Iowa State reveals Jack Trice Legacy Game throwback uniforms

Iowa State revealed the throwback uniforms that it will wear for the Jack Trice Legacy Game when it hosts TCU on Oct. 7 at Jack Trice Stadium.

The uniforms honor those worn by Trice during the 1923 season and include:

Ames logo: The Ames logo will be featured on the helmet and uniform pants. In the early 1900s, Iowa State’s teams were commonly called “Ames.”

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I Will script: The “I will” script on the helmet is taken from Trice’s handwritten letter prior to the 1923 Iowa State-Minnesota game.

Trice logo: The chevron bars signify the uniform style that Trice and Iowa State wore during the 1923 season.

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Who was Jack Trice?

Trice, the first Black athlete at Iowa State, died in 1923 while playing for the Cyclones. In the team’s second game of the season, against Minnesota, Trice suffered a broken collarbone and was later trampled by three players after a roll block, a now-illegal play.

Trice was taken to a local hospital, where doctors decided he could travel back to Ames with teammates. He died two days later from internal bleeding.
The night before the game, Trice wrote a letter on hotel stationery that was later recovered.

“To whom it may concern: My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life. The honor of my race, family and self are at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will! My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about on the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped I will be trying to do more than my part. On all defensive plays I must break thru the opponents line and stop the play in their territory. Beware of mass interference, fight low with your eyes open and toward the play. Roll block the interference. Watch out for cross bucks and reverse end runs. Be on your toes every minute if you expect to make good.”

He also ran track for the university and is the namesake for Jack Trice Stadium, the only Division I stadium or arena to be named after a Black athlete.

“We worked for the stadium name because it was the right thing to do,” Rob Wiese, president of the Iowa State student body government in 1997, the year the stadium was renamed, told Andscape. “Jack Trice represented what our school was all about. We learned he was a good student. He played hard as an athlete, and he paid the price by losing his life.”

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(Photo: Courtesy of Iowa State Athletics)

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