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Excitement was somewhat hard to come by during Iowa State’s 1983 football season but on October 8 of that year, there was plenty to be found.
The Cyclones took the field against the Kansas Jayhawks looking to bounce back from a 24-17 loss to New Mexico State the previous week. Despite Iowa State’s 1-3 start to the season, 48,125 fans showed up at Cyclones Stadium for first-year head coach Jim Criner‘s first Big 8 game.
Senior quarterback David Archer, who set the school record for passing yards in a single-season in 1983, threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns as the Cyclones put together one of their best offensive performances of the season. The game was capped when Marc Bachrodt knocked through a 47-yard field goal with three seconds left to give the Cyclones a 38-35 win and Jim Criner his first conference victory as Iowa State’s head coach.
The game-winning field goal was Iowa State’s first recorded last-minute field goal to win or tie a game.
Iowa State followed up the win over Kansas by pushing its Big 8 record to 2-0 with a 22-10 win over Colorado the next week, but the Cyclones would win just one more time during the 1983 season as they finished with a 4-7 record.
