Each day leading up to Iowa State’s season opener against South Dakota State, Cyclone Fanatic will check another day off the calendar with a memorable statistic, player or game as part of our Countdown to Kickoff presented by Tailgate Clothing.
Very few marks in the Iowa State football record books seem completely unbreakable, but Barry Hill’s single-season record of nine interceptions during the 1974 season fits into that category.
Only five players in the history of Iowa State football have recorded more than five interceptions in a single-season and it has not happened since Hill did it in ’74. Before Hill picked off eight passes in 1973, you have to go all the way back to Bob Mellgren’s eight interceptions in 1952 to find the last time an Iowa State player recorded more than six interceptions in a season.
The mark of six interceptions happened two other times during the 1970s with Tony Washington in 1970 and John Schweizer in 1971. The only other player to pass the mark of five is Everett Kischer, who picked off six passes in 1936 (which kind of surprises me because I can’t imagine Iowa State’s opponents threw that many passes in 1936. Hold on. *thumbs through record book* Iowa State’s opponents threw 83 passes in 1936 which makes that a super impressive stat on Everett Kischer’s part. Props to you Everett Kischer.)
The list of players to reach five interceptions in a single-season includes some of the best defensive backs in recent Cyclone memory, including Ellis Hobbs in 2004, LaMarcus Hicks and DeAndre Jackson in 2005 and Davis Sims in 2009.
None of the names on this list are even near Barry Hill and 21 career interceptions, the program record. Washington had 14 interceptions, Schweizer had 12, Kischer had 11 (again, props to the OG Iowa State ball-hawk Everett Kischer) and Don Ferguson’s 10 between 1947-1949 round out the list of Iowa State players who even have 10 career interceptions.
As I stated in the lede, few records in the Iowa State record book seem unbreakable, but Barry Hill, who was inducted into the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006, holds two of them that probably are.
