware that his words had
meaning to them. They carried weight his heisman Trophy speech,
(21:31):
which is still to this day considered the greatest Heisman
Trophy speech of all time. First starts off with the
part that nobody really talks about our quotes, but it's
all just a big thank you to his teammates, to
his coaches, to his family and friends.
Speaker 13 (21:49):
I want to take this grand opportunity. Do you think collectively,
all the sports writers and all.
Speaker 12 (21:55):
The sportscasters, and all those who have.
Speaker 13 (21:58):
Seen fifth have seen their way clear, cast.
Speaker 12 (22:00):
A ballot in my favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
For this trophy.
Speaker 13 (22:02):
And I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank
mister Prince and his committee, the Heisman Award Committee, the
football player.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
But then he gets to the heart of his speech,
the point that made it the greatest Heisman Trophy speech
of all time. He's in a room in New York
City talking to some of the most important leaders in
America at that time, which are mostly World War One
veterans who are trying to decide whether or not they're
going to send Niles generation to this newest European war.
(22:34):
We don't know at the time if America is getting
involved in the war, but we certainly are starting to prepare.
So he talks about war.
Speaker 12 (22:44):
Finally, if you will permit me, I'd like to make
a comment which in my mind is in dictated perhaps
of the greater.
Speaker 13 (22:52):
Significance of football and sports emphasis in general in this country,
and that is I thank god I.
Speaker 12 (22:58):
Was warring on the grid irons of the mi to
win and not on the battlefields of Europe. I guess
speak confident and positive. The players of this country.
Speaker 13 (23:15):
Went much more much rather struggle and to fight to
win the heights of an award and qua the gear.
Speaker 7 (23:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You would rather play football on the grid irons of
the Midwest than fight and win the qua de guere.
Nile doesn't stick to sports, and I know we oftentimes
criticize our athletes. Just stick to sports. I don't want
to hear what you have, what your opinion is. Nile
Kinnick did not believe in that, because Nile Kinnick was
not just a football player. Now, Kinnick was an American patriot.
(23:49):
He's somebody who believed deeply in the things that he
was taught as a child. And we're talking about a kid,
not I can't call him a kid a young man.
He's still in his early twenties. If you listen to
his voice and you're not look at you would think
this is a wise man. He's got great oratory skills,
(24:11):
He's incredibly intelligent, and this is Nile revealing I think
that his intentions for his life are not sports oriented.
Nile comes back to Iowa and he decides, I don't
want to do professional football. I just want to get
my law degree. So despite being able to have gone
(24:33):
and played in the NFL, he skips that part enrolls
right back at the University of Iowa to become an attorney.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
In a class of one hundred and six. At the
end of his first year, he's ranked third in the class,
and he's also coaching Iowa freshman football something like twenty
hours a week. So that just shows you how determined
and dedicated and driven Nia was.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
And it doesn't just stop there with his Heisman Trophy speech.
Roosevelt is running for reelection. A man named wilk is
running against is the Republican nominee, and Nile Kinnick believes
that Wilkie is the better option for president, and so
he goes out and starts stumping for the Republican nominee
for president. Now FDR ends up winning the election, but
(25:18):
wilk won the state of Ile. I'm obviously biased towards Nile.
I think Senate is probably the floor, but that the
Office of the Presidency of the United States of America
was absolutely within the realm of possibilities for Nile Kinnock's life,
if you don't want to take my word for it.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
We were cleared by the Secret Service and we're standing
there in the room and the door opens up and
in walks Ronald Reagan, seventy eight years old, Ramrod Street,
and he's making his way past all twenty of us,
and I said, mister President, could I ask you a question?
And he says, yes, certainly. I said, well, you worked
at WHO Radio and Des Moines in nineteen thirty seven.
(25:59):
I'm curious, did you ever meet Nile Kinnick? And Ronald
Reagan stopped and just stared at me for a minute.
The Secret Service were staring real intently. They saw the
President lock in and he looked at me and he said,
why no, I never did. And that's something that I
deeply regret because I'm a big fan of Nile Kinnick,
and I would have liked to have met him. I
(26:20):
think he could have been anything, maybe even President of
the United States.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You can take Ronald Reagan's word for it. In our
research for the documentary, we came across the story that
when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December seventh, he
ran immediately to enlist. This is not a true story.
(26:47):
They enlist themselves before Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
My lasting memory of Nile was when he came back
to the University of Iowa as a commissioned officer.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
He's there in the press box and the crowd starts
chanting his name, and he's able to come out, and
he takes his cap off and he says thank you
to the crowd. Place goes crazy for Nile Kinnick. And
he's in his I should paint the picture better. He's
in his Navy uniform. So he takes his Navy cap
off and salutes the crowd. He looked like General Eisenhower. That, unfortunately,
(27:22):
is the last time Nile Kinnick is ever in Iowa City.
Speaker 14 (27:28):
Dear mister and missus Kinnick, it is with deepest regret
and sympathy that I inform you of the loss of
your son, Nile in an airplane crash on the second
of June nineteen forty three, his plane developed a serious
oil leak about ten minutes before he landed. Having lost
all oil, the engine failed, forcing now to land in
the water. A diligent and immediate search of the exact
(27:52):
location of the landing failed to reveal any trace whatever
of Nile.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
The loss of Nile Kinnick was not an extraordinary event
to ordinary so many young men were dying every day
because of the carnage of World War Two. Nile's younger
brother also perished in the Pacific Theater was just left
Nile's youngest brother to carry on the family legacy. Once
(28:24):
America won World War Two, there was some honoring of Nile.
The United States Navy named the Flagship Naval base in
Japan for America. They named the high school there now
Clark Kinnick Junior High School. But the family was pretty
adamant that they did not want the stadium to be
named after Nile. They wanted to honor all those who
(28:48):
had perished. So the family thought, if you're going to
rename it from Iowa Stadium, you should name it Memorial Stadium.
But then as time went on, there was a lawyer
who served in the Navy named Les Swanson who broke
his leg coming down the stairs one day and was
stuck in a wheelchair, and he always loved Nile Kinnick,
(29:11):
and since he was stuck in a wheelchair he couldn't
do anything. He decided he was going to get Iowa
to change the name to Kinnick Stadium. And so he
began this brage, annoying the people of power, letter after
letter after letter, figuring it out, lawyer mindset, how are
(29:32):
we going to make this happen? And so Less through
just sheer grit and determination, figures out who to pressure.
But they require that Nile Senior agree and less rights
to Nile Senior, And finally, after many decades of refusal,
Nile Senior gives his blessing to rename the stadium Nile
(29:56):
Clark Kinnick Junior Stadium, which we all show Kinnick Stadium.
Leis Swanson died just a few weeks after that agreement
was made, but Nile Senior was able to make it
for the first game ever at the new Kinnick Stadium.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
A legend in Iowa sports. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.