Iowa State began playing football in 1894, but this story begins in 1971.

It is not that nothing happened at Iowa State in that 83-year span. For one, the university changed its name twice before today’s name. (First being known as the Iowa Agricultural College and later Iowa State College.)

Rather, it is that one thing remained the same in all of those 83 years. The Iowa State football team never made it to a bowl game.

That was, of course, until 1971. Fourth-year coach Johnny Majors traveled with his team to El Paso a few days shy of Christmas to play the Louisiana State Tigers in the Sun Bowl.

Iowa State was riding high coming into the Dec. 18 game.

The Cyclones had finished the regular season 8-3, winning their last conference game against Oklahoma State in a record-setting rout, 54-0. The win was the most lopsided ever over a Big 8 foe for Iowa State.

Still, it was Iowa State that critics did not look favorably upon. They sided instead with LSU, and its No. 14 ranking, to win the game.

Iowa State running back George Amundson — who finished the regular season with a school-record 1,260 rushing yards — endured a bruising at the hands of the Tigers defense.

He ended the game with 56 yards on the ground.

But the Cyclones defense stood their collective ground, forbidding Louisiana State from entering the end zone on a goal-line stand in the first half.

LSU took a 6-3 lead with them to the locker room.

The ISU defense could not contain Tigers quarterback Bert Jones in the second half however.

Jones threw two touchdowns and rushed for a third as Iowa State fell to Louisiana State 33-15. At one point in the fourth quarter, Iowa State got within four points of the Tigers, but Jones marched LSU down the field and on to victory on a 6-yard touchdown run with 3:05 remaining in the game.

The following year, Iowa State was ranked as high as 12th in the nation after a 23-23 tie against Nebraska, the highest ranking ever for the team.

The squad would plummet over the latter half of the season, however, and finish with a 5-5-1 record.

But in the ninth game of the season, after losing to Missouri, 6-5 in Columbia, Iowa State accepted a bid to play in the Liberty Bowl.

The Cyclones opponent was the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Iowa State led 14-3 at the end of the first quarter, thanks largely in part to the aforementioned ISU running back George Amundson, who had returned to his more customary position in the offense: quarterback.

In the first quarter, Amundson threw a 19-yard touchdown completion to wide receiver Ike Harris. He also used the legs that had served him so well the year before at running back to scamper for a 1-yard score.

Iowa State held a four-point lead at halftime, 21-17.

They lost it in the second half. The Cyclones were still trailing by seven, 31-24, late in the game.

But Iowa State came up with a Yellow Jackets turnover and Amundson hit Harris for his second touchdown of the day with just 1:36 showing on the clock to bring the score to 31-30.

Not wanting to go home with a tie, Majors instructed Amundson to go for two. The pass from Amundson fell harmlessly to the ground, and with it, the Cyclones hopes for victory.

Majors left for the Pittsburgh Panthers after the 1972 season.

He was replaced by Earle Bruce, who would return the Cyclones to a bowl game in 1977, five years after receiving the whistle from Majors.

The day after Iowa State beat Oklahoma State to finish with an 8-3 regular-season mark, the Cyclones accepted the offer from the Peach Bowl.

The Cyclones were a slight favorite going into the New Year’s Eve game against North Carolina State.

Wolfpack quarterback Johnny Evans threw a pass deep into the December air in the first quarter that nestled nicely into wideout Randy Hall’s waiting arms for a 77-yard score. Evans would throw another touchdown and run for a third in the first half.

At this point, the Wolfpack appeared to be running away with the game as well, taking a 21-0 advantage into halftime.

The lead held until early in the fourth quarter, when ISU freshmen quarterback John Quinn plunged in from 1-yard out on fourth down.

After a Wolfpack field goal and another ISU touchdown — this one coming on a 10-yard pass from Quinn to Greg Meckstroth — the Cyclones had cut the lead to 24-14.

Unfortunately for Cyclone fans, this would be how the game would end as Quinn threw a last-minute interception, securing the win for the Wolfpack.

Fourteen starters returned from the 1977 ISU squad the following season. Iowa State finished the 1978 regular-season much as they had the previous year: 8-3.

The only change came in the bowl bid that Iowa State accepted. On Dec. 20, Iowa State tangled with Texas A&M in the Hall of Fame Bowl.

The 19th-ranked Cyclones were slight favorites to win but Aggie Curtis Dickey paid that no heed.

He rumbled for 184 yards in the first half alone and finished with a Hall of Fame Bowl record 276 yards.

The Aggies would take a 14-6 lead into intermission. And then go on to take a 28-12 victory home with them.

ISU running back Dexter “Money” Green would end his career as an All-American and he ended the Hall of Fame Bowl with 148 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns.

When reminiscing of the teams of yesteryear, Dexter said, “Most teams knew when you played the Cyclones, you had to bring your ‘A Game.'”