Hawkeyes Slip Into Town the Back Way

The University of Iowa football team, barely making a sound, slipped into town Thursday night and will today begin workouts for its Rose Bowl game with UCLA on New Year’s Day.

The Hawkeyes’ low-key arrival at Ontario Airport was the first step in Operation No Frills, a carefully conceived plan designed to keep the minds of Iowa players on UCLA instead of Space Mountain.

“We’re going to have fun,” Iowa Coach Hayden Fry insisted at a quick press conference after his team arrived.

The Hawkeyes, 28-0 losers to Washington in the 1982 Rose Bowl, are determined on this trip to keep outside distractions to a minimum.

All-American quarterback Chuck Long, one of nine current Iowa players who were on the Hawkeyes’ 1982 Rose Bowl squad, agrees that the team has a different attitude going into this game.

“We’re more or less treating this as a 12th game,” he said. “You always want to go to the Rose Bowl and have fun, but we’re treating this like a must-win game. . . . Last time, we kind of got carried away with the distractions.”

Iowa (10-1), listed as a three-point favorite over UCLA, is ranked third nationally and still has a shot at the mythical national championship.

And that’s why there wasn’t anything gaudy about this Rose Bowl landing, not even an appearance by the Rose Bowl Queen and brass band.

Iowa’s chartered plane landed at about 6:30 p.m. and was escorted to an empty air field on the opposite side of Ontario’s regular passenger terminal.

About 40 Iowa well-wishers and a handful of reporters greeted the team, which was transported directly from the plane to waiting buses.

Fry and five team captains (tailback Ronnie Harmon, Long, lineman Mike Haight, linebacker Larry Station and nose guard Hap Peterson) held a short press conference in the garage of the airport’s Fire-Security Division.

Fry’s first comment, not surprisingly, was about the weather.

“We’re still trying to thaw out,” he said.

Fry said the wind-chill factor in Iowa City was expected to make the temperature about 37 degrees below zero early today.

But the Hawkeyes were able to practice at home and all but recreate California sunshine owing to their heat-controlled, domed practice facility on campus.

The team is staying at the Industry Hills and Sheraton Resort and will practice at nearby Mt. San Antonio College. During Iowa’s stay, the media will have only one interview session with players. That 30-minute session will come after today’s practice.

Iowa senior offensive lineman Mike Haight had the letters ANF engraved into his helmet before the Hawkeye game against Ohio State on Nov. 2. The letters stand for “America Needs Farmers” and it’s Haight’s plea to raise public awareness of the struggling American farmer.

Haight is a native of Dyersville, Iowa. “It’s just an itty-bitty farm town,” Haight said. Iowa has been one of the states hardest hit by the recent crisis.

Fry said Iowa’s football success has served as a sort of antidote for depression.

“We’re the only game in town,” Fry said. “If you’re down and out, and the government won’t help and you can’t get a loan at the bank, then Hawkeyes’ football is something you can look forward to.”

Iowa Notes

In Iowa City last week, Coach Hayden Fry was asked if he feels any pressure to win this game for the sake of the Big Ten Conference, which has lost 14 of the last 16 Rose Bowl games: “We’re only responsible for one of those,” said Fry, referring to Iowa’s 28-0 loss to Washington in the 1982 Rose Bowl. “Some of the other characters from the Big Ten we could care less about, what with the way they pop off.” . . . Visiting Rose Bowl teams were once required to stay in the archaic Huntington-Sheraton Hotel in Pasadena, which has since been closed because it didn’t meet required earthquake standards. Fry didn’t seem too hurt by the news. “When you stayed at the Sheraton, you thought you were in Rome, looking up at the Colosseum,” he said. . . . More from the no-frills department: Officials of the Freedom Bowl wanted to honor the Iowa team during halftime of Monday night’s game at Anaheim Stadium. Iowa won the first Freedom Bowl last year, defeating Texas, 55-17. Fry politely declined the Freedom Bowl’s invitation. . . . The nine Iowa players remaining from the 1982 Rose Bowl team are Fred Bush, Nate Creer, Mike Haight, Tom Humphrey, Devon Mitchell, Jay Norvell, Kelly O’Brien, Hap Peterson and Chuck Long. Long, then a freshman reserve quarterback, handled the final two snaps of the game. . . . The Hawkeyes’ star running back, Ronnie Harmon, is becoming famous for wearing his wrap-around sunglasses day and night. He was wearing them Thursday night as he walked down the steps from the airplane, but luckily didn’t trip. When will he take them off? “When I put my helmet on,” Harmon said.