I've Seen Plenty Of Big Games At Kinnick Stadium, But Iowa's 24-23 Victory Over Penn State Is Most Memorable Since No 1 vs. No. 2 Thriller In '85

Iowa City, Ia. -- Well, they got the old place rocking again.

Kinnick Stadium, I mean.

Just when people around the country were thinking Kirk Ferentz couldn't coach anymore and his offensive and defensive coordinators should be given one-way airplane tickets -- Ken O'Keefe to a Division III job in Montana and Norm Parker into retirement -- Iowa's football team rose up out of the ashes of a head-scratching 2008 season and spoiled Joe Paterno's party.

If you thought Paterno's hip hurt before yesterday's Penn State-Iowa football game, you should have seen him afterward.

It's a wonder the 81-year-old Grandfather Image Of College Football didn't order one of his assistants to take him to nearby University Hospitals on the Iowa campus so he could have immediate hip replacement surgery.

Paterno's hip, and probably his head, hurt all the way back to State College, Pa., after this one.

Iowa somehow found a way to hand Penn State its first loss of the season, 24-23, in the cold and the wind of a Saturday evening in November, and now suddenly Ferentz is worth the $3 million-a-season they pay him and O'Keefe and Parker can stick around for at least another week.

Yes, sir, Nile Kinnick would've been proud of this victory in the stadium [pictured above] they named after him.

Iowa radio announcer Gary Dolphin called Hawkeye fans who stormed the field prematurely "idiots" because Iowa wound up getting a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct because of it.

I probably agreed with Dolphin because I don't like it when people leave their seats and run onto a playing field in any sport. I think they should act like they've been there before. At least until the game ends.

Then, again, when you knock a team coached by Joe Paterno out of national championship contention on Daniel Murray's 31-yard field goal with 1 second remaining [pictured, courtesy of SI.com], I guess Dolphin and I should let fans be fans for 10 minutes.

After all, victory over a team that's ranked No. 2 or No. 3, depending on whose poll you're paying attention to, doesn't come that often.

Speaking of that, I was thinking after the game about the big games I've seen over the years in Kinnick Stadium, and trying to figure out where yesterday's game ranked.

As far as I'm concerned, the victory over Penn State was the biggest I've seen in a the old ballpark that's got a million memories since Hayden Fry's No. 1-ranked Hawkeyes got past Bo Schembechler's No. 2 Michigan team Oct. 19, 1985.

That '85 game was unforgettable. I mean, it would've been unforgettable even without the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings because I just like to see Iowa beat Michigan, even if it's the debate teams that are doing the scrapping.

There have been plenty of other historic games I've seen at Kinnick, of course. Off the top of my head, the 36-7 victory over Michigan State on Nov. 21, 1981 that sent Fry's team to the Rose Bowl.

There was more involved than that, of course.

It came at a period in Iowa football history when people were starting to wonder if Iowa even belonged in the Big Ten.

The Hawskeyes' 8-4 season ended a string of 19 consecutive non-winning seasons at the school.

Then there was the 12-10 victory Sept. 7, 1977 by Bob Commings' Iowa team over Iowa State in the renewal of a series that had been dormant since 1934.

There are plenty of others. Certainly the 10-7 victory over Nebraska in a rousing Sept. 12, 1981 season opener that set the stage for Fry's first Rose Bowl season, the Hawkeyes' 16-9 victory over Ohio State, Nov. 2, 1991 that came in a 10-1-1 season, and certainly the 6-0 victory Nov. 17, 1956 in a game that helped Rose Bowl-bound Iowa to a 9-1 season.

Enjoy this one, too, folks.

Stuff like this doesn't come that often anymore.