page_title: Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
section_title: Rollie Williams era (1929–1942)
hierarchical_section_title: Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball / History / Rollie Williams era (1929–1942)
caption_attribution_description: English: Rollie Williams, University of Iowa basketball coach
context_page_description: The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team represents the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, as a member of the Big Ten Conference and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Coach Fran McCaffery is the current head coach, and has been at Iowa since 2010.
  The Hawkeyes have played in 26 NCAA Tournaments, eight NIT Tournaments, won eight Big Ten regular-season conference championships and won the Big Ten tournament twice. Iowa has played in the Final Four on three occasions, reaching the semifinals in 1955 and 1980 and playing in the championship game against the University of San Francisco in 1956.
  Iowa basketball was widely successful in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s with a program resurgence under Lute Olson and the tenures of George Raveling and Tom Davis. Under Olson, the Hawkeyes won their last Big Ten regular season championship and went to the 1980 Final Four.
  They currently play in 15,400-seat Carver-Hawkeye Arena, along with Iowa women's basketball, wrestling, and volleyball teams.
  Prior to playing in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which opened in 1983, the Hawkeyes played in the Iowa Armory and the Iowa Field House, which is still used today by the school's gymnastics teams.
context_section_description: Following Barry in the line of Hawkeye coaches was Rollie Williams, who would coach Iowa on two occasions, from 1929 to 1942 and in 1951. Williams' winning percentage of 51.5% (139-131), and his long tenure at Iowa allowed him to become the winningest coach in Iowa history until Lute Olson, Tom Davis and Fran McCaffery surpassed him.
  Early during Williams' head coaching tenure, in 1929, Iowa's teams were suspended from participation in the Big Ten for violating conference rules. After a Big Ten investigation uncovered an illegal slush fund and possible recruiting violations, Iowa relented to the Big Ten's demands and was eventually reinstated into the conference on February 1, 1930. Fourteen players, including four on the basketball squad, were declared ineligible as a result of the Big Ten's findings.
  Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner for Iowa Hawkeyes football, also played basketball at Iowa. Starting for Coach Williams in 1937-1938 as a sophomore, Kinnick finished 2nd on the team and 15th in Big Ten scoring with 75 total points (6.3 points per game) that season, his only hoops season.
  Williams left the Hawkeyes in 1942 during WWII to enter military service in the Navy. He would return to Iowa after his tour of duty and coached one final season in 1950-1951, after illness had forced Pop Harrison away from the sideline the previous season.
  Overall Williams had a 42-year tenure at the University of Iowa (1924-1966), working in various coaching capacities and moving into athletic administration at Iowa after his coaching career.
caption: Coach Rollie Williams, 1941. Iowa yearbook
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