List of Iowa Hawkeyes head football coaches

The Iowa Hawkeyes football program is a college football team that represents the University of Iowa in the Big Ten Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The program has had 25 head coaches since organized football began in 1889. Iowa has played in over 1,200 games during its 127 seasons.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list

General		Overall		Conference		Postseason [A 1]
No.	Order of coaches [A 2]	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties [A 3]	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage [A 4]

Coaches

Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season .

No.	Name	Term	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	DCs	CCs	NCs	Awards
1	E. A. Dalton	1892	6	3	2	1	.583	0	2	1	.167	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
2	Ben "Sport" Donnelly	1893	7	3	4	0	.429	1	2	0	.333	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
3	Roger Sherman	1894	9	4	4	1	.500	1	2	0	.333	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
4	Alfred E. Bull	1896	9	7	1	1	.833	2	0	1	.833	—	—	—	—	1 – 18961	0	—
5	Otto Wagonhurst	1897	8	4	4	0	.500	0	2	0	.000	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
6	Alden Knipe	1899–1902	44	29	11	4	.705	2	6	1	.278	0	0	0	—	1 – 1900	0	—
7	John Chalmers	1903–1905	32	24	8	0	.750	1	6	0	.143	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
8	Mark Catlin	1906–1908	17	7	10	0	.412	1	3	0	.250	0	0	0	—	1 – 19072	0	—
9	John Griffith	1909	7	2	4	1	.357	0	1	0	.000	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
10	Jesse Hawley	1910–1915	42	24	18	0	.571	8	11	0	.421	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
11	Howard Jones †	1916–1923	60	42	17	1	.708	21	12	0	.636	0	0	0	—	2 – 1921 1922	0	—
12	Burt Ingwersen	1924–1931	64	33	27	4	.547	11	20	4	.371	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
13	Oscar "Ossie" Solem	1932–1936	40	15	21	4	.425	5	16	4	.280	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
14	Irl Tubbs	1937–1938	16	2	13	1	.156	1	8	1	.150	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
15	Eddie Anderson †	1939–1942, 1946–1949	70	35	33	2	.514	21	24	2	.468	0	0	0	—	0	0	AFCA Coach of the Year (1939)
16	Edward "Slip" Madigan †	1943–1944	16	2	13	1	.156	0	10	1	.045	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
17	Clem Crowe	1945	9	2	7	0	.222	1	5	0	.167	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
18	Leonard Raffensperger	1950–1951	18	5	10	3	.361	2	9	1	.208	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
19	Forest Evashevski †	1952–1960	83	52	27	4	.651	33	21	2	.607	2	0	0	—	3 – 1956 1958 1960	1 – 1958	—
20	Jerry Burns	1961–1965	45	16	27	2	.378	8	15	1	.354	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
21	Ray Nagel	1966–1970	49	16	32	1	.337	11	22	2	.343	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
22	Frank Lauterbur	1971–1973	33	4	28	1	.136	3	22	1	.135	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
23	Bob Commings	1974–1978	55	18	37	0	.327	13	27	0	.325	0	0	0	—	0	0	—
24	Hayden Fry †	1979–1998	238	143	89	6	.613	96	61	5	.608	6	7	1	—	3 – 1981 1985 1990	0	Sporting News Coach of the Year (1981) Big Ten Coach of the Year (1981) Big Ten Coach of the Year (1990) Big Ten Coach of the Year (1991)
25	Kirk Ferentz	1999–present	315	196	119	—	.622	122	85	—	.589	10	10	—	2 – 2015 2021 2023	2 – 2002 2004	0	AP Coach of the Year (2002) Walter Camp Coach of the Year (2002) Big Ten Coach of the Year (2002) Big Ten Coach of the Year (2004) Big Ten Coach of the Year (2009) Big Ten Coach of the Year (2015)

^[4]

1. Iowa won the Western Interstate University Football Association (WIUFA) conference championship in 1896.
2. Iowa won the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) conference championship in 1907.

Notes

1. Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played. ^[1]
2. A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
3. Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since. ^[2]
4. When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss. ^[3]

References

1. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
2. Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on November 24, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
3. Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-23. Retrieved 2012-09-08.