DIY History | Transcribe | Nile Kinnick Collection | Correspondence to and from Nile Kinnick, friends and family regarding his championship football season, August-December 1939

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Correspondence to and from Nile Kinnick, friends and family regarding his championship football season, August-December 1939

1939-11-10: Front

Omaha, Nebraska, November 10, 1939
Dear SB:
Probably tomorrow will be the high spot for 1939, and somehow it
seems to me that you are ready to deliver the package right on
the front doorstep.    After last Saturday's fine victory [Purdue] your courage
and confidence should be at the top.    And who am I to even suggest
that the result tomorrow won't be just what you would want it to be.
Doubtless Anderson would just a little rather have a win against
Notre Dame than in any other game on the schedule.     If mighty ND
falls to the everlasting fighting Iowans who have proven that they
can play smart, hard football,  then what happens  in the remaining
games will be of relatively less  importance,    A win tomorrow will
make the season a distinct success, and it is amazing what confidence all of the Iowa followers and well wishers, and they are legion,
have in the possibilities for that win.
Certainly none of you has underestimated the outfit from South Bend.
Probably no team in the country has the well merited reputation for
playing smart, headsup football, and for taking immediate advantage
of every mistake committed by their opponents. Never let those chaps
get behind you, and by every means hang onto that ball.    Somebody
has to beat them, and it may as well be  Iowa, but it will take hard
and fast charging on every down, with every man doing his duty for
sixty minutes from the first whistle to the last. But hasn't Iowa
been doing just that all season, with perhaps less of it at Ann
Arbor?   So get right in there and do what you have been demonstrating
for the past six weeks, only better and oftener than before.    I have
an idea that this game will be the one that you have been expecting
to play before the last curtain of the season is rung down, and you
can know that all of us are right in there with you, blocking, boosting,
protecting; and helping to be smart, remembering the right moves for
the situations as they develop and avoiding those lapses that are
called breaks for the other fellow.
Don't let anybody get discouraged  in the early stages, as you very
well know that no game is won or lost until the final gun.    All of
your Conference games have been won in the last quarter and in the
last few minutes, and this will be no exception. The slogan,Iowa
Fights, has taken on a new meaning thruout the land, and I am
fully expecting to see a sterling exemplification of it on the
field tomorrow afternoon.    Power to you, my boy.
Love    Pop

Saving...

Omaha, Nebraska, November 10, 1939 Dear SB: Probably tomorrow will be the high spot for 1939, and somehow it seems to me that you are ready to deliver the package right on the front doorstep. After last Saturday's fine victory [Purdue] your courage and confidence should be at the top. And who am I to even suggest that the result tomorrow won't be just what you would want it to be. Doubtless Anderson would just a little rather have a win against Notre Dame than in any other game on the schedule. If mighty ND falls to the everlasting fighting Iowans who have proven that they can play smart, hard football, then what happens in the remaining games will be of relatively less importance, A win tomorrow will make the season a distinct success, and it is amazing what confidence all of the Iowa followers and well wishers, and they are legion, have in the possibilities for that win. Certainly none of you has underestimated the outfit from South Bend. Probably no team in the country has the well merited reputation for playing smart, headsup football, and for taking immediate advantage of every mistake committed by their opponents. Never let those chaps get behind you, and by every means hang onto that ball. Somebody has to beat them, and it may as well be Iowa, but it will take hard and fast charging on every down, with every man doing his duty for sixty minutes from the first whistle to the last. But hasn't Iowa been doing just that all season, with perhaps less of it at Ann Arbor? So get right in there and do what you have been demonstrating for the past six weeks, only better and oftener than before. I have an idea that this game will be the one that you have been expecting to play before the last curtain of the season is rung down, and you can know that all of us are right in there with you, blocking, boosting, protecting; and helping to be smart, remembering the right moves for the situations as they develop and avoiding those lapses that are called breaks for the other fellow. Don't let anybody get discouraged in the early stages, as you very well know that no game is won or lost until the final gun. All of your Conference games have been won in the last quarter and in the last few minutes, and this will be no exception. The slogan,Iowa Fights, has taken on a new meaning thruout the land, and I am fully expecting to see a sterling exemplification of it on the field tomorrow afternoon. Power to you, my boy. Love Pop