Former U. of Iowa football quarterback Chuck Long was in Jefferson on Monday speaking to the Rotary Club about his work with the Iowa Sports Foundation, and about a book written about him. He sold and signed books following the meeting.

Long was the Heisman trophy runner-up in 1985 to Auburn’s Bo Jackson. The Hawkeyes were on the upswing under the coaching of Hayden Fry after going 20 straight seasons without more wins than losses a single time! Fry retired as Iowa’s all-time winningest coach, which he held until current Iowa head man Kirk Ferentz broke Fry’s record earlier this season.

The former QB played eight seasons in the National Football League, was both an assistant coach and head coach in college on the Division I level, and currently works for the Big 10 Network in additional to the Iowa Sports Foundation.

When asked why he likes to speak to groups about his Hawkeye days, he answered, “It’s fun to bring people back to those days. They remember them because it was the resurgence of Iowa football. Iowa hadn’t won since the ’50’s and here comes Hayden Fry with a lot of promises. He kept those promises and he turned it around in a magical way! As I moved on in my career I realized how hard that was. It’s very difficult to go into a program like that. Don’t forget, during the ’70’s it was the Big two and Little eight in the Big 10 with Ohio State and Michigan the only two that went to the Rose Bowl for years until Iowa did it in 1981.”