“I consider Jack Trice a hero. He gave everything he had,” said Steve Jones, Trice biographer. 

B&G Productions and Cyclones.tv came together once again to create a documentary titled “I Will – The Jack Trice Story.” The film has been recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as one of the two finalists in the Midwest Emmys “Sports Documentary” category.

The Midwest Emmys will take place Oct. 3 at the Radisson Blu Hotel at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

When you first hear about Iowa State, a name often accompanying is Jack Trice. Whether it be the stadium, the student, the letter he wrote to himself or Trice himself, you have heard his name and maybe even heard about the legacy he has left on campus.

To quickly refresh, John G. “Jack” Trice became the first African-American student-athlete at Iowa State College. He was only 21 when he died because of injuries sustained during a football game against the University of Minnesota on Oct. 6, 1923. Trice is often remembered through a letter he wrote to himself the night before the game.

Jeff Grummer, co-owner of B&G Productions, talked about his part in the legacy of Jack Trice. Grummer and fellow co-owner Rob Bodholdt are both ISU alumni, getting their start with WOI-DT Channel 5 before parting to create their company in 1996.

“Most things were done on VHS at the time,” Grummer said, recounting his start with his company.

With his new company and a sense of alma mater pride and passion, B&G Productions quickly began working on projects surrounding the athletic history of Iowa State. These projects included “The Dirty Thirty, A Tradition of Toughness,” “The Fred Hoiberg Show” and “The Paul Rhoads Show.”

Grummer said he admired the lore behind Jack Trice, calling the story unique.

“We knew how much it meant to [Iowa State], so we naturally had to tell the story again,” Grummer said. “I look at the story as a human story.”

After contacting frequent collaborator Cyclones.tv and Tom Kroeschell, director of broadcasting for Cyclones.tv, the company began to work on the documentary.

The documentary covers the struggles that Jack Trice went through during the Roaring ’20s when segregation was the law.  

The film covers Trice’s life in Cleveland and Hiram, Ohio, to his football prowess and interactions with ISU coach Sam Willaman. The film also looks at Trice’s time at Iowa State, his attempt to find a place to live and his fatal game.

After asking Grummer about what the Midwest Emmy nomination meant to him and his company, he called the experience humbling and gave credit to Bodholdt and Cyclones.tv for being with him through what he said is a story that will never stop.

Grummer also talked about what he thinks Trice would have hoped others learned from this documentary.

“I’d hope that [Trice] would feel proud of the legacy he left behind and that, while it was tragic for his friends and family, it made one of the biggest changes to history,” Grummer said. “He deserves so much credit for what he did.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” While this is the sad truth about Trice, his legacy will live on whether through this documentary, his photos on the home team entrance walls or the mention of his name — we are not without the memory of Jack Trice.

As Jack Trice wrote in his final letter to himself, “Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will.”