List of Iowa Hawkeyes football honorees The Iowa Hawkeyes football team was founded in 1889 to represent the University of Iowa in intercollegiate competition , and it has participated in the sport every season since . Over the course of the team ' s history , individual Hawkeye players of exceptional ability have received many accolades . Iowa has had several players inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame , College Football Hall of Fame , Canadian Football Hall of Fame , and Iowa Sports Hall of Fame . Individual Hawkeyes have won many prestigious national awards , including the Outland Trophy , the Davey O ' Brien Award , and the Heisman Trophy . 92 Hawkeyes have been named a first - team or second - team All - American , and 22 have been named consensus first - team All - Americans . The Iowa Hawkeyes have had ten players win the Big Ten Most Valuable Player Award , and 219 Hawks have earned All - Big Ten recognition . Iowa has had 229 NFL draft picks , and several former Hawkeye players have gone on to become NFL head coaches or Division I college head coaches . This list outlines awards and honors for individual football players and coaches of the Iowa Hawkeyes . Retired numbers . Two numbers have been retired by the Hawkeye football program , Nile Kinnick ' s # 24 and Cal Jones ' # 62 . Both Kinnick and Jones were consensus first team All - Americans , and both men tragically perished in separate plane crashes before their 25th birthday . Kinnick won the University of Iowa ' s only Heisman Trophy in 1939 and is the man for whom Kinnick Stadium is named . Jones was the first African - American to win the Outland Trophy and is the only Hawkeye to be named first - team All - American three times . Hall of Fame inductees . Pro Hall of Fame . Three Hawkeyes have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame : College football . Nile Kinnick , Duke Slater , and coach Howard Jones were all inducted in the inaugural College Football Hall of Fame class in 1951 . In all , nine players and five coaches now represent Iowa in the College Football Hall of Fame : Canadian football . Three Hawkeyes have been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame for their play in the Canadian Football League : State of Iowa . The Iowa Sports Hall of Fame , sponsored by the " Des Moines Register " , honors outstanding athletes and sports contributors . To be eligible , members must have either been born in Iowa or gained prominence while competing for a college or university in Iowa . Aubrey Devine , Nile Kinnick , and Duke Slater were three of the five football players inducted when the Hall was founded in 1951 . As of the end of the 2013 football season , 23 Hawkeye players and 3 Hawkeye coaches have been inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame : University of Iowa . The University of Iowa started an athletics Hall of Fame in 1989 . Ten football players were inducted in the initial class , and it has since expanded to include 47 football players and coaches : National honorees . Annual awards . Various organizations bestow annual awards recognizing the best college football player overall or at a specific position for that season , and several of these annual awards are considered highly prestigious honors . Some of these awards have been won by the following Hawkeyes : The most prestigious of these individual awards is the Heisman Trophy . Nile Kinnick won the award in 1939 , and four other Hawkeyes have placed second in the voting . In all , nine Hawkeye players have finished in the top ten in the Heisman Trophy balloting , with Chuck Long doing so twice : All - American selections . Each year , numerous publications and organizations release lists of All - America teams , hypothetical rosters of players considered the best in the nation at their respective positions . The National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) uses officially recognized All - America selectors to determine the consensus selections . Over time , the sources used to determine the consensus selections have varied . Currently , the NCAA uses five " major " selectors to determine consensus All - Americans : the Associated Press ( AP ) , American Football Coaches Association ( AFCA ) , Football Writers Association of America ( FWAA ) , " The Sporting News " ( TSN ) , and the Walter Camp Football Foundation ( WCFF ) . Many other publications and organization compile their own " minor " All - America teams in addition to the selectors listed here . Clyde Williams is often referred to as " Iowa ' s first All - American " . Williams , who led the Hawkeyes to its first Big Ten championship in 1900 , was named a third - team All - American by Walter Camp that season . Clyde Williams was the first player west of the Mississippi River to garner All - American honors . However , since the following list constitutes only first - team and second - team All - Americans , Williams is not included here . Through the 2011 season , Iowa has had 65 first - team All - Americans and 31 second - team All - Americans . Of Iowa ' s 65 first - team All - Americans , 22 players were consensus first - team All - American selections , while six were unanimous first - team selections . Big Ten honorees . Most Valuable Players . The Chicago Tribune Silver Football has been awarded since 1924 by the " Chicago Tribune " to the college football player determined to be the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Conference . Ten Hawkeyes have won the Big Ten MVP award , the third largest number of winners by any school , trailing only Michigan and Ohio State : Annual individual honors . Coaches and media of the Big Ten also make annual selections for additional individual honors : All - conference selections . Through the 2013 season , Iowa has had 230 first team All - Big Ten selections , starting with Clyde Williams and Joe Warner in 1900 . 50 players were multiple first - team All - Big Ten selections , and nine players were three - time first - team All - Big Ten selections . All - time team . In 1989 , Iowa fans selected an all - time University of Iowa football team during the 100th anniversary celebration of Iowa football . Twelve starters and eight honorable mentions were selected on both offense and defense , along with a Most Valuable Player : NCAA FBS all - time records . The following is a list of team and individual NCAA FBS records that are held by the Iowa Hawkeyes . NFL draft picks . Iowa has had at least one player drafted in every NFL Draft since 1978 . Through the 2013 NFL Draft , Iowa has had 269 draft picks . 241 in the NFL , 21 in the AFL , and 7 in the AAFC ( the AFC and AAFC both merged with the NFL ) . and 72 players have gone in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft . Iowa has had 19 first round NFL Draft selections : Hawkeye head coaches . Several former Hawkeye players have later been named NFL head coaches or Division I college head coaches : Other notable players . A few notable players not previously mentioned :