Objects of the Game: 18 Nostalgic Hawkeye Sports Artifacts
PHOTOS: JOHN EMIGH
From the leather helmet days of college football to the rise of women’s sports, generations of University of Iowa student-athletes have left us with some indelible memories.
They’ve also left us with some historically significant keepsakes.
UI Libraries—a goldmine for athletics artifacts, ephemera, and historic papers—recently produced an exhibition titled Hawkeye Histories | Sporting Stories. The Main Library Gallery spotlighted nearly 150 years of Iowa athletics treasures while exploring the historical context behind them. The exhibit told stories from the gender equity movement of the 1970s, the emergence of Iowa’s wrestling dynasty in the 1980s, and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, among other key eras.
Jennifer Sterling, associate professor of instruction in sports media and culture in the Department of American Studies and School of Journalism and Mass Communication, curated the exhibit.
Pictured here are a few of the exhibition’s highlights from the University Archives and Iowa Women's Archives in UI Libraries Special Collections, the UI Athletics Hall of Fame, and Iowa alumni.
Ticket from Iowa’s 7-6 football win over Notre Dame on Nov. 11, 1939, in Iowa City.
Women’s gymnastics jacket, donated by Tepa Haronoja (74MA), the program's first coach from 1973-79.
Football card printed in 1992 commemorating 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick (40BA).
Buttons celebrating the women’s sports movement of the 1970s.
Racing Louisville jersey of Samantha Cary (23BA), who in 2024 became the first Hawkeye drafted to the National Women’s Soccer League.
USA Basketball hat donated by former Iowa women’s basketball player Nadine Domond (98BA), who played on various national teams and was drafted to the WNBA in 1998.
Gym bag from the 1980s donated by Holly Wilson Greene (80PhD), one of the first female athletic trainers in the U.S.
Undated women’s rifle team patch.
Postcard from coach C. Vivian Stringer (10LHD) thanking fans after Iowa set an NCAA women's basketball single-game attendance record with 22,157 fans in a Feb. 3, 1985, home game against Ohio State.
Women’s athletics bumper sticker from the 1980s.
Hawkeye wrestling program from the 1980-81 season.
T-shirt commemorating the 1985 women’s basketball attendance record.
An undated Iowa women's basketball uniform.
Basketball celebrating the 40th anniversary of Title IX, donated by former UI women’s athletics director Christine Grant (70BA, 74PhD).
Softball from 1987 marking the 300th career win by former Iowa softball coach Gayle Blevins.
Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women paddle from the 1970s.
Football helmet from the 1921 season.
Kansas-Iowa basketball game ticket from 1906, displayed in a record book from the university’s Board in Control of Athletics.