Sports Then and Now

IA QB Ricky Stanzi celebrates 24-23 victory over Penn State.

The Iowa vs. Penn State rivalry in college football has ballooned in importance, especially in recent years as Iowa continues to roll out one impressive football team after another.

Penn State has the storied football past, having cemented its place in the upper echelons of successful college football programs.

In the early years, Penn State owned Iowa, winning five of their first seven meetings.

Iowa won twice prior to 1980, in 1930 and again in 1976.

Many felt Penn State would dominate the conference when the Nittany Lions became a full-fledged member of the Big Ten in 1993. After all, Penn State had won National Championships in 1982 and again in 1986.

The Lions did win the Big Ten conference title in 1994 with a perfect 12-0 season. They won it again in 2005, going 11-1, and in 2008 when they tied for first place with Ohio State. The Nittany Lions’ only conference loss in 2008 came against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Dallas Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes Football Team.

During the Hayden Fry years (1979-98), Iowa played Penn State six times, twice in 1983-1984 when Penn State was an Independent, and four times as Big Ten opponents. Iowa won twice, in 1983 and then again in 1996.

When Kirk Ferentz came to Iowa, the dominance by Penn State began to wane.

In fact, in the nine times the two teams have met during the Ferentz era at Iowa (1999-present), the Hawkeyes hold a decided advantage, winning seven of nine or 78 percent of the games played.

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Last night, for the first time since my baby sister was born, the National League won the Major League Baseball All-Star game. For those of you who missed my running timeline of things that happened the last time the NL won an All-Star Game because you don’t follow me on Twitter (shameless plug: www.twitter.com/HubSportsLive), here’s the complete version:

• Last time the NL won an All-Star game, they didn’t play hockey in AZ and baseball’s most cherished records were held by guys named Maris and Aaron.

One of 1996's greatest highlights was also the scene of one of its greatest tragedies

• Last time the NL won an All-Star game, Bret Michaels was a musician, Tom Cruise wasn’t a theologist and Tiger Woods was a golfer.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star game, MTV played music videos, AOL was the preferred ISP and @UmpJoeWest didn’t have his own twitter handle
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Kirby Puckett was loved by everyone and Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones weren’t yet household names.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, “Macarena” was on top of the Billboard charts. Who Let The Dogs Out was, sadly, still four years out.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Betty White was a ripe, young 74 and Joe Torre was in his 1st year with the Yankees
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, the Yankees hadn’t won a World Series in 18 years and we thought we were done with Bush as President
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, neither Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning nor Alex Rodriguez were world champions. There’s a happy thought.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Conan O’Brien wasn’t the name of the gum on Jay Leno’s shoe and Seinfeld was still filming new episodes
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game,  “The Rachel” was a popular hairstyle, leggings and cords were trendy and Blink 182 wasn’t yet famous
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, the Cowboys were America’s team, Nintendo 64 was released and a sheep named Dolly was a celebrity
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Robert Dole was a presidential candidate and not a Pepsi spokesperson

This look familiar? You must have been born after the NL won its last all-star game, then.

• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, OJ was a free man, Clinton wasn’t impersonating Kennedy and Tupac was still alive
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Britney wasn’t a MILF, Miley was in diapers and nobody knew about Megan Fox.

Sad but true. Sad, but true.