Old Gold tries hard to avoid sounding like the great-uncle who, at the dinner table, recalls walking to school in a blinding blizzard, uphill both ways. However, at times he can’t help it, and this is one of those times. Old Gold asks his long-suffering Hawkeye family to bear with him as he recounts a story of phenomenal success and denied recognition. Times were different in 1960, you know.

That year, college football yielded only nine major bowl games in the postseason, based on a selection process that generally pitted conference champions against one another. The proliferation of postseason bowl games would begin in the decade to follow, with 11 such games by 1970, opening up opportunities for outstanding teams that didn’t necessarily win their conference championship. Today, at last count, there are 39 postseason bowl games, held from mid-December to mid-January, many of which feature teams with little better than a .500 season. Yes, indeed, times have changed.

The Rose Bowl higher-ups in 1961 had no official agreement in place to host teams from specific conferences, but that year, the Big Ten champion squared off against the Pacific-8 leader. On Jan. 2, 1961, Minnesota lost to the University of Washington Huskies, 17-7. Iowa, with a nearly perfect 8-1 record, stayed home. The Hawkeyes that year shared conference co-championships with Minnesota, but because Iowa lost to the Golden Gophers, 27­-10, on Nov. 5, Minnesota was invited to Pasadena.

There was no consolation bowl game bid option for the Hawkeyes that year, despite a stellar season: no Outback Bowl, no Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, no National University Holiday Bowl, all of which are available to qualifying B1G teams these days. Iowa finished the 1960 schedule ranked No. 2 in the nation by the coaches (No. 3 by the Associated Press) behind its Big Ten rival to the north, only to be locked out of the postseason. By Old Gold’s reckoning, Iowa’s 1960 team, under Coach Forest Evashevski, is the highest-ranked squad in Hawkeye history to be denied a postseason reward.

Old Gold was aware of this story but didn’t appreciate it more fully until one day in 2010 when he received a phone call from Bill Ringer ('63) of Vincennes, Indiana. Bill, who hailed from Flint, Michigan, was active in Army ROTC as a student and had received a scholarship to play football for the Hawkeyes as a guard. He was a member of that 1960 team.

Bill called Old Gold to ask if the archives could track down its game highlights film from that season and digitize it so that it could again be viewed by Hawkeye fans and former players. Long story short, the archives, with help from the University Libraries’ preservation department, shipped the film to a vendor specializing in motion-picture restoration and reformatting. The results are on YouTube—one version has poor video quality but a complete soundtrack, while the other version (see also below) has much better video quality but not a complete soundtrack. Spoiler alert: Iowa wins nearly all of the games highlighted.

Without Bill’s enthusiasm and encouragement, the archives would not have revived a film that captured this remarkable season. Even better for Old Gold, a valued friendship ensued as he and Bill became acquainted, talking about those times and what they mean to those who experienced them.

Sadly, Bill Ringer died on Sept. 7 at age 77, following a brave battle with cancer. Old Gold will always treasure his friendship with Bill, a member of a top-notch Hawkeye team that deserves to be remembered for a long, long time—bowl game or not.