Is There a Correlation Between Squaw Creek Depth and Success of Iowa State Football?

Iowa State Football, in its 127 year history, has had many ups and downs, just like the depth of Squaw Creek.

Winsipedia

Major Squaw Creek floods over the years, namely 1918, 1993, 2008 and 2010, have brought their wrath upon Ames.

City of Ames Flood Mitigation Study

To get my data for this article, I’m relying on the historic crests and low water records found from weather.gov, and I’m going to see what record holding dates fall closest to a football game and the result thereof. A win will be counted as a “1”, a tie a “0.5” and a loss a “0” for both extremes of depth. Data will be gathered from August of a year to January of the year following.

Interestingly, the season openers for both the 1993 and 2010 seasons with notable flooding was Northern Illinois.

Below are notable historic high crests that are dated around Cyclone football games for the creek.

Iowa State is 10-4 if the Squaw Creek is less than to 8.5 feet deep, and 5-2 if the depth is greater than 8.5 feet (3-1 if the depth is more than 10 feet).

Now on the other extreme of depths, almost no depth to two feet deep.

Iowa State is just 8-12 all time when Squaw Creek is below or at two feet deep, a literal low water mark for the program.