Iowa–Iowa State Football Rivalry

The Iowa State Cyclones and Iowa Hawkeyes engage in a college football rivalry game known as the Iowa-Iowa State football rivalry. The game's victor is given the Cy-Hawk Trophy. It has the names of the mascots of the two teams, Herky the Hawk and Cy the Cardinal.

The Greater Des Moines Athletic Club designed and manufactured the trophy in 1976 as a traveling trophy, and Iowa Governor Robert D. Ray gave it to the winner for the first time in 1977. The two have not played each other since 1934, until that particular game.

The game alternates between the two different campuses and has never been played anywhere else than Iowa City or Ames in the rivalry's entire history. The University of Iowa plays its games in Iowa City in even-numbered years, and Iowa State University plays its games in Ames in odd-numbered years.

A football game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones took place on September 9, 2023. The game took place in Ames, Iowa, at Jack Trice Stadium. At 20–13, the Hawkeyes were declared the winners.

Iowa's defense secured the victory in the last two minutes with a last-minute stand, and Jaziun Patterson ran for 86 yards and a touchdown. Since it was Kirk Ferentz's 200th victory as a Division I coach, the game held great significance.

Iowa–Iowa State Football Rivalry History

Between 1894 and 1934, the two higher education institutions faced off 24 times before the Cy-Hawk Trophy was created in 1977. The rivalry was put on hold in 1934 when Ossie Solem, the head football coach and athletic director at the University of Iowa, refused to respond to calls to reschedule it. It was picked back up in 1977. Just 28 of the 66 games in the series played through 2021 have taken place in Ames, with 40 of them taking place in Iowa City.

Regardless of the teams' preliminary rankings, games in the series are frequently decided by fewer than seven points. Iowa has won the previous six games of the 2021 season. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the game's cancellation in 2020, making it the first time the rivalry hasn't been played since 1976.

The 2010 trophy design included images of Iowa State's Cy the Cardinal and Iowa's Herky the Hawk, together with a football and a running back in the traditional stiff-arm stance. After the 2010 match, the trophy was changed, making it the only rivalry trophy with a sponsor.

Ever since then, the week prior to the game, WHO sportscaster Keith Murphy tours with the Cy-Hawk Trophy every year. It is still the easily identifiable emblem of the competition, and Murphy says that "people love it."

On August 19, 2011, during the Iowa State Fair, a new trophy provided by the Iowa Corn Growers Association was unveiled to the general audience. Above the new trophy was a sculpture that showed a small children's farm family nestled around a bushel basket of corn. According to Association President Dean Taylor, it's "a work of art that represents Iowans and their hard work."

However, the public quickly mocked the new award in newspaper articles and online posts, just hours after it was unveiled. Negative criticism was voiced in public by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and former Iowa football coach Hayden Fry, who failed to draw a connection between football and corn, farms, and families.

The CEO of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, Craig Floss, declared on August 23, 2011, that the new Cy-Hawk Trophy would be modified due to the unfavorable public response. The public would be involved in choosing the next trophy. In 2011, a provisional trophy was used.

After receiving feedback from fans, the trophy was modified and displayed at the conclusion of Iowa State's 2012 victory game. It now has the mascots of the two universities, a raised football, and corn in the background.

Iowa–Iowa State Football Rivalry Head-to-Head Stats

Iowa–Iowa State Football Rivalry Winner Year-by-Year