Nile Kinnick
Nile Clarke Kinnick, Jr (born July 9, 1918 in Adel, Iowa; died on June 2, 1943) was one of college football’s top players and was one of the greatest athletes to have come out of the state of Iowa, where he played football at the University of Iowa.
Football career
During his final season, in the fall of 1939, the Iowa team was picked to finish last in the Big Ten Conference after having gone just 2-13-1 the previous two years. However, the Iowa team, lead by Kinnick, went 6-1-1 that season and finished second in the conference. The 1939 team was nicknamed the Ironmen because most of the players played the entire game.
The highlight of the season was Iowa’s 7-6 upset of highly ranked Notre Dame. In that game, he scored the winning touchdown and kicked the extra point.
During his senior year he threw for 638 yards and 11 touchdowns on only 31 passes and ran for 374 yards. As a kicker, Kinnick punted 71 times in his career for a 39.9 average and hit 11 of 17 drop kicks. In 1939, 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. In addition to being a top athlete, he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, had a 3.4 grade point average, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.
At the end of the season, he won virtually every award in the country. He won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, and the Maxwell Award and in a poll conducted by the AP, he was picked as the nation’s top male athlete of the year, beating out such notables as Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. Kinnick's Heisman acceptance speech, made approximately one year before the United States entered World War II, is remembered as one of the most eloquent and moving ever given:
Thank you, very, very kindly, Mr. Holcomb. It seems to me that everyone is letting his superlatives run away with him this evening. But nonetheless, I want you to know that I am mighty, mighty happy to accept this trophy this evening. Every football player in these United States dreams about winning that trophy, and this fine trip to New York. Every player considers that trophy the Acme in recognition of this kind. The fact that I am actually receiving this trophy tonight almost overwhelms me, and I know that all those boys who have gone before me must have felt somewhat the same way.
From my own personal viewpoint, I consider my winning this award as, indirectly, a great tribute to the new coaching staff of the University of Iowa headed by Dr. Eddie Anderson, and to my teammates sitting back in Iowa City. A finer man and a better coach never hit these United States, and a finer bunch of boys and a more courageous bunch of boys never graced the gridirons of the Midwest than that Iowa team of 1939. I wish that they might all be with me tonight to receive this trophy. They certainly deserve it.
I want to take this grand opportunity to thank, collectively, all the sports writers, and all the sports casters, and all those who have seen fit and seen their way clear to cast their ballots in my favor for this trophy. I also want take this opportunity to thank Mr. Prince and his committee, the Heisman Award Committe, and all those connected with the Downtown Athletic Club for this trophy and the fine time that they are showing me. And not only for that, but for making this fine and worthy trophy available to football players of this country.
Finally, if you'll permit me, I'd like to make a comment which in my mind is indicative, perhaps, of the greater significance of football and sports emphasis in general in this country. And that is, I thank God that I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest and not on the battlefields of Europe. I can speak confidently and positively that the players of this country would much more—much rather—struggle and fight to win the Heisman award than the Croix de Guerre.
Navy service
Instead of going into professional football, he entered the University of Iowa Law School with plans to go into politics. He became a navy pilot during World War II. On June 2, 1943, Kinnick was on a routine training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which was off the coast of Venezuela in the Gulf of Paria. During the flight, his plane developed engine trouble. Faced with a risky landing that would endanger the Lexington's crew members, Kinnick elected to crash land into the ocean. Witnesses spotted him standing on the wing of the sinking plane, however, rescue boats could not arrive in time to save him. His body was never recovered.
Legacy
Although forgotten by many people, he is still honored by the people of Iowa and by the Big Ten Conference. In 1989, he was voted the greatest football player in Iowa history. The football stadium at the University of Iowa was named in Kinnick's honor in 1972), and the coin flipped at the start of every Big Ten football game bears Kinnick's image.