Great Games - 1979 Iowa
7/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 1, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Over the next five weeks, IUHOOSIERS.com shines the spotlight on five unforgettable games in IU football history. This set of five contests came from an incredible interview with long-time radio personality Don Fischer. Each week, we will include not only the game recap from that season, but also thoughts straight from the Fischer interview. This first in our series is the Cream and Crimson's 1979 triumph over Iowa.
1979 INDIANA 30, IOWA 26
Sept. 8 - Iowa City, Ia.
Attendance - 59,780
Down 26-3 at the half, the Hoosiers rallied behind quarterback Tim Clifford to pull out a stunning 30-26 win. Iowa's Dennis Mosley scored four touchdowns in the first half to put the Hoosiers in a deep hole, but Clifford threw for two scores, including a 66-yard game-winner to Lonnie Johnson with only 58 seconds to play, and ran for a third. In all, Clifford hit on 19-28 passes for a then-IU league game record 316 yards. Johnson, who scored three TDs, rushed for 74 yards, caught five passes for 123 yards and two scores, and returned four kicks for 99 yards. Mosley rushed for 142 yards on 20 carries for the Hawks, and quarterback Phil Suess passed for 227 yards (17-30), but the IU defense limited Iowa to just 97 total yards in the second half.
DON FISCHER'S THOUGHTS
You have to understand that since 1973, which was my first year, through 1979, we had not had a winning season. That was six seasons of football without a winning season under Lee Corso. His first year was my first year. In fact, over his first three years we won five games. The next three years, they went 5-6, 5-5-1, and everybody thought year six was going to be a really good year and they were 4-7. So, now you've got Lee Corso talking about this team and that this is the year that they were going to turn the corner. We've heard all this before.
We go to Iowa, and we are optimistic because he is optimistic. He generated that. He could get you thinking that this was going to be a heckuva year. We are all very optimistic about what is about to take place. We go out on the field against Iowa, under first-year coach Hayden Fry. They play an absolutely perfect first half. We don't do anything. They are up 26-3 at halftime.
I break for commercial, and we go into a summary of the first-half scoring. Then I break for another commercial, and it is my time to take a break and Max Skirvin is going to take over for the halftime show. I go out and open this door and walk into a hallway. Kit Klingelhoffer, the sports information director is standing there. He has this smile on his face. He says, "He got us again!" He is talking about Corso having set us up for this turnaround season. We've just went out and laid an egg in the first half of the first game. We are all feeling the same way. We are all disappointed.
We come back in the second half and all of the sudden we start doing all of the little things and start getting back into the ballgame. Lonnie Johnson scores a touchdown on a little 51-yard sideline pass that started it all. He goes down the sideline and now, all of the sudden, it is 26-10. I think we forced a turnover. At any rate, we started doing all the right things.
We are down to the nitty-gritty now and it is late in the ballgame. We get the football with like three-and-a-half minutes left in the game. We are still down 26-23. We get this little drive going. We have a play or two that set us back. The next thing we know, Tim Clifford throws this little sideline pass. The same play we ran to Johnson earlier in the game. He hits him with this little sideline pass again. Johnson breaks a tackle and he is off to the races. He scores the touchdown and we win the game. We had 58 seconds left to go in the game and he scores.
We win this game 30-26, after being down 26-3 at halftime. I think at that time, it may still mark the greatest comeback we've ever had at Indiana. For whatever reason, that did turn the corner at least for this program at that point in time. That team then went on to go 7-4 and go to the Holiday Bowl. It was the first bowl we had been to since the Rose Bowl. They had a tremendous year.