Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. (July 9, 1918 – June 2, 1943) was an American naval aviator, law student, and college football player for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a training flight while serving as a United States Navy aviator in World War II. Kinnick was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951, and the University of Iowa renamed its football stadium Kinnick Stadium in his honor in 1972.
Early life Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. was the son of Nile Clarke Kinnick Sr. and Frances Clarke. He had two younger brothers, Ben and George. His maternal grandfather, George W. Clarke, graduated from the University of Iowa in 1878 and served two two-year terms as the Governor of Iowa from 1913 to 1917.
Nile's parents were devoted to the teachings of Christian Science and helped Nile develop values of discipline, hard work, and strong morals. Nile was reportedly constantly thinking about self-improvement and working on turning personal weaknesses into strengths. Nile was also a devout Christian Scientist, and regularly attended the Christian Science branch church in Iowa City, while he was a student at the university.
Kinnick began showing athletic aptitude at a young age as well. As a youth, he played on a Junior Legion baseball team with the future major leaguer Bob Feller.
At Adel High School, Kinnick led the football team to an undefeated season, and then he scored 485 points for the basketball team, leading them to the district finals. After his junior year of high school, the Kinnick family moved when Nile Kinnick Sr. took a job in Omaha, Nebraska. Nile was a first-team all-state selection in both football and basketball as a senior, as he started for one year with his brother Ben at Benson High School in Omaha. He led Benson to a third-place finish in the state basketball and to the city baseball championship.
Career
Undergraduate years
Kinnick had always been an excellent student as well as an athletic leader, and he could have graduated in 1935, but his parents held him back a year to become thoroughly prepared for the university. He considered the University of Minnesota – how seriously is not clear – but he chose the University of Iowa. The struggles of the Iowa Hawkeyes football team might have attracted him. Verle Davis, Kinnick's football coach at Adel, recalled that "Kinnick was determined to go to some school that was down ... He didn't want to go to Minnesota, because they were on top ... He finally went to Iowa as he figured they were at their lowest ebb." The account is persuasive, because it was typical of Kinnick. To start from nothing and test himself against his own weakness as well as outside resistance were challenges Kinnick always pursued if they were available.A Hero Perished: The Diary and Selected Letters of Nile Kinnick, by Paul Baender, p. xvi, .
He was recruited to Iowa by Coach Ossie Solem in 1936. Kinnick was named the co-captain of the freshman team. He also played baseball and basketball during his freshman year.
After the 1936 season, Solem left Iowa to go to Syracuse University, and the University of Iowa hired Irl Tubbs to replace him. As a sophomore, Kinnick was terrific, but the Hawkeyes just could not win. Iowa battled Washington, the eventual Pacific Coast Conference champions, to the wire in a 14–0 defeat and then scored an early victory over Bradley University. It was Iowa's only win of the year. But opponents raved about Kinnick. After scoring Iowa's only touchdown in a 13–6 loss to Wisconsin, Solem wrote the Des Moines Register sportswriter Sec Taylor from Syracuse, "I was sure that Kinnick was destined to be the greatest back in all Iowa history, and I am more convinced than ever that he will be."Stump, D. W. (1975) Kinnick: The Man and The Legend University of Iowa, p. 37.
Iowa lost all five Big Ten Conference games in 1937. The "heartbreaking" loss was a 7–6 defeat at the hands of Michigan, despite Kinnick's 74-yard punt return for a touchdown. Sportswriter Bert McGrane wrote, "I can't recall a single break that favored Iowa ... You'd think Iowa would win the toss by accident once in a while." Iowa had not won the coin toss in 13 games. Kinnick, the lone bright spot of the 1937 season, led the nation in punting and was named first team All-Big Ten and a third team All-American.
Kinnick played basketball, too, and he was Iowa's second leading scorer and the 15th leading scorer in the Big Ten his sophomore year in 1937–38. After a brief stint in baseball that summer, Nile dropped the third sport. In 1938, he hurt his ankle in preseason football practice and was not at full strength for his entire junior year. Kinnick played through the pain, but it hampered his effectiveness. His Christian Science beliefs limited the amount of medical assistance that Kinnick allowed himself to receive from the team doctors, believing that his injury could be overcome by his reliance on prayer for healing.Stump, p. 44.
Kinnick was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection his junior year in 1938. (It was later revealed that he had probably played the 1938 season with a broken ankle. Most contemporaries say that because of Christian Science religion he would not allow himself to be examined by a doctor. In fact, the Christian Science religion does not prohibit medical help, and leaves the choice whether to seek medical attention up to the individual. However, a teammate says that he did not go to a doctor because he had learned a different style of wrapping his ankle and did not want anyone else messing with it. He "went to a doctor when something was wrong with him.") He also declared that he would not participate in basketball in the upcoming year, citing personal concerns over his school work. After a 1–6–1 season, Irl Tubbs was fired at Iowa, and the doctor, Eddie Anderson, was now the head coach.
Kinnick was also a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Iowa during his undergraduate years.
1939 season
Before the 1939 season, Kinnick wrote, "For three years, nay for fifteen years, I have been preparing for this last year of football. I anticipate becoming the roughest, toughest all-around back yet to hit this conference." He also wrote, "I'm looking forward to showing Anderson what a real football player looks like – so hold your hats."The Ironmen, by Scott Fisher, p. 41 ()
Coach Anderson liked Kinnick immediately. He referred to all of his players by their last names, except Kinnick, who was always "Nile". Anderson favored student-athletes, because he felt that scholars made better players over the long run. He believed the 1939 team could be a good one, but only if the starters played significant minutes. Before the first game, the Des Moines Register had a small note stating that "a set of iron men may be developed to play football for Iowa."One Magic Year: 1939, An Ironman Remembers, by Al Couppee, p. 1 (ASIN: B00071TZKS). The 1939 Hawkeyes, nicknamed the "Ironmen", would become one of the greatest teams in school history. Many of Anderson's players played complete games during that season for the Hawkeyes.
In 1939, Iowa finished the year ranked ninth in the AP Poll with a 6–1–1 record. Kinnick threw for 638 yards and 11 touchdowns on only 31 passes and ran for 374 yards. He was involved in 16 of the 19 touchdowns (11 passing, 5 rushing) that Iowa scored and was involved in 107 of the 130 points that Iowa scored that year. He played 402 of a possible 420 minutes that season. All told, Kinnick set 14 school records, six of which still stand over 65 years later.
At the end of the season, Nile Kinnick won virtually every major award in the country. He was a consensus First-Team All-American, and he appeared on every first team ballot to become the only unanimous selection in the AP voting. He won the Big Ten MVP award by the largest margin in history. He also won the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Memorial Trophy. Nile Kinnick even won the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, beating out such notables as Joe DiMaggio, Byron Nelson, and Joe Louis. He was the first college football player to win that award. On November 28, 1939, Nile Kinnick won the Heisman Trophy, becoming to date the only Iowa Hawkeye to win college football's most prestigious award.
Heisman Trophy Upon receiving the Heisman at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City, Kinnick made the following statement during his acceptance speech:
Bill Cunningham of the Boston Post wrote in response, "This country's okay as long as it produces Nile Kinnicks. The football part is incidental." AP reporter Whitney Martin wrote, "You realized the ovation (after his Heisman speech) wasn't alone for Nile Kinnick, the outstanding college football player of the year. It was also for Nile Kinnick, typifying everything admirable in American youth."Stump, p. 69. Another observer said that Kinnick's remarks "tackled Demosthenes and threw Cicero for a 15-yard loss."ESPN Info on Nile Kinnick The University of Iowa recently began playing an excerpt from the speech on the Kinnick Stadium scoreboard before "The Star-Spangled Banner" at every Hawkeye home game.
Inconclusive claims
Minnesota tryout Nile Kinnick's college choice came down to Iowa and the University of Minnesota. Minnesota was one of the dominant college football programs in the nation, while Iowa was a struggling program. Some sources state that Kinnick traveled to Minneapolis for a tryout with the Gophers, but that the Gophers rejected him.ESPN Bio Some even suggest that Minnesota's legendary coach, Bernie Bierman, stated himself that Kinnick was "too small and too slow" to play for Minnesota.
Whether or not this tryout actually took place is unclear. Even as a high school student, Kinnick wrote many letters and kept meticulous journal entries, yet this alleged tryout with Minnesota is never referenced. Nor does Kinnick ever mention the tryout during any of his journal entries or letters when he discusses one of his many games with Iowa against Minnesota. Also, by early 1937, Bierman called Kinnick "one of the finest young backs I have ever seen."Stump, p. 39. That would represent a significant change of opinion on Bierman's part in a very short period of time. One author wrote, "When it was time for college, there was no doubt that Nile would go to Iowa."Fisher, p. 41.
The Universities of Iowa and Minnesota have been fierce rivals for a long time, and it is possible that the story of Kinnick's interest in Minnesota was embellished at some point, by fans of either school. Kinnick considered enrolling at Minnesota, but how seriously and whether he actually attended a football tryout is uncertain.
Michigan confession Another enduring story involves a game between Iowa and Michigan in the late 1930s for the Big Ten Conference title and/or a Rose Bowl berth. Iowa trailed by a few points and threatened to score the winning touchdown on the final play of the game. On the final play, Kinnick was stopped right at the goal line. The officials conferred to discuss if Kinnick had scored, and Kinnick approached the officials to inform them that he had been, in fact, stopped short of the goal, and Michigan went on to win the game.The Man Behind The Name
There are several inconsistencies with this story. First of all, Kinnick's Iowa teams only met Michigan twice, in 1937 and 1939, and at that time, the Big Ten did not send their champion to the Rose Bowl. The Big Ten title was not at stake during the 1937 game for either team, and Michigan did not win the Big Ten title in 1939, even with the victory over Iowa. In retrospect, Iowa could have won the 1939 Big Ten title with a win over Michigan, but Iowa lost the game 27–7, too large a margin for any last-minute Kinnick heroics. Iowa did lose the 1937 game at Michigan by a 7–6 score, but no written account of the game includes this controversial score.