Dallas Clark Goes the Distance for UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital

PHOTO: JASON SMITH Former Iowa football player and NFL star Dallas Clark speaks during the annual Hawkeyes Give Back lecture in March at the Old Capitol.

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allas Clark had already been named the best tight end in college football and won a Super Bowl championship with the Indianapolis Colts. 

But several years after his retirement from football in 2014, Clark (07BA) was ready for a new challenge. “We’re all made for something,” he said, delivering the annual Hawkeyes Give Back lecture at the Old Capitol this past spring as part of One Day for Iowa, the University of Iowa’s 24-hour giving day. “What is it for you? We need to find out.” 

Clark believed he could use his influence to help pediatric patients and their families, who had inspired him through his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He convinced the Ironman Foundation to allow him to compete in the 2022 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, to raise money through supporters for UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. 

The former consensus All-American trained for the competition with a half-Ironman in Oceanside, California, earlier that spring. Then, at the championship in October, he competed with elite athletes to swim 2.4 miles in the Pacific Ocean, bike 112 miles on a coastal highway and through lava fields, and run 26.2 miles to the finish line. 

“You’re never too old or too young to have that impact.” —Dallas Clark

Clark completed the full Ironman in 13 hours and 50 minutes, but the greatest reward came in April 2023 at the Hawkeye spring football practice at Kinnick Stadium when he presented a $101,000 check to UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital representatives. 

“If you need a little boost in strength and courage, go to any of those [patient] rooms, and it’s living in any one of those families,” Clark said at the lecture as his voice filled with emotion. 

Clark reflected on all the coaches who inspired him along his journey from a walk-on for the Iowa football team in 1999 to a 2007 Super Bowl champion, encouraging the audience to think about the ways they can make a difference in someone’s life. “You’re never too old or too young to have that impact,” said the Livermore, Iowa, native. “We all need someone to believe in us.”