A Great Iowa Hawkeye: Chuck Long

Just the other day, I had the pleasure of purchasing and having signed Chuck Long’s new book Destined for Greatness. Long has thrust himself back spotlight with the new book as well as his appearance on BTN. Who is Chuck Long? What was his history with the Hawkeyes?

IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 23: The Penn State Nittany Lions face off against the Iowa Hawkeyes, September 23, 2017 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***

Chuck Long has placed himself back into the spotlight with his new book, Destined for Greatness. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I am sure it is filled with many highlights from his high impact career with the Iowa Hawkeyes. It should include plenty of details about his rise to stardom.

I will have more on the book as soon as I am finished reading it.

In honor of the recent revival of Long in our minds and memories, I have written a short biography of his life in Iowa City and what he was able to do with the Hawkeyes.

So sit back and enjoy this look back at a Hawkeye legend.

Charles Franklin Long Jr. was born in Norman, Oklahoma but was raised, primarily, in Wheaton, Illinois. Long went to high school at Wheaton North High School where he was a three-sport star. Football would be the sport that he was most recognized for. He received a few scholarship offers. Long had one from Northwestern, Iowa and Northern Illinois. Long chose Iowa and the rest was history.

Long’s first season in Iowa City saw him redshirt but he did play a little bit during that season. There will be more on this later.

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Iowa head football coach Hayden Fry was high on Long despite the fact he had not done that much with the team in his first year. Long had a rocky start to his career as the starting quarterback for the Hawkeyes in his sophomore season. He played in the first game of 1982 but was sat down in the second game. He came back to start the third game and stayed in as the starter until he graduated.

During his freshman season, Long played in 11 games throwing 201 passes completing 129 of them for 1374 yards. He had eight touchdowns and a passer rating of 124.8. Bigger things were ahead for Long as he would show everyone just how capable he was in the next three seasons.

Long was named a first-team All-Big Ten quarterback in the 1983 season and helped get Iowa to the Gator Bowl. He helped lead the Hawkeyes to a record 713 yards on offense against the Northwestern Wildcats that season as well. That was a big effort by him and Iowa’s offense.

In 1983, long played in 11 games throwing 236 passes and completing 144 of those. He had 2432 yards with 14 touchdowns and a passer rating of 160.4.

His junior season in 1984 was even better than his sophomore season. He earned several honors and set a few records as he led the Iowa Hawkeyes to a record of 7-4-1 and a berth in the Freedom Bowl. Their opponent was the Texas Longhorns. Included in Long’s records from that season were his completing 22 straight passes against the Indiana Hoosiers. He was selected to be a first-team All-Big Ten quarterback and came in seventh in Heisman Trophy voting.

In his 1984 season, Long played in 13 games throwing 322 passes for 216 yards. He had 2871 yards, 22 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 156.4.

His senior season would be even better.

The 1985 season was Long’s last at Iowa. It would also be his best. Three weeks into that season, Iowa found themselves first in the rankings. He had a very good game against Michigan State to preserve their number one ranking. After their next game, they played the second-ranked team in the nation at that time, Michigan and the game was a good one. Long helped Iowa to a close 12-10 win and kept their number one ranking.

We will talk about that game more in the future.

Iowa did suffer a loss at the hands of Ohio State but still managed to take the Big Ten title and earn a spot in the Rose Bowl where they lost to UCLA 45-28. Long won the Big Ten Player of the Year honors and was named a First Team All-American. He was the runner-up in Heisman voting that year coming in just behind Auburn running back Bo Jackson. Long earned the award for the Nation’s best quarterback, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Maxwell Award.

He had a strong end to his career with the Hawkeyes.

In his final season in Iowa City, Long threw 351 passes completing 231 of them for 2878 yards with 26 touchdowns. His quarterback rating was 153.

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Back to Long and his redshirting. It’s thought that Long is the only player in college football history to play in five bowl games. This is because the old redshirt rules weren’t quite understood at the time and, so they were lenient. Long was able to play a few snaps in the bowl game during his redshirt season. That wouldn’t be happening today with the strict rules and regulations that are in place.

Overall, Long threw 1111 passes at Iowa and completed 721 of them. His completion percentage was 64.9. He threw a total of 70 touchdowns with 46 interceptions. His yards per pass average was 8.7 and his passer rating was 150.5.

The biggest honor that Long earned was being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. He followed that up with a spot in the Iowa Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

Following his career at Iowa, Long was drafted 12th overall in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions. His career in the NFL did not match what it was at Iowa however and Long didn’t last that long. He was in Detroit from 1986 to 1989 then traded to the Los Angeles Rams. Long was there for one year before coming back to the Lions. He didn’t play a down that year and retired from football afterward.

Following his career in the NFL, Long decided to get into coaching. He was a defensive backs coach for the University of Iowa (yes, a defensive coach!) from 1995-1997. Long did very well with the Hawks and was moved over to the offensive side of the ball in 1998. He was named the team’s special teams and quarterbacks coach. Five years later, Long went to Oklahoma to coach quarterbacks with former Iowa teammate Bob Stoops.

Long took over as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator right after the 2001 season. He spent the next four seasons in that position. In 2005, Long was hired as the head coach for San Diego State. Unfortunately, his career as a head coach there was not successful as he ended his three-year career there with a record of 9-27.
He ended up as the offensive coordinator at Kansas under former head coach Turner Gill. His final coaching stint took place at Normal High School in Norman, Oklahoma as the team’s wide receivers coach.
Now, in addition to the book that he has written, Long is a fixture on the Big Ten Network covering football.
Long had a great history with Iowa and had some wonderful moments. From a high school quarterback that didn’t throw a lot passes to college football’s best quarterback for a period Long showed what it means to persevere and succeed. He is truly one of the Iowa Hawkeye football program’s greatest players and one of the most memorable in it’s long and storied history.