Simply Saturday
48. Nile Kinnick
Quarterback | IowaAfter Nile Kinnick won the 1939 Heisman Trophy as an Iowa senior, he wondered in a letter to his mother whether he should go to the NFL or law school. "If the pros don't offer me what I want I can still get by OK," Kinnick wrote. World War II changed his plans.
Kinnick joined the Navy Air Corps three days before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Kinnick became a fighter pilot. He died when his plane malfunctioned and crashed within sight of the USS Lexington, his home ship, on June 2, 1943.
-- Ivan Maisel
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