Randy Duncan        

Randy Duncan attended Roosevelt High School and lived in Des Moines, Iowa. He excelled in both football and basketball. He was heavily recruited out of high school and decided to attend Iowa thanks in large part to his friendship with then Iowa assistant coach Bump Elliott.

After serving as backup in 1956, he was named starting quarterback in 1957. The Hawkeyes finished with a 7-1-1 record that season but were not invited to a bowl game. He led the team in passing and was named 1st Team All-Big Ten.

As a senior in 1958, Duncan led Iowa to an 8-1-1 record and the Big Ten Championship. He led the Big Ten in passing and the nation in total offense, completion percentage and passing yardage. He was named the 1958 Big Ten MVP and won the Walter Camp Award. He was also voted a consensus 1st Team All-American and finished 2nd in Heisman Trophy voting to Army quarterback Pete Dawkins.

He was selected as the #1 overall pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 1959 NFL Draft, the only Hawkeye to have that distinction. He would never play a down for the Packers however, and instead went to play for Vancouver in the Canadian Football League (CFL), which was common at the time, as it often paid more. He played two years in Canada before joining the AFL’s Dallas Texans and played there for a year as backup QB. During that season, he also attended law school at nearby Southern Methodist University.

Duncan was inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997. In 1999, Sports Illustrated selected Randy Duncan as the 28th greatest sports figure in the history of the state of Iowa.

Duncan retired from football after that year and returned to Des Moines where he would finish law school at Drake University. He passed away in 2016 from cancer.

Born 3/15/1937 and died on 9/27/2016 at the age of 79.