Remembering Two Great Iowans on Veterans Day

Monday, November 11th, 2024 | Radio | No Comments

To help celebrate Veterans’ Day, Mike was a guest on the KXEL radio show in Waterloo with Jeff Stein, program director, talking about the legends of Fred Becker and Nile Kinnick. A graduate of East High School in Waterloo, Becker became the first All-American football player at the University of Iowa in 1916 as a sophomore and then volunteered to serve his country in World War I. He died fighting along the Western Front in France on July 18, 1918, and is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Waterloo. Kinnick, from Adel, won the Heisman Trophy for the Hawkeyes in 1939 and lost his life on June 2, 1943, as a pilot off the coast of Venezuela. Mike, a Navy veteran himself, has written extensively about both Becker and Kinnick and his book “Triumph and Tragedy” tells their stories, along with the stories of Jack Trice and Johnny Bright.

Listen to the show here: https://on.soundcloud.com/2Zmx1

Tags: East High School Waterloo, Fred Becker, Jeff Stein, KXEL, Nile Kinnick