Author Archives: Joshua Kagavi

While searching for Jack Trice’s jersey number, I kept out hope for finding more pictures of Trice, especially during a game. Only a small handful of pictures of Trice at Iowa State exist and the last pictures were from the spring game in 1923. Everyone I talked to at Iowa State from the archives to the athletic department told me there were no game pictures with Trice from the Simpson and Minnesota games that fall. Was this true?

Iowa State College’s 1923 schedule had four home and four away games:

September 29 – SIMPSON

October 6 – at Minnesota

October 13 – at Missouri

October 20 – KANSAS STATE

October 27 – at Washington (Mo.)

November 3 – at Drake

November 17 – NEBRASKA

November 24 – GRINNELL

Pictures of the games themselves are exceedingly rare. Would I be able to find any pictures of him on the gridiron? During a visit to the Des Moines Library, I flitted through microfilm rolls that teased me with dark pictures of the Simpson game. I knew he was in these pictures and I spent hours in Photoshop trying to tease out details, but ultimately had to admit failure. Note: one of the pictures shows the cannon being fired during the opening kickoff.

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When I was working with Pendleton to create my Iowa State stadium blanket, I asked the archives many questions about the heritage and history of Pendleton and I was told, “You should talk to Barry.” Well then. Barry Friedman spent decades as a comedy writer in Hollywood before retreating to the deserts of Arizona to indulge in a passion for Indian trade blankets. I fired off an email to him and before I knew it, I had a copy of his book Chasing Rainbows in my hands.

Published in 2002, Chasing Rainbows is widely considered one of the best books on the subject of Indian trade blanket history. Such noted collectors as Ralph Lauren and Robert Redford were equally smitten with the book as I was. If you have any smidgen of interest in this subject, I highly recommend his book, which can be purchased through Barry’s official site here.

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Two linemen haunt me.

One is Jack Trice, a tall broad man with a soft smile who became Iowa State University’s first Black athlete in 1922. He suffered fatal injuries in his first major football game against Minnesota in 1923 and died two days later leaving behind a young widow and an enormous legacy.

The other is Grandpa, a towering influential figure in my life who traded in decades of hard work on power lines in a small Illinois town for the lapping waves of a nearby river house. During summers of boating, he enthralled us with rollicking stories of youthful adventures and crucial life lessons. He died abruptly a few years ago after being diagnosed mere months earlier with aggressive cancer that had spread everywhere.

Grandpa’s death led me into the mystery of Jack Trice’s missing jersey number. Along the way, my wife and I formed a company named Kagavi, held together by the legacy of two linemen. Jack is Grandpa. Grandpa is Jack. This is their story.

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PART ONE

I’ve always been drawn to Jack’s story as an underdog, because I am one. I was born deaf and grew up in Ames, Iowa in the shadow of Iowa State University. From an early age, I was very aware of being different–my first hearing aids were so big I had to wear them on my chest. There was no hiding from my challenges, but the lack of sound didn’t bother me too much. I already had it figured out. One night as my mother tucked me in bed, I happily told her I would be able to hear like my older brother when I grew up.

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With each passing year, the ghosts of Iowa State baseball are slowly slipping away. As Iowa State University’s oldest varsity sport, baseball has always been imbued with the very fabric of summer. Warm languid breezes carrying the burnt embers of grilled meat. Peanut shells crunching underfoot and the rattle of Cracker Jack boxes. The glint of chain link dancing in the dying evening light. Sadly, Iowa State baseball was discontinued a dozen years ago in 2001 due to budget difficulties. During the shiny optimism of the 1950s, it would’ve seemed inconceivable that such a fate would befall the Cyclone team. The strongest echoes are from 56 years ago this week, when the Iowa State team–fresh off of their Big Seven title–was within a game of the national championship.

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In the early 1970s, Iowa State University was the center of the college wrestling universe and one of its brightest stars was Chris Taylor. This year marked the 40th anniversary of Taylor’s second consecutive NCAA championship in 1973, capping an undefeated two year career at ISU. In between his two ISU championships, Taylor won a bronze medal at the controversial 1972 Summer Olympics. Taylor’s wrestling dominance in 1973 was so total, the Big 8 Conference named him Athlete of the Year. After ISU, Taylor had a brief career in the professional ranks with matches against Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, Baron von Raschke, and others. Mounting health problems led to his early death in 1979. Taylor was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012.

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Along the course of my long journey in the search for Jack Trice’s Iowa State football jersey number (which I wrote about two days ago), I gathered a mountain of material on Jack Trice’s life. I wanted to share some pictures from his 1921-22 senior year of high school at East Technical in the heart of Cleveland. Trice played football and participated in track–both teams steamrolled their opponents on the way to winning championships. Visible in these pictures are Trice’s future ISU teammates and coach: Johnny Behm, Norton Behm, and Coach Willaman (in the top left of both team pictures).

The East Tech Scarab football team dominated their eight opponents by a cumulative score of 320 to 28–an average score of 40-3.5. Johnny Behm (holding the football) was the QB and captain, while Norton Behm played end. Look at the smitten young women behind the doors:

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Kagavi’s first major story collection debuting this fall is based around the legend of Iowa State University’s first Black football player, Jack Trice, who played in just two games for Iowa State in 1923. Trice suffered fatal injuries in his second game against Minnesota and passed away two days later. A touching personal letter Trice wrote prior to the Minnesota game was read at his funeral in front of thousands of people. In the letter, Trice wrote, in part:

“The honor of my race, family, and self are at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I WILL! My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about on the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part.”

After his premature death, Trice’s story was gradually forgotten for many years, but a revival of interest in later decades led to ISU’s stadium being renamed Jack Trice Stadium in 1997. It remains the only major college football stadium named after a Black player. Iowa State’s special collections set on Flickr has this 1923 image of Trice with three of his teammates: J. Behm, J. Trice, N. Behm, and W. L. Nave. (The Behm brothers were Trice’s high school teammates in Cleveland.):

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Jack Trice is a legendary figure in the world of Iowa State University sports. As Iowa State College’s first Black football player in 1923, Trice suffered fatal injuries in his first major college football game against Minnesota. In 1997, Iowa State named their football stadium after Jack Trice. It remains the only stadium named after a black person. For years, I was told Jack Trice’s jersey number was lost to history, yet I always wondered how much research had truly been done. Many people know that baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson’s number was 42, so it’s fair to surmise Jack Trice’s number would hold the same significance in the Iowa State community.

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