Nile Kinnick's death and career news clippings, 1943

              Globe Gazette
Mason City, Iowa
ma
Had Served
as Pilot on
Plane Carrier
(SEE ]
ruHES ON PAGE 2)
OMAHVYtf*)—Nile Kinnick, 24,
a naval ensign and one ol Iowa's
gridiron greats, has been killed in
action, the navy department has
informed his parents here, Mr. and
Mrs. Nile C Kinnick.
Kiiroick, a navy pilot, had
gone to sea duty aboard an air- !
craft carrier, his parents said.
The family had no other details
except that his body had not
been recovered.
Kinnick was the toast ol American football during the "iron man'"
days of the Iowa Hawkeyes in
1939.
After completing his football
and college careers in 1939. Kinnick remained at the University of
Iowa to study law. He also served
as freshman football coach.
He enlisted in the naval aii
corps in September, 1941, and reported for duty at Kansas City,
Dec. 4, the same year.
He served at various navy stations in the south and east before
being assigned to an aircraft-carrier this spring.
While a junior at Iowa Kinnick's football career was handicapped by injuries, but the following year he electrified the sport
world with his playing, particularly his touchdown  passes.
The Hawkeyes were dubbed
the "iron men" because most of
'the members of the undermanned team played continuously
throughout the games in which
they started.
Kinnick was chosen all-America
halfback in 1939. He topped the
Chicago Tribune's poll in the selection of players for the annual
all-star game and was chosen athlete of the year over a field which
included professional as well as
amateur performers.
He won the Heisman award, the
Maxwell trophy, the Touchdown
club's award in Washington, D.
C,  and  other  honors.
Nile's father, analyst for the
Federal Land Bank in Omaha,
appeared at his office as usual
Friday. He attended a meeting of
Land bank executives, none of
whom knew he had received the
telegram from the navy department Thursday night beginning
"The navy department regrets to
inform you       .    "
"It seems incredible," he said
after news of his son's loss had
reached the Land bank. "But
the telegram seems to leave no
room for doubt."
The telegram said only that Ensign Kinnick had been killed and
that the body had not yet been\J
recovered.
His parents believe he was i
flying a Grummann fighter plane ;
from an aircraft carrier some- i
where in the Atlantic.
Kinnick rose to fame in the
football world as Dr. Eddie Anderson was serving his first year j
as head  coach  at  Iowa.
The team of Anderson as a new
and popular coach and Kinnick as
a flashy performer sparked a re- I
vival of enthusiasm in Hawkeye j
football.
* * ¥
The Hawks won 6 out of 8
games, defeating South Dakota,
Indiana, Wisconsin, Purdue,
Notre Dame and Minnesota.
They lost to Michigan and tied
with Northwestern to finish
second in the conference race
behind the Ohio'State.
Dr. Anderson was selected coach
of the year by other coaches in a
poll sponsored by the New York
World-Telegram.
Eight hundred and fifty persons honored Kinnick at the Heisman award dinner and he was
widely lauded by sports writers
for his simple, modest acceptance speech in which he attributed
the football success to his coach
and teammates.
He also received a watch from
the New York Sun and a scroll
from Paramount News. He was
flown from New York to Washington and Annapolis in a navy
transport and delivered several
speeches.
One brother, Ben, 23, is a second
lieutenant in the marine air corps
at Jacksonville, Fla. His other
brother, George, 18, was just
graduated from Benson high
school in Omaha. In addition his
parents survive.
Kinnick's activities didn't stop
on the gridiron. His grades were,
exceptional and he was active in
several organizations on the
campus. He won Phi Beta Kappa
honors.
Kinnick   credited   his   father,
who taught him his early football,   with   keeping   him   interested in sports. He rigged up a
basketball   court   for   Nile   and
his   brothers   and   also   played
touch football with them in the
backyard of the Kinnick home
at Adel, Iowa, before the family moved to Omaha.
*■-*.'*-*
The  father  was  a  quarterback
at   Iowa   State   college   at   Ames
in  1914.  He  groomed  his  son  to
be a football player much as the
late Will Feller prepared son Bob
for a baseball career.
The families lived in neighboring communities, Adel and Van
Meter, and young Kinnick was a
catcher on the Adel American
Legion junior baseball team, doing a little catching for Feller.
Not much, however, because Bob
was a third baseman and siioi'tV:
stop most of the time in those]
days.
NILE KINNICK
Kinnick Had Many
Close Friends Here
Kinnick was well known in Mason City as the result of talks mad*
here during his senior year at the
university and also because e
number of his Phi Psi fraternity
brothers had their homes here
While at the university he made
his home at the fraternity house at
which a number of the Mason City
students also resided.
Charles E. Strickland. Mason
City, was national president of
Phi Psi at the time and Kinnick
was his close personal friend.
Kinnick spoke 'at a Lions club
luncheon here at the close of the
1939 football season and the same
evening spoke at the trustees' dinner of the First Congregational
church. He was an outstanding
scholar as well as athlete and because of his ability as a speaker
was much in demand throughout
the state. As a consequence he
was well known throughout North
Iowa,
•
Tribute Paid by
President Hancher
DES MOINES, <£■)—President
Virgil M. Hancher of the State
University of Iowa Friday termed
"a great tragedy" the death of Nile
Kininck, former Hawkeye football star.
Hancher, who is attending the
Iowa State Bar association con-
cention,  said:
"Kinnick had finished his ath-
eltic career before I went to the
university in 1940 and my acquaintance with him began after
his last season. I suppose no other
Iowa athlete ever received wider
national  or local recognition.
"Those who have had the opportunity to become acquainted
with him were even more appreciative of his character than
his athletic abilities. He was
modest, quiet, unassuming and
free from objectionable habits
of all kinds, but withall, a virile,
vigorous and intelligent young
man.
# * #
"The qualities which marked
him as a student were of such
permanent nature that in the opinion of his friends they were a
guarantee of a distinguished ca-
eer.
. "Those who knew Nile felt cer-
tain that his character and ability
guaranteed him a high place in
the state and nation. It is a great
tragedy that a life so promising
should  be  cut short."
Addressing the University of
Iowa luncheon at the Bar convention Friday noon, Hancher said
the effect of the death of such
young men as Kininck would be
felt for many years to come.
"One of the great tragedies of
the last war, particularly in the
European countries, was the killing off of the finest young men of
almost a whole generation," he
said.
"Nobody knows how England
has suffered through the loss of
young men of the type of Anthony Eden. Nobody knows how
much of the defeatism of France
may be laid to the gap between
old men who were too tired and
young men who were not yet
ready to govern."
Gov. B. B. Hickenlooper said of
Kinnick:
"His death is a shock and brings
home the tragedy of war because
of the outstanding contribution
and inspiration his example gave
to young people.
"Every American boy who loses
his life is a heartbreak to us. Their
'lives are all equally precious."
*
Anderson Lauds
Kinnick Character
CLINTON, iTP)—News of the
death in action of Nile Kinnick,
one of Iowa's all-time football
greats, same as a great shock to Eddie Anderson, furloughed Iowa
head football coach, himself now
in uniform as a major in the U. S.
army medical corps, and attached
to Schick general hospital here.
"I can only hope that there has
been some mistake," Anderson
said when informed by the Associated Press. "Nile was a grand
young man whose qualities of citizenship, leadership and all-around
worth matched his outstanding
ability as an athlete and competitor. I feel a deep sense of personal loss.
"He was loved by everyone who
knew him; his kindness and 'consideration for others stamped him
as a typically ideal American.
"In the uniform of his country,
he gave everything—that was the
only way Nile Kinnick knew how
to play the game."