Hearst Randolph Duncan, Jr. (born March 15, 1937 in
Osage, IowaOsage is a city in Mitchell County, Iowa, United States. The population was 3,451 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Mitchell County.-Geography:Osage is located at ....
) is a former
American footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
quarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the center, in the middle of the offensive line. Quarterbacks are the leaders of the offensive team, responsible for calling the play in the huddle...
. He played
college footballCollege football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies. It was the venue through which American football first gained popularity in the United States...
at the
University of IowaThe Iowa Hawkeyes football team is the interscholastic football team at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have competed in the Big Ten Conference since 1900, and are currently a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association .-...
. He played in two
Rose BowlThe Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California for 95 years. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is then played on the following Monday. The Rose Bowl is nicknamed "The Granddaddy of Them All"...
s (1957, 1959) and has been inducted into the
College Football Hall of FameThe College Football Hall of Fame, located in South Bend, Indiana, USA, is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. It is situated in the renovated downtown district, near convention centers and not far from the campus of Notre Dame...
. Duncan played professionally for
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located entirely in Canada.Its eight teams, which are located in eight cities, are divided into two divisions of four teams each . The league's nineteen-week regular season runs from mid-June to early November. Each team plays...
's
BC LionsThe BC Lions are a major professional sports team of the Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954 to 1982.The Lions have played...
and the
American Football LeagueThe American Football League was a major Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when it merged with the established National Football League . The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
's
Dallas TexansThe following is a detailed history of the Kansas City Chiefs, a professional American football franchise that began play in 1960 as the Dallas Texans...
.
Early years
Randy Duncan was born to Hearst and Louise Duncan in 1937. Randy moved from Osage to
Mason CityMason City is a city in and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 29,172 at the 2000 census.The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties.-Geography:...
before finally attending
Roosevelt High SchoolTheodore Roosevelt High School, usually referred to simply as Roosevelt High School or TRHS, is a secondary school located on the west side of Des Moines, Iowa. It is one of six secondary schools under the district of the Des Moines Public Schools, and was named after the 26th President of the...
in
Des Moines, IowaDes Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
. Duncan was a highly regarded prospect in both
footballHigh school football, referring to the American code in the United States and the Canadian code in Canada, is one of the most popular interscholastic sports at high schools in both countries...
and
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
. He was a first team all-state guard on the Roosevelt basketball team that lost in the 1954 state championship game. Duncan was a first team all-state quarterback for Roosevelt, leading his high school to an undefeated season and a state title in 1954. His high school football teams only lost two games during Duncan's three years there.
Duncan graduated from high school after the 1954 fall semester, and he was heavily recruited after choosing to play football. He nearly went to
ColoradoThe University of Colorado at Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system and was founded five months before Colorado was admitted to the union in 1876...
but instead decided to attend the
University of IowaThe University of Iowa is a public research university located in Iowa City, Iowa. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. Duncan has said that the only reason he went to Iowa was because of his friendship with Iowa assistant coach
Bump ElliottChalmers W. "Bump" Elliott is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played halfback at Purdue University and the University of Michigan...
.
College career
Randy Duncan's college career got off to a slow start. As a mid-year graduate and due to freshman ineligibility, Duncan had to wait one and a half years to play, joining Iowa in the spring of 1955 but seeing his first action as a sophomore in the fall of 1956. Duncan became very discouraged over being constantly berated by Iowa coach
Forest EvashevskiForest "Evy" Evashevski was a college football player at the University of Michigan and a college football coach and athletic director at the University of Iowa. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000....
and being clobbered in practice by
Cal JonesCalvin Jack Jones was a college football player for the University of Iowa. Jones is one of only two Iowa football players to have his jersey number retired by the school. Jones became the first Hawkeye, and the first African-American, to win the Outland Trophy in 1955...
. "Time after time, I was going to quit and transfer to
Iowa StateThe Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced a number of astronauts, scientists, Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners,...
," Duncan has said.
But Duncan managed to win the backup quarterback job in 1956, playing behind
Ken PloenKenneth "Ken" Ploen [PLAYN], OM was a star quarterback in American college football and for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League...
. In a non-conference game against
Oregon StateThe Oregon State Beavers football team represents Oregon State University in NCAA Division I-A college football. The team first fielded an organized football team in 1893 and is currently a member of the Pacific Ten Conference. The head coach is Mike Riley, with Danny Langsdorf as the offensive...
, Duncan led Iowa to two fourth quarter touchdowns and a 14-13 win after Ploen was injured. Iowa qualified for the Rose Bowl that season, and the opponent was again Oregon State. Duncan played the second quarter following a Ploen injury and led Iowa to a touchdown in Iowa's 35-19 win in the
1957 Rose BowlThe 1957 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1957. In the game, the 43rd Rose Bowl, the Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the Oregon State Beavers by a score of 35-19...
.
Duncan was named the
starterA starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...
and led the team in passing in 1957. He battled snow and sleet to throw a touchdown pass for the only score in Iowa's win over
NorthwesternThe Northwestern Wildcats football team, representing Northwestern University, is a NCAA Division I team and member of the Big Ten Conference, with evidence of organization in 1876...
, and he missed the end of Iowa's tie with
MichiganThe Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan. They have the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in NCAA Division I-A history...
due to leg cramps. Duncan scored four touchdowns, two passing and two rushing, against
MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are one of the oldest programs in college football history. They compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Big Ten Conference.-Early history:...
, and two touchdowns against
Notre DameNotre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. The team competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level. The current head coach is Charlie Weis....
, one passing and one on an
interceptionAn interception or intercept is a move in many forms of football, including Canadian and American football football, as well as rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules football and Gaelic football, and involves a pass being cut off by an opposition player who usually gains possession for their...
return as a
defensive backIn American football and Canadian football, defensive backs are the players on the defensive team who take positions somewhat back from the line of scrimmage; they are distinguished from the defensive line players and linebackers, who take positions directly behind or close to the line of...
. Iowa went 7-1-1 on the season, and Duncan was named first team All-
Big TenThe Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its eleven member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Iowa and Minnesota in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
.
As a senior in 1958, Duncan led Iowa to one of its best seasons ever. After a surprising early season tie against
Air ForceThe Air Force Falcons are the college football team from the United States Air Force Academy, located just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado...
, Iowa won five straight Big Ten games, clinching the Big Ten title as early as it had ever been clinched before. Duncan was terrific, helping Iowa lead the Big Ten in passing and the nation in
total offenseTotal offense is an American football and Canadian football statistical measure. In the game of football, progress is measured by advancing the football towards the opposing team's goal line...
. He led the nation in completion percentage and passing yardage. His greatest game may have been in Iowa's lone loss in 1958, when he set a Big Ten record with 23 completions in 33 tries for 249 yards in a 38-28 loss to Ohio State. Duncan led Iowa to another Big Ten title and a 38-12 victory in the 1959 Rose Bowl. His lone touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl broke the school record for touchdown passes in a season, which had been held by
Nile KinnickNile Clarke Kinnick, Jr. was a student and a college football player at the University of Iowa. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a training flight while serving as a U.S Navy airplane pilot in World War II...
in 1939.
Duncan was named first team All-Big Ten. He was also named the 1958
Big Ten MVPThe Chicago Tribune Silver Football is awarded by the Chicago Tribune to the college football player determined to be the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Conference...
, and he was selected as a
consensus first team All-AmericanThe College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best American college football players at their respective positions. The original usage of the term All-America seems to have been to the 1889 College Football All-America Team selected by Casper Whitney and published in This...
. He won the
Walter Camp AwardThe Walter Camp Award is given annually to the collegiate American football Player of the Year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A head coaches and sports information directors under the auspices of the Walter Camp Football Foundation; the award is named...
and finished second in the
Heisman TrophyThe Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , named after the former college football coach John Heisman, is awarded annually by the Heisman Trophy Trust to the most outstanding player in collegiate football...
balloting. Duncan is one of seven Iowa players to
letterA varsity letter is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its winner was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met.- The letter :...
from 1956 through 1958. In that span, Iowa's record was 24-3-2 with two Big Ten titles, three top ten rankings in the final
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
poll, and two victories in the Rose Bowl.
Upon being voted Iowa's MVP, Duncan said, "There's nobody that knows any better than I do that this was all made possible by you guys here and the coaching staff behind me. I mean it. Just to be a part of this ball club was all that I really ever wanted."
Professional career
Randy Duncan was drafted by the
Green Bay PackersThe Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League and are the third-oldest franchise in the NFL.The Packers are the last vestige of "small town...
of the
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of...
with the first pick of the first round of the
1959 NFL DraftThe 1959 National Football League Draft was held on December 2, 1958 and January 21, 1959 .None of the players selected in this round of the draft have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.-Player selections:...
. He never played for the Packers, however. Duncan instead went to the
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located entirely in Canada.Its eight teams, which are located in eight cities, are divided into two divisions of four teams each . The league's nineteen-week regular season runs from mid-June to early November. Each team plays...
and signed with the
British Columbia LionsThe BC Lions are a major professional sports team of the Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954 to 1982.The Lions have played...
. He later explained, "That was Green Bay before
Vince LombardiVincent Thomas Lombardi was an American football coach. He was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League from 1959-67, winning five league championships during his nine years...
, and Canada offered a lot more dough."
Duncan played for two years in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
before signing with the
American Football LeagueThe American Football League was a major Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when it merged with the established National Football League . The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
's
Dallas TexansThe following is a detailed history of the Kansas City Chiefs, a professional American football franchise that began play in 1960 as the Dallas Texans...
(now the
Kansas City ChiefsThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
). He practiced with the Texans during the day and attended
Southern Methodist UniversitySouthern Methodist University is a private, coeducational university in University Park, Texas . Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU currently operates campuses in University Park, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico...
law schoolThe Southern Methodist University School of Law, commonly referred to as SMU Law School or Dedman School of Law is a prominent professional graduate law school located in Dallas, Texas. Founded in February 1925, the school remains the only law school in Dallas...
at night. Duncan did not see much playing time for the Texans, and when Texans
coachIn sports, a coach or manager is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.- Staff :...
Hank StramHenry Louis "Hank" Stram , was an American college and Professional Football coach. He is best known for his fifteen-year tenure with the American Football League's Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs and the Chiefs of the NFL. Stram won three AFL Championships and Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs...
traded for
Len DawsonLeonard Ray "Len" Dawson is a former American football quarterback from Purdue University who played for three professional teams, most notably the Kansas City Chiefs. Dawson led the Chiefs to victory in Super Bowl IV and won the game's MVP award. Dawson retired from pro football in 1975 and was...
, Duncan retired from football.
After football
Duncan finished law school at
Drake UniversityDrake University is a private, co-educational university located in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the...
, and for years, he has operated a successful
law practiceIn its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister,...
in Des Moines. Duncan married Paula Mathieson in 1960, and they have three sons: Jed, Matt and Scott. Jed and Matt Duncan played football at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
and the
University of IowaThe University of Iowa is a public research university located in Iowa City, Iowa. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
, respectively. One of Randy Duncan's grandsons, Kyle Duncan, currently plays football at
Bowdoin CollegeBowdoin College , founded in 1794, is a private liberal arts college located in the coastal New England town of Brunswick, Maine. The college enrolls approximately 1,700 students and has been coeducational since 1971. It offers 33 majors and 4 additional minors; the academic year consists of two...
.
Honors
Duncan was inducted into the
Iowa Sports Hall of FameThe Iowa Sports Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Des Moines Register, honors outstanding athletes and sports contributors. To be eligible, members must have either been born in Iowa or gained prominence while competing for a college or university in Iowa....
in 1976 and the
College Football Hall of FameThe College Football Hall of Fame, located in South Bend, Indiana, USA, is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. It is situated in the renovated downtown district, near convention centers and not far from the campus of Notre Dame...
in 1997. In 1999,
Sports IllustratedSports Illustrated is an American sports magazine owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. It has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men, 19% of the adult males in the United States. It was the first magazine with circulation over one...
selected Randy Duncan as the 28th greatest sports figure in the history of the state of Iowa. Duncan was named honorary captain of the Iowa football team during the Iowa - Maine football game in 2008.
External links