Iowa History Journal

10/20/2026

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10/19/2026

IHJ 2026 Quiz, Week 42: These women worked for the Chicago and North Western Railroad during World War II. They cleaned and readied train engines to keep the nation’s railroads running smoothly. What were they nicknamed?

Find the answer in the Sept/Oct issue of Iowa History Journal sold at Barnes & Noble, Hy-Vee, Beaverdale Books, Books-A-Million and select Walmart, Fleet Farm, Walgreens and Hy-Vee Drug stores. To subscribe, visit iowahistoryjournal.com and add $2.50 to start with the current issue.

10/18/2026

What a lineup in 1958 in Waterloo! It included Chuck Berry, who was born 100 years ago today. We're spinning his Chess Records box set.

10/17/2026

100 years ago today Babe Ruth suited up to practice with Drake University's football team! Read Publisher Michael Swanger's Sept/Oct column below and see our print issue for additional photos of Ruth at Drake.

Babe Ruth suits up for Drake football

By Michael Swanger

The Sultan of Swat dominated the greatest show on dirt during his 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, but he once participated in the dirt eating pastime of football while visiting Des Moines 100 years ago.

Babe Ruth, the iconic Baseball Hall of Fame slugger, was in Des Moines for an exhibition game on Oct. 17, 1926, when Drake University’s head football coach and athletic director Ossie Solem invited him to visit his team during homecoming activities. Ruth did more than just offer words of inspiration, he suited up for a mock scrimmage with the Bulldogs.

“We finally inquired had he ever indulged in the ‘dirt eating’ pastime known as football,” wrote Solem in his weekly column for the Des Moines Register. “The answer was sort of a woeful ‘No.’ It was evident that the ‘Big Bimbo’ (sic) had missed something in his boyhood days, and when the invitation to work out with the Bulldogs was extended, it was accepted with glee.”

Ruth played both sides of the ball that day at Drake Stadium, which had opened the previous year, though Drake’s players were not allowed to tackle him. According to the Register, Ruth “showed off his passing and punting skills, then lined up at fullback for varsity” where he “started around end, cut back and ran 20 yards for a touchdown.”

“Later, Solem put him at defensive tackle with the reserves, and he stopped Bulldog star Chuck Everett on a rushing attempt,” the newspaper reported. Everett, Clarence Simpson and Gail Fry appeared in photographs with Ruth that day.

Solem noted in his Register column, “Babe knew just one thing about this feature of the game and that was, he was supposed to be on top. He was that.”

Ruth’s visit to Drake might have been the highlight of the Bulldogs’ 1926 football season as the team posted a record of 2-6, finishing in eighth place out of the Missouri Valley Conference’s 10 teams. Solem served in multiple roles at Drake from 1921 to 1931 before coaching football at the University of Iowa from 1932 to 1936.

(Photo courtesy of Drake University News Bureau)

10/16/2026

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10/15/2026

10/13/2026

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10/12/2026

OTD: Oct. 12, 1864
Confederates raid southern Iowa

On the morning of Oct. 12, 1864, a small band of about a dozen pro-Confederate bushwhackers dressed in federal uniforms crossed the Missouri border and entered Van Buren County to conduct a raid in Davis County. The “Iowa Raid” was one of the northernmost Confederate raids during the American Civil War and culminated with a “twelve hour spree” that led to the murder of three men, the theft of hundreds of dollars and supplies, and a brief period of instability and fear in southeastern Iowa. Markers are located in Bloomfield.

10/12/2026

IHJ 2026 Quiz, Week 41: The largest defense contract awarded to an Iowa company during World War II went to the Transmission Co. of Waterloo to manufacture bullet-proof tank transmissions. The company was a subsidiary of this legendary company.

Find the answer in the Sept/Oct issue of Iowa History Journal sold at Barnes & Noble, Hy-Vee, Beaverdale Books, Books-A-Million and select Walmart, Fleet Farm, Walgreens and Hy-Vee Drug stores. To subscribe, visit iowahistoryjournal.com and add $2.50 to start with the current issue.