The Johnny Majors Interview
Johnny Majors sat around a table on a late fall morning last November, his eyes gleaming as he spoke of the times he had in this very town some 46 years prior when he first arrived in Ames at 32-years-old to become the head coach at Iowa State.
You’d have thought the events had unfolded the week prior.
Off in the corner of the Gateway Hotel, before he would trek off to Jack Trice Stadium for that day’s game, Majors reenacted a speech that he had traveled around campus to give sororities and fraternities prior to his first season in 1968 after everybody had told him he stumbled into a coach’s graveyard. He rose to his feet in another instance to show how he had once shouted instructions from the sideline to quarterback George Amundson.
Johnny Majors had all of a sudden become Coach Majors.
It was then that Majors pulled away the reporter’s notebook and requested a pen.
On Nov. 11, 1972, Iowa State hosted No. 3 Nebraska at Clyde Williams Field. The Cyclones were 21-point underdogs against the Huskers, a team that had won consecutive national titles entering that season and a team with soon-to-be Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers. Yet with 58 seconds remaining, Iowa State found itself down six points with 74 yards to go. After picking up 12 yards, Majors called a play he had kept in his back pocket.
Here he was now — almost 42 years to the very date — drawing with his pen.
Majors sketched out the play on the top of the notebook and explained: With this play, Amundson had hit tight end Keith Krepfle in the middle of the field for 18 yards. He called the play again, and Amundson hit Krepfle again, this time for 20 yards.
Now Iowa State was 24 yards out. Majors started writing again on the notebook. He circled a play at the bottom. He explained: Fearing Nebraska was catching on, he flipped the same play. Amundson hit Willie Jones for a 24-yard touchdown in the corner of the end zone.
Majors remembered it like it was yesterday.
Of course, he also remembers the missed extra-point and the eventual 23-all tie.
The full story of the 1972 game against Nebraksa — including the story of these plays — can be found in Section 35 titled, 'No. 3 Nebraska 23, Iowa State 23.' 100 Things Iowa State Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is available online and at bookstores across Iowa.
