America Needs Farmers: Iowa Football Coach’s Initiative Still Holds Meaning Nearly 40 Years Later
- Media Logic Radio
- Sep 10
- 4 min read
During the heat of the Farm Crisis in the 1980s, University of Iowa head football coach Hayden Fry was having his best season yet as the face of the Hawkeyes. Iowa was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 poll heading into a Nov. 2 nationally televised game against Ohio State.
On Iowa’s helmets, for the first time, was a yellow decal placed above the logo on the right side of the Hawkeyes’ black helmets. The letters ‘ANF’ were on the decal in black lettering.
Iowa lost the game, 27-21, for its first loss of the 1985 season. The debut of the decal has certainly outweighed the negative result on the field.
America Needs Farmers
Since that November afternoon, ANF has been on Iowa’s helmets in every game, and the slogan — America Needs Farmers — has become present across multiple University of Iowa sports. The insignia has a life beyond even that of Fry himself, who passed away in December 2019 at the age of 90 in his home state of Texas.
Fry’s original intent for the decal was a show of solidarity with farmers in the state of Iowa during the Farm Crisis. It did that and more, kickstarting an initiative that recognizes and supports farmers that has continued into the 2020s with a combined effort from the University of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF).
In a video interview with IFBF, Fry said his time growing up on a farm until he was 10 years old was a reason for his awareness of the difficulties Iowa farmers were facing on the farm. He said many of his players were aware of the struggles in agriculture at the time, having come from farming communities to play for Fry.
“I came up with the idea that America needs to know that the farmers need help,” Fry said.
Current IFBF President Brent Johnson was growing up in Calhoun County, Iowa, when the ANF decal was introduced. He experienced the Farm Crisis on his family farm and saw firsthand the impact it had — not just as a recognition of the challenges faced by farmers but to celebrate the importance of agriculture in the state.
Something so simple as a decal was so significant in that moment, Johnson said.
Matt Henderson, Iowa’s deputy director of athletics, external relations, said the impact from Fry’s nod to farmers was immediate and long-lasting — other sports at the school now use the logo.
“If you see our wrestling team, they’ve utilized that logo because of the characteristics of farming and agriculture,” Henderson said. “There aren’t any days off. Those terms that you hear described in the agriculture industry transfer over. Our women’s golf team has the logo on their golf bags.
“Our student-athletes recognize the characteristics of what farming and agriculture are, and want to represent those.”
Recent farming troubles underscore importance of farm support
Less than 5% of Iowans farm — around 157,531 people in total, according to the IFBF. Johnson said the climate is very difficult right now for farmers, in the state of Iowa and nationwide.
“ANF today may be more important than it was back in 1985 and during the 1980s during the economic depression — because there are fewer farmers today,” Fry said in a 2015 video with IFBF. “But the ones who have survived, that have hung in there, do a great, great job and they need to be recognized.”
While farm income as a whole has gone up year over year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — thanks in large part to livestock revenue — the cost of farming has gone up considerably. Johnson said that, many times, expenses are exceeding revenues, and profitability is in question for many farmers — amplifying the significance of ANF. As part of the partnership between IFBF and the University of Iowa, merchandise with the logo on it provides revenue for food banks in Iowa.
Wall of Honor
For 12 years, the IFBF in conjunction with Iowa athletics has chosen a former Iowa football player to be inducted to the ANF Wall of Honor. According to the IFBF, the Wall of Honor honorees are chosen because they “exemplify the tenacity, work ethic, and character of the Iowa farmer.” The first former Hawkeye to be honored was Casey Weigmann in 2012. Many of these former players grew up on family farms or are currently farmers. Others, like former tight end Tony Moeaki, have family connections to farming but didn’t grow up in the business (Moeaki’s grandfather farmed in Tonga).
Every year, the honor is handed out during an Iowa home football game.
Henderson said having an ANF game each year gives Iowa an opportunity to expand IFBF’s platform to a larger audience, to fans on television or visiting fans who don’t know about the history or importance of the initiative.
“Farming’s pretty important in Washington, in California,” Henderson said. “It’s a platform that was born out of Iowa, but it’s a larger exposure that we are able to create.”
Brandon Myers, a former Hawkeye player who grew up in Prairie City, Iowa, and worked as a child on his grandparents’ farm, is the latest to be selected for the Wall of Honor. He will be honored Oct. 12 at the game at Kinnick Stadium against Washington.
A new member of the Big Ten in 2024, the Washington game presents a new opportunity for visiting fans to learn about ANF, Johnson said.
“America Needs Farmers is actually one of our more popular public-facing programs,” Johnson said. “It’s that opportunity to get outside of our own circles and talk to a wider audience about what agriculture is and what farmers do.”
Thirty-nine years on, Hayden Fry’s rallying cry still adorns Iowa’s helmets, showing unending support for farmers across the country.
