As Donnie Duncan began his third year
as Iowa State's head coach, he introduced his third helmet design. The
Cardinal shell had white, stylized custom lettered "ISU" on each side and
the lettering was followed by Sunflower gold dual horizontal bars, a logo
that appeared to add a feeling of swiftness to all of the Cyclones'
movement. TB Crutchfield was up to 246-pounds and led the Cy's to their
opening three victories, including an upset of Rose Bowl bound Iowa. With a
national rank of twenty, the team battled mighty Oklahoma to a 7-7 deadlock
on the strength of the defense that came up with seven turnovers. Once again
they hit the skids to complete a 5-5-1 year. Huge OT Karl Nelson and QB John
Quinn joined Crutchfield on the All Big Eight team with the big tailback
rushing for 1189 yards and going on to a rather disappointing three years
with the Jets, Oilers, and Rams. WR Vinny Cerrato closed out a solid
four-year career and has made numerous NFL headlines as Player Personnel
Director of the Forty-Niners and VP Of Football Operations for the
Redskins. Finally rebounding from two years of injury, Chris Boskey was
effective at MG while Ronnie Osborne patrolled the secondary as an All Big
Eight safety. The offensive line was very stout in '82 with Nelson and Bruce
Reimers leading the way. Nelson was named an All American, going on to the
Giants as a very popular player who overcame Hodgkins Disease. He remains an
often-seen football commentator and public speaker. They fronted QB David
Archer, a transfer from Snow (Utah) JC who threw for 1465 yards and TB Tommy
Davis who added 832 on the ground. It was the defense however that carried
the squad, giving up but 290 yards per game while leading the conference. DT
Shamus McDonough finished an outstanding four-year career as All Conference,
as did safety Osborne who played well for the USFL Michigan Panthers.
Rolling at 4-2-1 the Cy's once again stumbled through the latter part of
their schedule, the usual scenario under Duncan and finished at 4-6-1 while
yielding ninety-seven points in the final two contests. The succession of
late-season collapses and booster perception of underachievement relative to
the available talent led Duncan to resign and enter private business. Duncan
returned to Oklahoma University in 1986 as their AD.
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