W   26 - 24 

Hayden Fry's final win of his coaching career came against the Northwestern Wildcats in Kinnick Stadium in 1998. Iowa scored on a safety and a 49-yard pass play to break a 17-17 tie. For the second straight season, a safety played a major role in the outcome, as Northwestern used a safety in 1997 in a 15-14 win. Iowa led 17-0 in the first half before Northwestern fought back to tie the game at 17 with 19 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Following a 57-yard punt by Jason Baker, the Hawkeye defense forced intentional grounding from the endzone to gain the safety. On its next possession Iowa scored on a 49-yard pass from Randy Reiners to Kevin Kasper to increase the margin to nine. Northwestern scored a final touchdown with 1:13 remaining, but couldn't recover the onside kick. Reiners completed 17 of 30 passes for 249 yards and two scores. RB Ladell Betts rushed 30 times for 112 yards and had nine receptions for 96 yards. The Iowa defense was led by LB Matt Hughes, who had 14 tackles. Freshman LB Aaron Kampman had nine stops and tackle Jared DeVries had eight tackles.

	1	2	3	4	F
Iowa	14	3	0	9	26
Northwestern	0	10	7	7	24