Iowa’s Nile Kinnick was recently named the No. 7 Big Ten Icon of all time. The Big Ten Network program is counting down the top 50 student-athletes in conference history, based on their collegiate playing careers.

Big Ten Icons profiled the revered 1939 Heisman Trophy winner with an episode featuring none other than the author of NILE, Tom Lidd. The episode also includes one-on-one interviews with former Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke, Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta, former Hawkeye athletic director Bump Elliott, Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz and legendary broadcaster Gary Dolphin.

While at Iowa, Kinnick won the Heisman Trophy, was named a consensus All-American, won the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Football, won the Walter Camp Award and the Maxwell Award.

In an essay for www.BigTenIcons.com, former sports editor Dan McGrath wrote that Kinnick “rescued University of Iowa football during a magical 1939 season that still stirs the imagination 71 years after it took place.” To read the essay on Kinnick visit www.BigTenIcons.com.

We got just 24 years of Nile Kinnick, but the impact he made in each stage of his life was profound enough to last.

“He was not a great baseball player,” says Bob Feller, the baseball legend who grew up playing American Legion ball with Kinnick in nearby Van Meter. “He used to take a football to baseball practice and practice drop-kicking the football right behind home plate at Riverside Park in Adel, which is named after him and me.”

From that field in Adel, it was easy to notice the square-jawed kid with the dark hair. He played hard. He played fair. He knew what he wanted.

“They always used to call him ‘junior’ or ‘june’–well, he hated that. And when he went to college, he told everybody ‘don’t call me junior or june, my name is Nile,’” adds Feller.

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Link to the clip on YouTube

Scout Biography article on Nile Kinnick

Player bio at Hawkeyesports.com

The 1939 Iowa Hawkeyes football team earned the nickname The Ironmen.  They were coached by Dr. Eddie Anderson and were led on the field by halfback Nile Kinnick.   Hank Vollenweider and Red Frye were members of the Ironmen team and played along side Nile.

Recently, Tom had the pleasure of watching the opening game in the 2009 University of Iowa football season against the Panthers of UNI with Hank and Red.

Prior to the game, the three gentlemen snapped a photo of the occasion.   They paid their respects to Nile by holding up the coin flipped at the start of every Big Ten football game that bears his image.

Another guy you might recognize also stopped by to pay his respects and pose for a photo.

Hank Vollenweider, Red Frye, Hayden Fry and Tom Lidd

Many people who knew Nile Kinnick sincerely believed he would have been one of our nation’s greatest leaders.  Unfortunately, the country never had the opportunity to witness what this promising young man may have achieved.  This story tells of Kinnick’s life from high school to his ill-fated flight near Trinidad during WWII, and everything in between.

NILE also touches on the lives of his Iowa Hawkeye teammates, who became known as the “Ironmen” because there were very few players on the 1939 team.  After two losing seasons in 1937 and 1938, the University  hired Dr. Eddie Anderson to coach the football team.  He was relentless in his pursuit to have the players in the best physical condition of any team in the nation.  Many quit.  But those that remained made history, including Nile.

Don’t miss out on this great story!  Purchase a copy of NILE today.