Beginning in 1997, the ISU Letterwinners Club started hosting the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Individuals are nominated by members of the Letterwinners Club or the athletic department. The nominees are then selected for induction by a nominating committee selected by the Letterwinners Club executive committee. There have been 94 inductees since 1997, and, in addition to this year’s honorees, Gridiron will highlight five of Iowa State’s most memorable inductees.

George Veenker

Many have enjoyed a round of golf at Veenker Memorial Golf Course, which lies just to the north of campus at 1925 Stange Road. However, if it wasn’t for 2007 Hall of Fame inductee George Veenker, there would be no such course.

Veenker was a coach and eventual athletic director at Iowa State from 1931 to 1945, and is responsible for convincing the college to give up the North Woods for a golf course and raising the money necessary to build it.

Building the course was no easy task by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, 4,000 trees were cut down to make way for the links, and another 5,000 were planted in more convenient places.

Before the golf course, however, Veenker made many other contributions to the athletic program, including the unforgettable jerseys for the 1931 football season – Veenker’s first after coming from the University of Michigan.

“Like a lot of coaches, he wanted to start a new tradition, so he literally dressed us in the maize and blue of Michigan,” said director of athletic media relations Tom Kroeschell.

Veenker died in 1959 at the age of 65, and shortly after, his golf course was named in his honor.

Keith Sims

Keith Sims is considered one of the top offensive lineman in school history, and made many major contributions to the football team from 1985 to 1989.

“In 1989, we had a great, great offense, and like anything else, that starts up front and Keith Sims was the linchpin of that whole thing,” Kroeschell said.

Sims was 6-foot-4-inches and 300 pounds, which in the ’80s was considered very large for a lineman, but he had more than just size – he had talent, which was a magic potion for success.

“He was one of the first 300-pound linemen, which today, everyone is 300 pounds, but he was just naturally an extremely big man,” Kroeschell said. “In addition to being a big guy, he was more than that. He was a great athlete.”

Sims was drafted in the second round of the 1990 draft by the Miami Dolphins, where he started as a rookie and would protect the legendary Dan Marino for the next eight years as a starter.

Sims was also a Pro-Bowl selection in 1993, ’94 and ’95, and he is one of four Cyclones to ever compete in football’s All-Star game.

Pete Taylor

Former radio play-by-play announcer Pete Taylor simply was ISU athletics.

“If anyone asks, ‘Who do you think of when you talk about Iowa State?’ well, Pete Taylor was always the name that comes up,” Kroeschell said.

Taylor announced Cyclone football and basketball games for 33 years, from 1970 to 2003, and did it with passion.

“If things weren’t going good, you could hear it in his voice, and within 15 seconds, he wouldn’t even have to say the score, you knew if things were going good or bad,” Kroeschell said.

With all the pull Taylor had within the realm of Cyclone athletics, he could have presented himself any number of ways, but Kroeschell said he only had respect for others around him.

“I was lucky to work for him,” Kroeschell said. “Pete was big; he was the guy who everyone thought of when people thought of ISU. He could’ve treated people any way he wanted, including badly, but he didn’t do that.”

Taylor died at the age of 57, the same year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.

Jeff Hornacek

Jeff Hornacek’s legacy at Iowa State will always be as the walk-on-turned-NBA-All-Star.

The 1999 Hall of Fame inductee walked on during the 1981-82 season, and during his four-year stint with the Cyclones, broke the then-Big Eight’s all-time assist record. In his senior season, the Cyclones won 22 games en route to reaching the Sweet Sixteen. His presence was missed thereafter.

“As great as Hornacek was, I don’t think people at the time knew it,” Kroeschell said. “It was hammered home the season he left when we had a lot of the same guys back except Hornacek, and we didn’t make the tournament.”

Hornacek went on to play for Philadelphia, Phoenix and eventually was teamed up with John Stockton in Utah to make one of the more stellar backcourts in the league.

He was an NBA All-Star with Phoenix in 1991-92 while averaging 20.1 points, 5.1 assists and 5 rebounds per game, and he did it with style and grace.

“He wasn’t a showboat guy or anything like that and that’s why people loved him,” Kroeschell said.

David Archer

David Archer played two seasons, 1983 and ’84, as the Cyclones’ quarterback, and he made the most of them.

When his career ended, he was the Cyclones’ all-time leader in passing yards and completions – to refresh your memory, this was in just two seasons.

“The 1983 offense was one of the best in school history, and obviously David was a huge part of that,” Kroeschell said.

Archer would go on to have a successful professional career over a wide spectrum of leagues, including the NFL, CFL and the World League.

He played for the Atlanta Falcons, where in 1985 he played in all 16 games and led the team in passing. The next season he led the team to a 5-1-1 record in seven games.

In 1992 he was MVP of the American World League while playing for the Sacramento Surge, and also picked up World Bowl MVP.

Perhaps Archer’s most impressive professional achievement came in the Canadian Football League where in 1993 he threw for 6,023 yards. He is one of only three players to ever eclipse the 6,000-yard mark in professional football history.

Archer’s professional career has come full circle, and he currently announces games for the Atlanta Falcons.