October 26, 2021,
Iowa is used to it.
The state has always found itself in the middle of history. Making history. Starring in history.
Like at the movies.
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, adapting W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe.
The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a baseball field in his Iowa cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, including Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and the Chicago Black Sox. Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster (in his final film role) also star.
It was theatrically released on May 5, 1989.
The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Score, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
It is an Iowa classic.
You could easily fall in love in Iowa.
The legendary Clint Eastwood did.
The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American romantic drama film based on the 1992 best-selling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller.
It was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in it with Meryl Streep.
Here is the storyline.
The film is set in 1965, featuring Italian war bride, Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on their Iowa farm. That year she meets National Geographic photojournalist, Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), who comes to Madison County to photograph its historic covered bridges. With Francesca's family away for a short trip, the couple have an intense, four-day love affair.
The film earned $182 million worldwide and was well received by critics. Streep was nominated in 1996 for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
We saw the film and were mesmerized by it.
Having said all of that, Iowa is making history again. In the sports world.
As reported at hawkeyesports.com, “The University of Iowa Athletics Department is adding women’s wrestling as an intercollegiate program, becoming the first NCAA Division I, Power Five conference institution to offer the sport.”
That is amazing historical news.
The Power Five conferences are five athletic conferences which are considered to be the elite in college football in the United States.
fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com iowa-2021-Symetrical-Own-work-wikipedia-photo-credit
They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate football in the nation.
The conferences are the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC).
The NCAA adds, “The Iowa wrestling room inspires a special kind of determination. Hawkeye Wrestling Club wrestler Victoria Francis describes a “we’re going to work hard, we’re going to bang heads” kind of mentality — that grit. This culture produced NCAA and Olympic wrestling champions and helped Iowa become known as one of the most premier wrestling institutions in the country.”
Iowa's most successful team is men's wrestling, which has won 24 of the school's 26 NCAA championships. Fifteen of those championships occurred during Dan Gable's 21-year tenure as head coach (1977-1997). It has 35 Big Ten titles, 81 individual NCAA Titles, and has graduated 17 Olympians.
This premier brand is now going to get even better.
The powerful NCAA recognized women’s wrestling as an emerging sport in 2020 for all three divisions.
An Emerging Sport status means that women’s wrestling is on the path to becoming an NCAA championship sport in Division One, if 40 schools add teams in the next 10 years.
At present, there are 45 intercollegiate women’s wrestling programs, including five in the state of Iowa.
In addition, 32 states have a sanctioned high school girl’s wrestling state championships.
In Iowa, the state tournament is sponsored by the Iowa Coaches Association and over 600 girls participated in high school wrestling a year ago.
This is how you make history.
The University of Iowa is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and the second-largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees.
On an urban 1,880-acre campus on the banks of the Iowa River, the University of Iowa is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
The university is best known for its programs in health care, law, and the fine arts, with programs ranking among the top 25 nationally in those areas.
On another historical note, among public universities in the United States, UI was the first to become coeducational and host a department of religious studies; it also opened the first coeducational medical school.
The University of Iowa established the first law school west of the Mississippi River. It was the first university to use television in education, in 1932, and it pioneered in the field of standardized testing.
Very innovative. Historically impressive.
The University of Iowa is one of the EPA's Green Power Partners, burning oat hulls instead of coal and reducing coal consumption by 20%. In May 2004, the university joined the Chicago Climate Exchange, and in April 2009, a student garden was opened.
The state of Iowa is very impressive as well.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Iowa was a part of French Louisiana and Spanish Louisiana.
Its state flag is patterned after the flag of France.
After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt.
In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy transitioned to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, information technology, biotechnology, and green energy production.
Iowa is the 26th most extensive in total area and the 31st most populous of the 50 U.S. states with a population of 3,190,369.
The global travelers at Trip Advisor have visited Iowa and here is what they have to say. “History and monuments dot this landscape almost as often as the golden farmlands. Learn about America’s 31st president at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch. The 37-county region tells the story of American agriculture, agribusiness and farm life and is affiliated with the National Park Service. In addition, there are five national wildlife refuges here.”
We certainly love history.
Iowa is rich with that. Now by having the first Power Five Division One School to add women’s wrestling to their glorious program, we have a proclamation to make.
Iowa is making history again.
fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com Vkulikov-Own-work-wikipedia-photo-credit.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com Editorial-credit-Vladimir-Vasiltvich-Shutterstock.com-photo-credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_Dreams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridges_of_Madison_County_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Iowa
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g28936-Iowa-Vacations.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Five_conferences
